Flames Extinguished

What a game. The Jackets took down the flames last night in a 3 period thriller. The game seemed like all offense, as the puck went end to end the whole game through.

The first period went scoreless, and the second was almost the same. In the last minute of the second, Calgary's Lombardi managed to get one by Norrena. It would be their last. The Jackets bounced back in the third with two goals- one from Vyborny and one from Modin. They then managed to hold on to the lead until the last seconds ticked off the clock.

The almost 16,000 Jackets faithful that filled the arena were mostly quiet through the first two periods. The Calgary fans in section 215 made more noise than most other sections. The Jackets' first goal changed all that by lighting a stick of dynamite under the butts of the CBJ fans. The crowd became loud and passionate for the team, and it changed the momentum for sure.

The manner in which the Jackets won the game was impressive and interesting. It was reminiscent of football in many ways. Once the 3rd period ticked into the final few minutes with the Jackets up 2-1, all Columbus had to do was hold onto the puck. They passed the puck back in forth, eating away as much time as they possibly could. It was something inbetween a football team kneeling and one desperate not to turn the ball over. At one point, I couldn't help but be reminded of that hail mary Stanford-Cal game in which the objective was to hold on to the ball (or puck in our case) until a defender was right on top of it, then pass it off to the next available teammate. They managed to eat up several minutes this way. I've never seen hockey players do something quite like that, but I definitely enjoyed it.

The Jacket goals came only when they reverted to a strategy they haven't been using in a while. That is, taking it to the net. The team did a phenomenal job of cycling the puck around the perimeter and getting lots of movement from behind the net to the point. But it seemed that all of the tight angle shots and slaps from the point all missed wide or were blocked before they were given a chance to score. When the team began to crash to the net harder and more deliberately, they were rewarded with two points. Needless to say, I think this team needs to revert back to that strategy. After all, how has Nash (who has been on a scoring drought) scored in the past? He used to hang out in front of the net and muscle his way to a redirect past the keeper. And it worked, too.

Your Jacket Times three stars of the game were:
1. Vyborny - absolutely deserves it for PK efforts and goal.
2. Norrena - held fast despite recovering from injury
3. Klesla - blocked several shots, great tough play.

Box Score

Jackets v. Flames tonight at Nationwide

Jacket are home tonight against Calgary, and it should be a tough match. Calgary is up on Columbus in the season series and have done a number on our players. They play a tough game and will certainly pose a serious threat to the Blue Jacket defense. In their last encounter, during the CBJ road trip last week, Calgary boasted a 6-2 win. Let's hope they can't repeat that kind of success. I'm off to the arena.

Army of the Ohio has some nice pregame coverage that also details a few other storylines circulating the Jackets' locker room this week. Hitch supposedly has rallied the troops before tonight's game as well, so let's hope they're at full charge. After Tuesday's humiliating defeat, we need all the rebound strength we can get.


Go Jackets!

Bang Head Here

Ugh. That was no fun at all. I picked up the game right after Chimera scored the Jackets' second goal of the night, which made the score 5-2.

Needless to say, I don't really feel like I totally wasted my evening because I watched "Drumline" on TNT.

Because of Norrena's recent injury, the Jackets started Conklin, but had to switch to Popperle mid-second period. Neither of those two goaltenders 'belong' in the NHL. It was Popperle's first ever NHL game to boot. Given these circumstances, you'd think the team would be focused very heavily on playing a tight, disciplined defense to minimize power play opportunities against their minor league goalies. I may think that, but the team sure didn't.

Five of Calgary's six goals came on the powerplay, with two of those during a five-on-three. The Jackets gave up ten two minute penalties, plus five minute majors to Shelley and Konopka. (Konopka? Who the hell is that?) In the interest of understanding, the Flames did manage three goals in the first ten minutes of play, so the team was no doubt frustrated. But that's not an excuse to give Calgary so many more opportunities to run up the score. If anything, those three goals should be the signal for the team to tighten up, focus on fundamentals, and most importantly, don't do anything stupid!

