Laying It On The Line
October 31, 2008Taking Care of Business at Home
October 31, 2008Blue Jackets’ head coach Ken Hitchcock likes to break the hockey season up into eight 10-game mini-seasons. He challenges his player to win each 10-game mini-season, and with that in mind I’ve elected to break down the team at each 10-game mile marker along the way. Admittedly, I wasn’t sure I was going to write this today, but the Jackets bounced back from their three-game losing streak with a very solid game on the road in Colorado, picking up a 4-2 win. So, in today’s two-part post, we’ll look at that game, and also at the First 10. It certainly has been a bumpy ride so far.
Blue Jackets 4, Avalanche 2 (Box Score) – Highlights
Aaron Portzline said it better in his lead than I could hope to: “DENVER — This used to be the city where the Blue Jackets fell apart. But last night, in the Pepsi Center, it all came together.” The Jackets played arguably their best game of the young season, and handled the Avalanche 4-2 in Denver to notch their much-needed fourth win of the season. And, before we get to the nuts and bolts, do yourself a favor and click the “Highlights” link above to see Derek Dorsett and Darcy Tucker throw down in one of the best hockey fights of the young season (it’s early in the highlights). Dorsett handed him his hind quarters on a plate, I would say.
The Jackets somehow managed only 17 shots, but they made those shots count to the fullest. Jason Chimera continued his stellar play by pouring in a goal and an assist (finished +2 on the night as well), and Derick Brassard continued his own hot start with a goal and an assist of his own. Jan Hejda scored his first goal of the season, and in fact his first goal as a Blue Jacket (91 games).
But, the real story of the game was backup goalie Fredrik Norrena, who showed one of his flashes of greatness as he turned away 30 shots and made some spectacular saves. “I really think him spending time with (interim goaltending coach Perry Elderbroom) has helped Freddy a lot; it’s calmed him down,” Hitchcock said. “He looked like the Freddy from a year and a half ago. I think it’s a great sign for us.”
Considering the house of horrors the Pepsi Center has always been for the Jackets–and the way they’ve been playing–last night’s game was a beautiful reminder of the potential this team has when they play a full 60 minutes.
First 10: It’s Been A Bumpy Ride
4-6-0 – 8 points (5th division, t13th conference)
Trying to extrapolate the Jackets’ season from these first ten games has been tough, since on any given night you can see a range of play from “Playoff Team” to “Playoff Contender” to “On The Doorstep” to “Actually The Doormat” from them. They won an encouraging opener on the road in Dallas, and turned around and looked listless in their next two road games in Phoenix and San Jose. They won their home opener, but they let up with a 4-goal lead and hung on 5-3. They followed that up coming out flat the very next night. Seeing a pattern here?
They’ve battled some tough injuries (Pascal LeClaire’s injuries really have hurt the team, though Norrena is finally settling in a bit in his absence), had some periods of growth as they infused new players onto their team, and struggled on defense. But, there have been some bright spots so far, which we will use the wonderful movie Major League to highlight:
1. “The rookies are starting to develop faster than I’d hoped. There’s two or three potential All-Stars there.”
Derick Brassard and Jakub Voracek had a lot of pressure heaped on their young shoulders at the outset, being rookies who were counted on to contribute on offense. They have accepted that pressure, and delivered above and beyond what most would have hoped for thus far. Their stats through 10 games:
Brassard – 4G, 5A, 9PTS – +3 rating
Voracek – 3G, 4A, 7PTS – +3 rating
They are both at the top of the rookie scoring list (though some don’t consider Brassard a true “rookie”), and Brassard is tied for the team lead in points. These two already look like the belong in the NHL, and that will only help the Jackets as they settle in throughout the rest of the season.
2. “As for me, here’s to one more year in the sun.”
Oh, Jason Chimera. Tied for the team lead in points, leading the team with a +6 rating, and playing on any and every line wherever and whenever Hitchcock asks him to. This guy is the team MVP so far, in my opinion. He’s picked up a lot of slack as the offense has tried to find its legs. Chimera was originally slated for the third scoring line (e.g., the thug line) with Michael Peca and Raffi Torres, but the injury to Torres and the suspension to Peca threw that into disarray. Chimera has stepped up and played with many different combinations of players, and has continued to play hard every night.
3. “Your players will just have to get a little tougher.
With respect to injuries, the team has been hit pretty hard, between repeated injuries to goaltender Pascal LeClaire, and forwards Raffi Torres, Fredrik Modin, and Manny Malhotra. There hasn’t been a lot of continuity in the lineups through the first 10 games, but the team has bailed enough water out of the leaky boat to stay within striking distance. Some of the games they’ve lost (e.g., Anaheim on Monday, or Minnesota last Saturday) were games that they could/should have won, but either by miscommunications or unfortunate breaks they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of overtime/victory. The silver lining that is encouraging is that they’re close to .500 with a slew of home games coming up, and if/when they get their players back one can hope they will get a chance to gell and begin to play a bit more consistently.
In summary, this team has played like the DOW Jones the past month: up one day, down the next. As someone with a lot “invested” in this team (man, I’m funny), it’s been a steady diet of Tums and Pepto Bismol. But, also much like the stock market, I’m in for a long-haul investment, and I can see some signs of positive activity in this team. Only seven more 10-game mini-seasons to go!
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Made ya look
I am no expert on the Jackets by any stretch, but interesting that you could do an entire early season recap without mentioning Nash’s name. Is that telling?
It is, actually. He’s been basically no more, no less than usual. He’s still scoring his goals, but his assist numbers are way down. So, on the one hand, he’s been a bit of a disappointment: he has another scorer on his line in Huselius, but he’s not facilitating as much as we’d have hoped. On the other hand, they’re treading water a bit without getting “superstar” production from him yet. It’d be like the Cavs playing .500 ball for 10 games while LeBron was averaging 14,/6/2 or something.
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