The 5-Hole, CBJ News and Notes – 10/28/08

Every Tuesday, WFNY’s The 5-Hole brings you up to date with the goings-on of the CBJ…

The Week That Was

Week: 1-3-0, 2 points
Overall: 3-6-0, 6 points (5th division; T14th conference)

Last week, I led this paragraph with “Ugh.” This week, we’ll lead with a much louder and longer UGGGHHHHH! FYI, “T14th conference” is the same as saying DEAD LAST. The Jackets played and won a very nice game last Tuesday night against Vancouver, and promptly went directly into the tank and lost three straight, two of which were home games.

Tuesday, 10/21 in Columbus – Blue Jackets 4, Canucks 2 (Box Score) – Highlights
Friday, 10/24 in Columbus – Rangers 3, Blue Jackets 1 (Box Score) – Highlights
Saturday, 10/25 in Minnesota – Wild 2, Blue Jackets 1 (Box Score) – Highlights
Monday, 10/27 in Columbus – Mighty Ducks 3, Blue Jackets 2 (Box Score) – Highlights

The Jackets played a solid game last Tuesday against Vancouver. This had commentators writing complementary columns about the team’s 3-3-0 start, despite not playing overly well. The team continued to look solid early on Friday against the Rangers while killing off a 5-on-3 power play and then getting the early lead thanks to Jakub Voracek. However, from that point on the wheels have essentially come off. They gave up three unanswered goals–all of which included former Jacket Nikolai Zherdev (1 G, 2 A)–to lose at home to New York. They lost a heart-breaker on Saturday night against Minnesota, where a game-tying goal by The Captain with 11.5 seconds left in the game was questionably waved off after review in the league offices. Suffice it to say that the Jackets are not happy with the league and the refs, after the incident with Michael Peca’s suspension and now this: “As the final buzzer sounded, Nash got into a scrum in front of the net with two Wild players, while rookie center Derick Brassard snapped his stick over the goal, ripping the blade off with his left hand and throwing it to the ice.” The Jackets also lost Pascal LeClaire to a lingering ankle injury (see below) against the Wild.

Your approaching-surly 5-Hole reporter had the pleasure of attending Monday night’s game against Anaheim (shout out to my man Jeff Crisafulli for the ticket!), which looked like a Jackets win until about 10 minutes left in the third period, when in the span of 6 or 7 minutes a 2-1 lead turned into a 3-2 loss. A hearty hat-tip to the lopsided officiating for help with the loss, as the game-winner was scored on a powerplay awarded to the Ducks on a phantom holding call.

In roster updates, defenseman Kris Russell was sent to Syracuse, with the team citing his lack of puck movement skills as the primary reason. He had been scratched from three straight games before the move. Look for Russell to be back next week after three games with the Crunch. In other news, Jakub Voracek has been playing the point on the team’s power plays (usually a spot filled by a defenseman). This also is primarily due to the overall lack of puck handling ability displayed by the team’s defensemen thus far.

Also, in news this morning, they have elected to send #1 pick Nikita Filatov to Syracuse as well. This is not unexpected, as it keeps his pro contract from kicking in in full. Filatov was scratched last night against Anaheim and has not seen much ice time since his debut. Also coming out of practice today is the news that The Captain skated at center on the first line, along with wingers Jason Chimera (more on him below) and Kristian Huselius. This would be, well, different if they elect to continue with this trend. Tom Reed reports that it’s up in the air, as this is of course just one practice. Interesting, none-the-less.

Up Next

The Jackets play three games this week, two of which are on the road. This stretch begins Thursday in Denver against the Avalache. After that, the team will host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, and then travel to Long Island to play the New York Islanders on Monday. The team is on the precipice of spiraling into a hole out of which they would not be able to climb, although the Islanders are one of two teams in the league that thankfully might actually be worse than Columbus. As always, you can snag tickets through the team’s website.

