At least Leclaire showed up...

Sorry for the late post on the game -- been a busy past day.

So on to the game. Pascal Leclaire was a stud and was really the only reason why the Jackets managed to get a point against Dallas on Monday night. He stood on his head most of the night and then lost in a shootout against the best shootout team in the league.

Lit em up

As mentioned if it weren't for Leclaire we wouldn't have even gotten a point in this game so really the game starts and ends with him. Its just unfortunate he couldn't make that key save in the shootout to steal that other point for the team. Flip side, if the team could have scored another goal in regulation then the pressure wouldn't have been on Leclaire to save the game again.

On the other end was Marty Turco. He was also stellar for the Stars when called upon.

Stars shootout. They scored on 3 of 5 opportunities. Hit the post and missed handeled the puck on the others.

PK killed off all 5 penalties against the league 3rd best powerplay.

Dim the light

Nik Zherdev had a pretty good game. He scored a goal (his 9th of the campaign - he only had 10 all of last season) in both regulation and in OT. He was a +1, had 7 shots and played over 20 minutes. He also did a great job carrying the puck and creating offense.

Adam Foote logged over 30 minutes. That's way to much for Foote but the team obviously had to lean on him and he played well going a +1 for the night and really winning some key battles in the corners.

Jan Hejda continues to impress. From what I hear the team has a club option on Jan for next season, I think its pretty obviously they'll exercise it - they'd be nuts not to. This guy is playing big time important minutes for this club against other team's top lines. He logged over 26 minutes, blocked two shots and had 3 hits.

Busted Bulbs

Nash gassed. I thought it was a rough night for 61. He did make a nice play to Z on the goal but other than that he looked gassed. Every player has an off night and I thought the Dallas game was one for Nash. He looked dog tired on every shift and his tank was on empty. Look for him to rebound against Colorado. Nash has now gone goal less in 5 straight.

Teams gassed. That game had to be one of the most boringest of the season. Players on both sides didn't have much energy or life out there.

Attendance. Yikes.... just over 12k. I'm starting to get a bit worried about this fan base. It felt like a funeral in that building.

..and finally the shootout. The team is now 1 for 6 in shootouts. That's five points we've let get away from us. This team is really going to miss those come Feb/Mar/Apr timeframe. This team has to start winning some of these whether it be more goals or asking Leclaire to do even more with a key save -- we can't let all these points get away from us.

***************************

The Jackets are 1-0-1 so far in December. That's 3 of 4 points. The good news is that both St. Louis and Nashville lost last night so that puts us with two points of St. Louis for second in the division.

They face a slumping Colorado night that is without Joe Sakic. More on that later.

-LTL