soangry.net

Game two under Coach Noel was high-energy and focused on puck control and great goal tending. It’s impressive how he’s filled the arena thus far.

Coach Noel calls timeout in the 4-0 victory over Buffalo

The Free Milan campaign appeared to have worked, as Jurcina saw almost 22 minutes of ice time (more than anyone else on the team!) and scored the first goal of the night. It was a complete fluke: as Jurcina was trying to dump in before a shift change, the puck bounced off a bump in the boards, took off towards Lalime, and crossed the goal line after bouncing off his skate. It still counts, eh?

After not getting a score on the 21-second 5-on-3 powerplay, Huse, Umby, and Nash hooked up to put goal number two in the net. It was quite an impressive series of passes that led to the goal. We don’t often see that level of coordination, cooperation, and down-low play. Hopefully the Jackets can learn a few things under Claude’s rein that Hitch couldn’t get across.

Anton Stralman pushed the tally to 3-0 a minute into the third. I could totally see this one coming. Another stretch of great passing during the powerplay allowed this one. The wrister from the right far point hit paydirt. Great teamwork!

Raffi Torres increased the lead to 4 on a short snapper. It’s unbelievable what this team can do when they play together as a team. Torres’s line impressed me a lot tonight. Lots of takeaways, quick passes, and heavy hits made a huge difference tonight.

Soangry.net’s keys to the game:

Puck control – great job keeping the puck away from Buffalo tonight. They had a lot of shots on goal, but time of possession HAD to be heavily in favor of CBJ.

Heavy hits – CBJ out-hit BUF 32-20.

Teamwork/coordination – I think we saw unprecedented levels of teamwork tonight. The passing was creative and frequent. People were screening down low besides Umby and Torres. People finally took advantage of that screening! This seems like peewee-level skills!

Confidence – Kris Russell took the puck into Buffalo’s zone and went up against Lalime. No dump and chase. No dump and change. He took it to the net like a champ. With that confidence in hand, the goals will surely come.

Goaltending – Mase had the performance of a season tonight. Noel might be wise to put Garón in for Wednesday’s game. You have to hate benching a hot goal tender, but can Mase keep up this level of play?

Great game all around, Jackets! Don’t let it go to your heads during your three days off!

For the first time in CBJ history, their head coach is undefeated.

I wouldn’t call this a clean game by any stretch. We continued to not allow a goal in the first 3:30, but we didn’t look too lively doing it. Dallas looked dull to me, too. The defense almost blew it at the end, too. What a train wreck.

I’m glad to see Noel get a win in his first game as head coach. I have to think that Gord and Ags are thinking “They put him in charge??” If anyone would have gotten the top spot from that crew, I would have guessed Ags since he was the Crunch head coach for six years before being the Jacket’s interim coach before Hitch arrived.

Last spring, I was absolutely sure that Howson would dump the entire coaching staff except Hitch and allow Hitch to bring in his own people. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t made a move by the time the season started. But back to tonight’s game.

Stralman’s slapshot from the blue line was amazing. I don’t think it ever would have gone in had Umby not been screening the goalie in front. Great job by Umby, as well, to keep his focus on the puck while being tripped up on the empty-netter. Mason was on top of his game tonight, too. I wish someone could figure out what his problem is this year. Maybe keep the groupies away the night before a game. Whatever he did or ate or drank this morning, keep it coming!

Claude’s first post-game press conference was priceless. The title “Absent Minded Professor” fits him to a T. Can the NHL really handle having a head coach in its ranks with this much anxiety? TMI, Noel. TMI. Get the man a Zoloft.

Don’t forget to get down to the arena early Saturday for the game against the Sabres. Let’s go Jackets!

It’s a bitter-sweet day for the CBJ faithful. The day after being buried under a 5-1 Avalanche and just hours after Dark Blue Jacket posted his Firing Pool, Coach Ken Hitchcock was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

I always liked Hitch and never blamed him for the shortcomings of the Jackets until lately. Something changed with the Jackets in late November/early December. We started out the season well, winning 4 of the first five. After 20 games, we had 26 points! We haven’t been able to double that number despite playing  38 games since then. That’s frustrating from a fan’s perspective and it has to be even more frustrating from a player’s perspective.

