Powerplay powerless

The Jackets special teams were not special at all last night going only 1 for 7 which included not being able to convert on a 5 on 3 with minutes left in the game down by one. All that resulted in a 3-1 loss to the worst team in the Western Conference the Edmonton Oilers.

Lit it up

The Edmonton penalty killers. There were times last night when the Oilers pkers had the pucks more often on our powerplay chance than we did. They could have easily had 1 or 2 short handed goals if not for some key saves by Leclaire/Norrena.

Dwayne Roloson was the best player on the ice, especially when the game was on the line in the 3rd. A hot goaltender can win a game on his own any given night and that's exactly what he did last night.

Dim the light

At even strength the Jackets played real well which speaks towards the amount of PP opportunities they had but alas they could not do anything with them.

It was nice to see the team rebound so quickly with a Ron Hainsey after Rick Nash missed his penalty shot chance.

We still have yet to be shut out this season.

Busted bulbs

The powerplay obviously was the biggest bust of the evening.

I thought Sergei Fedorov and David Vyborny were absolutely horrible on the evening. Missed passes, getting pushed right off the puck....very ineffective. The only one on that line that even looked half way decent was Curtis Glencross.

The entire team just didn't seem to have any energy. Lost many races to the pucks and battles in the corner. Even though we outshot the Oilers, they seemed to want it more got it.

Pascal Leclaire injury. 'nuff said. I just have my fingers and toes crossed that its not that serious like the early reports have indicated.

Rick Nash's penalty shot = B.U.S.T.

Somebody really needs to convince me why this organization hasn't sent Gilbert Brule down to the minors? I mean really, what is this kid accomplishing staying up at this level at this point? I say let him go down, *hopefully* tear up the minor leagues and call him back up at a later date. Why not give a guy like Joakim Lindstrom a quick look-see? At a minimum I think he could fill Brule's role and be more productive on the powerplay.

**********

Unfortunately this was another game that we can look back at and think boy, did we miss a good chance to collect some points there. Its also another case of the Jackets not beating a team they should - that seems to be a real issue that I'm sure isn't easy to address. The players need to start looking in the mirror and get up for these teams b/c it could damn well bite them in the butts at year's end.

Next up Vancouver on Thursday night.

-LTL