soangry.net

The Jackets battled the San Jose Sharks in HP Pavilion Saturday, a place where CBJ has only won a single game in its history. Columbus would play hard and start off with yet another 1st goal (9th in a row!), but would come up short after giving up two goals in the third period.

Mase played well tonight. He stopped 42 shots, which really is a lot for him (or any goal tender for that matter). The defense really helped him out, too, with 17 blocked shots. Defenseman Jan Hejda blocked 4 of them himself and in effect backed up his smack talk, while Danny Heatley had four shots blocked. Zing? I dunno.

Andrew Murray has played very well and might fill in some of the gaps left by Buffalo’s latest acquisition, Raffi Torres. I’m going to miss Raffi a lot. Good thing I didn’t commit to getting his jersey number. I honestly don’t think we have someone who could immediately step it up to the level that Torres was playing. Several guys could individually pick up different aspects of Raffi’s game, but obviously even getting back to that level wouldn’t do it for CBJ this year.  Murray’s goal was his second of the year and makes for two games in a row with a goal. Keep it up, young man. Keep it up!

CBJ really screwed the pooch with penalties tonight. We had 21 minutes of penalties that actually totaled just over 9 minutes of being short-handed. It was during a 5-on-4 opportunity that SAN scored their go-ahead goal. All of the penalties were stupid and preventable, too, except for Boll’s 5-minute major when he thumped Staubitz in the first as well as Paetsch’s holding minor. Tyutin needs to get his skates sharpened a bit better so he can stay standing up instead of falling down and taking an opponent down with him for a tripping minor.

Back to Boll’s fight: Not the prettiest fight he’s seen, but not the worst, either. Staubitz seemed to have a better grip on Boll at first, but once Boll landed a heavy fist on his right eye, Staubitz readjusted and Boll got the upper hand. Staubitz had to leave the ice to cry on Mama’s shoulder and have her kiss his booboos byebye.  Great job, Boll. Your effort in this one picked the team up and gave us a chance.

Noel said after the game that he thought we played hard and despite that effort, we just couldn’t come out with a win. He noted that it’s obvious why SAN is the best in the west. I couldn’t agree more with this.

Did anyone else notice that the top line was completely non-existent tonight? I assume they were out there at some point, but I know they didn’t start. I honestly can’t remember Rimmer or Davidge mentioning any of them tonight. I’ve been sober, too. Honest.

I need a widget for a countdown to the start of next season. I need another Olympic break. I need a drink.

Update: I forgot to mention the return of defenseman Mike Commodore after a long battle with a charley horse. I didn’t realize those lasted so long for athletes… they always go away in 30 seconds whenever I get one. Despite his extended time away, he put in 26 shifts and spent 17 minutes on the ice in his return. With two hits and two blocked shots, its a more-than-solid return to the ice for Deuces. Welcome back!

Battling the Mother Canuckers at home tonight, the Jackets clearly looked like they had just returned from a two week break. Vancouver entered the game tied for 3rd in goals/game and 8th in goals against/game. Comparatively, CBJ is 18th in goals/game and 26th in goals against/game. It should be a blowout, but the Jackets had a few things going in their favor tonight: 1: Raycroft was in goal for VAN as Luongo was resting up after Sunday’s gold-medal Olympic game. 2: Torres is playing well in hopes of more money or a trade. 3. We’ve got Noel.

No joke on that last one. I won’t get delusional and try to convince anyone that CBJ has a chance in hell of making the playoffs this year. (While it may be possible, it would take a miracle of beating DET in all three of our final games against them as well as having several other teams take a giant dump here at the end.) Noel has a big responsibility to make these players work as a cohesive unit during the last 19 games of their ‘09-’10 season so that the team can have something positive to work with over the summer. Noel also has to do one of two things: prove that he can be the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets or prove this team is good enough to whatever coach Howson might bring in.