Dan Rosen, staff writer with NHL.com, provided the following quote from Captain Rick Nash:

“It’s terrible news. It’s terrible we couldn’t play better and the coach had to be fired. Hitch put this market on the map. We didn’t really have an identity before he got here.”

It’s difficult to say whether those are really Nash’s feelings on the matter. I think we’ll be able to tell by how the team responds to interim coach, Claude Noel.

I’m rather terrified about having what Fox Sports Ohio has referred to as “The Absent-Minded Professor” heading up the team for the rest of the season. Sure, he’s had previous head coach experience, but his record in the playoffs (and that’s really what we’re worried about, right?) is less than stellar. In the ten years that Noel’s teams have made the playoffs, only twice have they made it beyond the second round. Granted, both of those playoff runs ended in the finals; one ended in victory. CBJ doesn’t need to make the playoffs: they need to win in the playoffs. Only time will tell if The Absent-Minded Professor is the man to get us to that point.

It will take a long time to get used to  looking at the bench and not see Hitch down there. He’ll be alright, though. He’ll take over the Oilers or Islanders next year and surely be a wild success.

I can’t wait to see how Noel handles the press after Thursday’s game. It’s going to be comedy GOLD!

I normally don’t miss an episode of ESPN’s PTI. It’s 2 parts sports news, 1 part comedy. I love it. They don’t, however, talk hockey very often. If it is mentioned, it’s the Pens or Caps or maybe Wings. Beyond that, it’s never mentioned.

At the end of today’s show during the Errors segment, Tony Reali finished up by saying, “And this just came across the wire: Ken Hitchcock fired. My question for you: Who’d he coach?”

Pathetically, Tony Kornheiser shouts out, “TORONTO!”

Reali: “No.”

Wilbon: *silence*

Granted, Michael Wilbon was in Miami likely for the Pro Bowl, but all-around, it was a disappointing showing by the usually respectable PTI cast.

For my parting shot, I’d like to say, “Pardon the interruption, Michael and Tony: The NHL deserves some air time (and respect), too!”

This seems completely backwards to me, but according to the Dispatch by way of Rotowire, it looks like CBJ might be dealing winger Raffi Torres. Who’s next? Nash, Umby, and Klesla?

http://vyous.com/sports/nhl/bluejackets/2010/02/03/raffi-torres-torres-may-be-dealt-by-jackets—rotoworldcom

With just five games left before the Olympic break, the Jackets need to catch on fire and play as if these are their last five games of the season. Doing so will put them in a good position to make a run at the playoffs. Without a solid stretch of wins over the next two weeks, the last nineteen games they’ll play after the break could very well be meaningless.

Nineteen games seems like a lot, but the Jackets have been streaky this year. Only five of the last nineteen games are against non-conference opponents. Six of the last nineteen are conference, non-divisional opponents. That leaves eight games against divisional opponents. Who made this schedule? Three of the last five against Detroit?? Who made this schedule?! Granted, Detroit is having an off year, but they’re in an even more dire situation than the Jackets. They’re definitely going to bring their A-game especially since two are at the Joe.

All-in-all, the Jackets are going to have a rough time the rest of this season. With a nightmare of a remaining schedule and a comfy seat in 14th in the West, Jackets fans have plenty to be angry about.

I was hoping for a decent game tonight, given our season series with the Avs was 0-3. I was at the arena for one of the beatdowns they gave us at home. The crowd was really giving it to Foote and he very well deserved. That’s neither here nor there, though.

I thought after Saturday’s game we would have had some spring in our step. The TV crew tonight mentioned that the Jackets haven’t won two in a row since early January. Pathetic. If we keep this up, we’ll only add 18 more points by the end of the year at best. That’s not going to make the playoffs unless the rest of the West takes a dive faster than Foote on a dollar bill.

I didn’t see any coordination at all tonight. Recently, we appeared to be improving on some of the things that other teams always do and we rarely do, namely keeping someone down low trying to get rebounds. I didn’t see that tonight. What about breakaways and power plays? I’d like to know what coach(es) are responsible for those areas. Truly disappointing.

Good energy at the start tonight, guys. Very glad to get away from getting scored on within the first 3.5 minutes. Glad to see we got the first goal on the board. I will be exceedingly glad when we get two wins in a row.