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

Oddities abound, Jackets lose again

I'm confused. After seeing the Jackets get shut out last night in Nashville, the two teams met again, in what was an incredibly odd game. My hopes weren't too high seeing that many key players are injured: Nash, Fedorov, Westcott, Svitov and Foote are the most recent and significant. (there's 8 total), just so all of our fans out there not quite as sharp on the Blue Jackets depth chart, the bottom two forward lines consisted of minor leaguers. Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you guys that Mr. Maclean had to call up Derrick Walser the other day? This is just getting ridiculous, the best month in Blue Jackets history, immediately followed by what is turning out to be the worst month ever, 1-4-1 so far.

Norrena started the game, something I wasn't expecting, and it turned out to be pretty bad after he let in three goals on nine shots. Conklin then started the second period, and it was apparent that he wasn't planning on playing tonight since he didn't bother to put on his socks under the leg pads. Conklin played, and Conklin played well. Then, out of nowhere, Hitch put Norrena back in the game for the last five minutes. Now if a team is losing by three goals with five minutes left, and said team is outshooting the other team like 30 something to 15, chances are you aren't going to score three goals in the last five minutes. It just isn't something that happens, nor is replacing the relief goaltender back with the starter. Why bother?

If you have a chance, check out the score sheet, I'd like to point out the penalty section at this time...yes that's right, the Preds had more penalties than the Columbus "two minutes - hooking" Blue Jackets. But not only the penalties, the Jackets outshot Nashville 40-17. There's a couple of lousy numbers if I ever saw them, .764 save percentage and a .025 scoring percentage. (that's .975 for Chris Mason)

Lastly, I am issuing my final decision on this team making it to the postseason. It is true the team has a lot of talent. Doug Maclean made a great trade with the freddies and Marc Denis. But a playoff run requires not only talent, but smart and fast decision making, cohesiveness as a group, and they most certainly must not go into panic mode. I saw it with the Buckeyes last monday with Tressel going for it on fourth down, and I saw it tonight with Hitchcock flip flopping goalies. Players second guessed each other, and trying to win the game individually isn't going to win a season. Yes, there is an injury issue right now, but this is the time for the young players to step up and fill in the voids. But we do have to remember that the Cruch isn't as good of a team as usual, they're also sitting at last place in the north division after a season close to the top of the division

Maybe next year