Full Schedule

Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

In a new segment of the 5-Hole we will try to highlight some trends for the Jackets’ players.

Hot: I don’t even know if I can give this award out this week. Seriously. Under the guise of “somebody has to win,” we’ll tip our cap to Jason Chimera, who’s tied for the team lead in points and leads the team with a +4 rating while currently sitting at 4th on the team in shooting percentage (technically 5th, but Filatov’s 50% is misleading because of his one goal on two total shots). Chimera is not a guy one would expect (or hope, to be honest) to be leading any of those categories.

Not: I was going to give this to the whole team, so we’ll say that coach Ken Hitchcock is “Not” this week. On Monday night after giving up the tying goal, the entire team looked like someone let the air out of their tires, and not surprisingly they fell behind shortly after. One aspect of coaching is getting your team to focus on the job at hand, and to play a full 60 minutes. These are things that this team is lacking big-time right now, and that falls at the feet of Hitch.

Injury Update

We reported last week that The Jackets suffered a close call in their home opener when Pascal LeClaire took a shot puck off of his unprotected right hand and suffered a thumb bruise. Sadly, their luck ran out on Saturday agaist Minnesota, as LeClaire was again injured, this time severely enough to warrant a (length-as-of-yet-undetermined) trip to the Injured Reserve list. Apparently, his ankle hasn’t been 100% since October 4th, when he tweaked it in a preseason game. He took some time off then, and was able to go in the season opener. Backup Fredrik Norrena has played better since his personal goalie coach was brought onto the staff, and prospect Steve Mason was finally cleared to play and sent to Syracuse. Still, the loss of LeClaire for an extended stretch does nothing but hurt the team, especially when we watched Norrena give up a very soft goal to lose the game Monday night.

Center Manny Malhotra has returned to action, and shockingly (in that it shows how un-deep this team is) is currently centering the #1 scoring line. Egads!

Winger Fredrik Modin is skating with the team in practice, but as of now is still wearing a no-contact jersey.

Quotes of the Week

This team sucks. –Dan Parker, author of Waiting For Next Year’s 5-Hole blog, returning home after Monday night’s game.

Well, that’s a bit biased. Let’s try something else:

Nobody’s going to give us anything, we know that. That’s the attitude we have to have now. We have to go out and earn our points. –Coach Ken Hitchcock

It would be nice if the team played like they truly felt this way. Sigh.

What’s changed? After a summer makeover, the No. 1 line has Manny Malhotra at center and the defense can’t get the puck out of its own zone. —Dispatch writer Aaron Portzline, in his most recent NHL Power Rankings column, where he has the CBJ ranked 25th out of 30 teams.

“Makin’ It Rain!” Side Note Quote:

I was just clowning around at home. I know the connotations it has. It looks like I might have been doing that in Columbus. –Blue Jackets’ defenseman Mike Commodore, in discussing the embarrassing photo of him rolling around in his skivvies slathered in $100 bills. “Commodore says the photo was taken last season while he was a member of the Carolina Hurricanes. He was not rolling in Blue Jackets dough, he said, but his winnings from the Hurricanes’ Super Bowl block pool, about $3,000. In tough economic times, Commodore said, he didn’t want fans to think he was flaunting his newfound wealth.”

Well, that’s certainly a decent enough explanation, though as my friend Jeff said last night at the game, it remains a picture he wishes he could “un-see”. Scott will also be relieved to hear that Commodore himself rips on the condition of the room in the picture: (from the article) “Commodore laughed about the seedy appearance of the spare bedroom and its curtains in his former home in Raleigh, N.C. Asked if the photo was meant to impress women, the 29-year-old bachelor smiled. ‘Not with those bedsheets.'”

Link(s) of the Week

This is how irrelevent the Jackets are nationally right now. I Googled, Yahooed, and just about every other search-engined for outside CBJ links, and the only things that came up were the releases about Filatov being sent down and LeClaire being hurt. Ouch. The bell tolls for thee, Jacket fan.