From everything I have heard and read about him, he’s making great strides in the locker room that are directly translating to CBJ success on the ice. He’s challenging the younger players to be leaders. He’s giving informal quizzes to everyone to make sure they are prepared to face their next opponent. He’s proving leadership points by not showing up to practice (I wish I could get away with that one in my workplace). He even won over a Pens fan at Arena Grand during Sunday’s gold medal game. The season ticket holders had him in there to talk about the game and the Jackets in general during the breaks and after the game. The Absent Minded Professor apparently really showed through, but that made him all the more likable. I hate to say it, but I’m becoming a fan!

Back to tonight’s game. Grant Clitsome played in his first NHL game tonight and he certainly made it a memorable one. He started with two points in the first period and followed it up in the second with a beautiful heads-up pass off the wall (off the wall!) to Voracek who dished it to Torres who passed it along to Dorsett for the score. This is the CBJ I love to watch.

The first period was a nightmare for the first ten minutes. The Jackets couldn’t make a pass to save their lives. It’s like Huselius was teaching a passing seminar over the break. Terrible. VAN dominated the shots in the first period, but scored no goals. CBJ dominated shots in the second, but could only put one in the basket compared to VAN’s two. How many times have CBJ blown a two-goal lead this year? A few too many, for sure.

Torres’s assist on the Dorsett goal further proves he’s an incredibly valuable member of this team. His point totals this year aren’t quite where they were a few years back when he was with the Oilers, but he could be close to those numbers before the end of the year. Torres shows up to play hard every night. He’s hitting hard, skating tough, and willing to get in the middle of things if one of his teammates is getting into some extra-curriculars. That may sound like standard hockey, but he’s doing it at a different level than most others. I hate seeing him as trade bait. I really don’t know that we’d get anything better in a trade.

The third period was highlighted by tense moments and heavy play. Huse took a wicked spill into the boards while trying to nullify an icing call. He didn’t seem any worse for wear and, in fact, made it back on the ice to work on the power play that CBJ was on after his fall. I couldn’t tell if he was dazed or just being himself when he was hanging out down low and had the puck fed to him with a great scoring opportunity, but he wasn’t able to touch the puck, much less capitalize with a goal. Even a shot would have been nice. Huse: If you’re playing in front, keep the stick on the ice.

Unfortunately, I have to dog on Clitsome now. After a great first two periods, he made a bone-headed turnover on which VAN was immediately able to capitalize. This pushed the game into OT. Good god, more OT. Couldn’t one of the many pipe shots have just gone in??

So sad to say, but I saw this one coming. Mason was bound to bite on a shot and fall over. The defense was bound to be heavy on the side where the puck was and be light on the side where the puck was going. Classic CBJ.

Congrats on the 3rd star, Clitsome! Welcome to the NHL. Hopefully we’ll see more of you soon.

The division-leading Chicago Blackhawks came into Columbus after an extended home game against Atlanta that ended 5-4 in a shootout. Little did they know that they would be in for another long game ending with the same result.

For the seventh game in a row, CBJ started off the scoring. Huse actually scored one instead of passing the puck off. They continued the scoring with a backhand from Raffi Torres off his own rebound. He did a hell of a job concentrating on the puck when his first attempt was blocked by Niemi.

Chicago then posted four unanswered points. They started the streak with six seconds left in the first. They finished it with 6:01 left in the second. It was quite a streak of pathetic by the Jackets. Huse had a perfect scoring opportunity somewhere in there, but in classic Huse style, he tried passing it. He was far too close to the goalie (and the defenders) to make the pass work.

Nash scored a wrister with 2:16 left in the second to bring the Jackets within one. There were some signs of life at that point and during the third, but they were few and far between.

I’m not even going to bother mentioning OT.

The shootout started and ended in classic CBJ form: Huse is the only one who made it and the Jackets walk away with just one point.