Right now (according to NHL.com) the Jackets are 20th in power play percentage and 18th in penalty kill. Power plays in hockey are like turnovers in football. You want to seize and throttle every one you get. The teams that win are the ones that give up the fewest and force the most. The Jackets' power play percentage hit the franchise high of 12th place back in the 02-03 season with a 17.3% rating. The best PK rank achieved by Columbus was 8th, in both the 02-03 and 03-04 seasons.

The team has proven before that they can reach the top 50th percentile on special teams, but I retain that the best way to minimize an opponents' scoring chances is to just not take so many penalties. I was previously under the impression that part of the "Hitchcock system" was to emphasize fundamentals, finishing checks and to stay out of the penalty box. Maybe the team is just taking a while to fully adapt to that system, because the Jackets have been on a roller coaster regarding PIM. Some games (like tonight) they give up so many power plays, and multiple 5-on-3's, and in other games the penalties are kept to a minimum- only 4 or 5 during the entire 60 minutes of play.

Get it together guys, there's games to win!
There's still two whole months left!
There's still time!

Jackets lose 6-2. (Argh.)
Box Score

Take the NHL into the 21st century!

+

I'm writing this post as I'm watching the game. It's about halfway through the 3rd period and the refs have already been on the phone with the Toronto officials twice.

The first call was in regard to a very questionable goal. The puck ricocheted off of the post and back out onto the ice. The ref waved off the goal (because it wasn't) but the goal judge behind the net lit the lamp. The horn sounded, lights flashed and the spotlight went down onto the ice. Meanwhile, the puck was out on the ice being moved around by Calgary players. The Jackets, who didn't see the ref waving off the goal, thought that Calgary had scored. The flames seized this opportunity of Columbus confusion to actually put the puck in the back of the net. This "second" goal counted.

The review questioned whether or not the ref blew the whistle after the no-goal, there by stopping play. If he did, then neither goal counts. If he didn't, then the second goal does count. The ruling from the Toronto war room was that the second goal should indeed count.

I'm not trying to be a whiner here, but this call really irked me. I understand that the whistle is the official start/stop noise of the game, but the goal horn sounded, the flashing lights and audible chaos ensued and the crowd went nuts. What are the players supposed to do? If they weren't looking right at the ref at the time he waved his arms, there's no way they would have thought it wasn't a goal. The actual goal was scored several seconds after the horn had sounded. In addition, the NHL and other sports leagues have rules restricting crowd interference, use of profanity, amplified sound (organ, music) during play, and so forth. How could the lights and horns not be considered unfair crowd/arena interaction with the game? The officials should have halted play and waved the whole thing off.

Shortly afterward, the Jackets were crashed into their own net and the puck disappeared. Chances are that the puck did cross the line into the net, but the cluster of skaters in the crease made it unclear. The on-ice officials and those in Toronto decided this one wouldn't count.

With 3 Toronto war room calls in two games, this is getting out of hand. It's the 21st century- why are we relying on human eyes 10 feet behind the net to decide whether or not a goal is scored? Yeah, we've added replays, which helps, but it's not enough. The NFL also uses replays, but theirs are available by both officials and coach's challenge and are reviewed on-site instead of far away. Most importantly, they're easier to use to overturn a call than the NHL system.

The NHL needs to adopt a high-tech puck. It would be easy to embed a transmitter of some kind into a game puck that could aid in these situations. The underlying idea is very simple- when the puck enters a certain area, a goal has been scored. If the puck is not in that area, there is no goal.

This could be done a number of ways, and here are my suggestions:

1. There could be a sensor in the back of the net that would detect the puck in relation to the goal line, using some sort of imaging sensor.
2. An electro-magnetic sensor, similar to an airport metal detector could be put within the goalposts and could detect a puck moving between them.
3. RF ID tag inside the puck. I don't know how accurate these are, but it may work.
4. My favorite is a location trilateration system- think GPS but on a smaller scale. Using multiple positioning receivers and a transmitter inside the puck, the location of the puck could be determined anywhere in the arena to a matter of centimeters, maybe better. Simultaneously, this system could potentially be used to highlight the puck on the tv screen (i know this idea was experimented with in the 90's) or locate it when it is hidden behind the boards from the camera.

The game is over now. Jackets lose... the questionable goal was the decider.

Jackets lose 2-1
Same basement, different day.
Box Score