GAMBLOG Picks of the Week
October 10, 2008Open Thread: Purdue Boilermakers at Ohio State
October 11, 2008Blue Jackets 5, Stars 4 – OT (Box Score) – NHL.com Highlights
Record: 1-0-0, 2 points (T1st division; T1st conference)
As the regular season finally kicked off for the Jackets, there was a lot to be happy about. The Jackets earned a road win against a very tough opponent against whom they have had little career success. Rick Nash–henceforth known only as “The Captain” in this space–buried a game-winning goal with 20 seconds left in overtime. Jakub Voracek roofed a nifty one-timer in the first period for his first career NHL goal. Defenseman Kris Russell picked up where he had left off in the pre-season and played a strong two-way game. An offense much maligned produced a 3-goal outburst in the span of five minutes in the third period to take the lead. But again, most importantly, The Jackets notched a big road win to start the season off on the right foot.
That’s not to say there weren’t some things to be concerned about. Throughout the team’s history, one constant that has plagued the Blue Jackets has been protecting leads late in games. As the clock would tick down, the pressure applied by their opponents would steadily increase, and the Jackets would almost invariably wilt and surrender their late leads—often even falling behind and losing late. Thus, it was quite frustrating that, while they were able to get the win in this case, the Stars rallied with two goals in a 33-second span late in the third period to tie the game and force overtime.
In addition, the Jackets dominated the first period by out-shooting Dallas 10 to 4 and taking a 1-0 lead into the dressing room, but proceeded to come out flat in the second period, get out-shot 15 to 2, and find themselves down 2-1 heading in for the second intermission. After their three-goal surge in the third period to take a 4-2 lead, they were playing well defensively, and it looked like the Jackets of old might be gone. And then Dallas turned up the heat, scored a goal to pull to within 4-3, and you could almost see the Jackets buckle under the pressure. The effort immediately following the ensuing face-off was such that I turned to my wife and said, “the Jackets are really getting out-worked right now, and if they keep playing like this they’re going to give up another goal.” Within 15 seconds of those words leaving my lips, the game was tied.
But, baby steps. The team regrouped, and, led by their captain in OT, managed to escape with a win. Not a bad way to start the season. They play again Saturday night in Phoenix, the site of Nash’s The Captain’s “goal of the year” last season. They finish their road trip later next week in San Jose before heading back home for their opener Friday October 17th against Nashville.
Really Long, Winding, Somewhat Weird Injury Side Tangent
In strange news, Jackets’ goalies coach Clint Malarchuk is recovering near his Nevada home after shooting himself in the chin with a .22 caliber rifle. Obviously, this is not an injury to make light of, especially since the investigation concluded it was “accidental with suspicious circumstances”. Malarchuk was previously arrested in 2007 for disorderly conduct, and it is reported that he and his wife had had an argument on the date of the shooting.
The fact that he was injured in the chin area is all the more eerie for Malarchuk, as his main notoriety is for being the goalie who got his jugular vein slashed by a skate and who almost died on the ice in 1989. **Warning: don’t click this link if you’re faint of heart!**
Malarchuk flung off his mask and collapsed to the ice in a pool of his own blood, fearing that he was about to die. He asked the trainer: “Am I going to live?” Malarchuk struggled to stay conscious, sensing that if he did pass out he’d never wake up. Aware that his mother had been watching the game on TV, he had an equipment manager call and tell her he loved her. Then he asked for a priest. Something in his mind was telling him to get off the ice, “because I didn’t want to die on the ice. I was saying prayers. I was scared.”
“I did think I was done,” said Malarchuk 13 years later, “Somewhere I’d heard that if you cut your jugular vein you’ve got a matter of minutes, like three minutes. I was going through the minutes preparing to die. I thought I had just three minutes to live and I’ve got a lot of repenting to do in three minutes.” The sight was so grizzly that 2 spectators suffered heart attacks and 3 of Malarchuk’s teammates vomited while still on the ice. It was estimated that if the skate hit 1/8 inch higher on Malarchuk’s jugular, he would have been dead within 2 minutes. In the dressing room and on his way to the hospital, doctors spent 90 minutes and used over 300 stitches to close the wound.
Regardless of how he ended up shooting himself in the chin, here’s hoping Clint enjoys a speedy recovery. Lord knows the guy could use some good mojo for once.
2 Comments
That Malarchuk story is crazy. Perhaps someone should make sure that he’s never left alone? Just an idea…
Good luck to the CBJ coach. Dallas Stars will come back to playoff form.