When I wrote the post for Friday’s game, I was ready to call the season based on this game. The possibility of a tie in the game against CHI never even entered my mind. At this point, I am close to being ready to call the season a bust. I’m terrible at predicting these things, so I certainly hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.

Now we have to wait for two weeks to see if the Jackets stall out or get a jump start. Hopefully the Olympic break will be good for the Jackets and not just a preview of what April 10 – October 8 will be like.

The classic Blue Jackets reared their ugly heads against the Vancouver Canucks Friday night. CBJ, who entered Friday’s game with a 3-0-0 record under interim coach Claude Noel, appeared to be the hottest team in the NHL. They came out of Friday looking strikingly similar to the same Blue Jackets team who caused Ken Hitchcock to lose his job.

I was (un)fortunate enough to attend Friday night’s game and I can quite honestly say that everything was pretty dead in the arena. The team looked down, the crowd was out of it, and the t-shirt cannon even appeared to not have much juice in it. I watched one poor t-shirt thrower try 4 times to get the t-shirt over the Attacks Twice safety net before he finally got the damn thing over. It. Was. Pathetic.

The game started off promising, as Rick Nash scored after a mere 22 seconds. “This is going to be good!” I thought. Just over two minutes later, the Mother Canuckers tied it up. Jared Boll got into the action 30 seconds later. Torres scored on a snapshot half-way through the second, pushing the score to 3-1, only to have the Canucks bring it to 3-2 nine seconds later. Seriously. Nine seconds later.

Period three was dominated by Vancouver and typified by a fluke of a goal:

Fluke of a Goal

Mason was back to his normal self. 2008 Mase probably had to get the Delorean back to Doc. The Defense didn’t help much, but he did make a bone-head move behind the net when he whiffed on pass. VAN immediately scored on the opportunity.

It looks like I can’t wear my hard hat into the arena anymore. I would have it destroyed, but it’s a hard hat: it’s made to survive destruction. Are the Blue Jackets? It’s going to be one hell of a run towards the playoffs. The Valentine’s game against the Blackhawks may be the tone-setter for the rest of the season. Howson will be a busy man over the Olympic break. It’s up to the CBJ as to whether he’s gathering talent for the run to the playoffs or selling talent as he’s writing off the season.

Derick Brassard donned the CBJ hard hat after Columbus’s 3-0 victory over the league’s second best team, the San Jose Sharks. The reason he got to wear the hat are unknown to me. Perhaps his aura or attitude on the ice led Blunden to pass it along to him.

Check out this awesomely quick photoshop that highlights 90% of the rest of my game summary:

CBJ goalie Steve Mason stands on his head

Awesome, eh? Where has this Steve Mason been the whole year? I’ll run down a couple scenarios:

1. Steve Mason was purposefully being awful until Hitch was relieved of his duties.
2. Coach Claude Noel had him hidden in a storage unit on the east side until his master plan to get rid of Hitch was complete.
3. Mase got a huge raise this year and bought Doc and Marty’s Delorean, went back in time to December 2008, kidnapped himself, and traveled back to the present to play in his place.

My money’s on #3. Mase stopped 40 goals in this game, 20 of which came in the third period. BANANAS!

The credit, of course, can’t all go to Mase. He gave SAN a lot of rebound opportunities, but the defense came through more often than not and cleared the puck or drove it back down the ice.

Huse-to-Nash put the Jackets up 1-0 in the first. Jake Voracek scored his first goal in 28 games on a backhand shot fed by Derick Brassard after a steal. Vermette finished off CBJ’s scoring with an empty netter.

There certainly seems to be a bit more energy and drive behind the Jackets under Noel. I really want to get behind the interim coach, but after his antics in tonight’s press conference. Several times he made sarcastic remarks and was borderline rude to the members of the press. After his seven minutes were up (who gave him that curfew? His wife? Howson? Hitch and his puppetmastering?), it was as if he walked away and said “Peace!” Claude Noel: The Rebel.

Actually, I still like Absent Minded Professor better.

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