Jackets secondary scoring steps up

No shutouts from Leclaire. No hat tricks from Nash. No razzle dazzle from Zherdev. No problem.

Why?

2 goals from Mike Peca. 1g, 1a from Sergei Fedorov. 1g, 1a from Joakim Lindstrom. 2a from Jared Boll. 2a from Jan Hejda. 2a from Jason Chimera.

That's why.

Yes its true, the Jackets finally got some production from their secondary scorers last night and were able to hang on (just barely) to beat the LA Kings for their 6th road win of the season.

Things certainly didn't come easy though as it was a ping pong game back and forth that took some crazy bounces, some of which got past Norrena, but in the end the Jackets got some timely scoring from guys who haven't scored enough this season to win really a "must win" game against the league's worst team.

Lit it up

Secondary scoring. Peca, Feds, Lindstrom, Boll, Hejda, Chimera. They didn't all have great games but they scored....finally. Nash and Z can't do it every game and to have this group of guys step up on the score sheet to grab this two points was huge.

Lets break some of these scorers down a bit:

Lindstrom. How bout this kid? He scored a beauty of a goal and also found Fedorov in the slot to get the Jackets that all important first goal. In just 7 games this kid has 4 points (2g, 2a). Gilbert Brule had 4 points in 31 total games this season to put that in perspective. Keep this kid up -- he's finally looking like an NHLer out there and we need his offense, especially on the PP.

Boll. Finally notched his first assist and then added another. Both were fantastic plays as well -- not the gimmes that players get sometimes. His pass to Peca in the goal crease was no fluke, this kid can play as well as drop the mitts and he proves it more and more by the game.

Peca. Got two re-direction goals. I don't think he's played that well his past group of games but the guy was in the right place at the right time tonight and that was in front of the net getting sticks on pucks. He also played well on the PK.

Jackets PK. They were facing the 4th best PP in the league and league best at home and they killed off all 5 penalties and that was on the 2nd night of a back to back on the road. Very impressive. Norrena was very strong on the PK.

Dim the light

Not sure if it was the score keepers or what but LA out hit the Jackets 39 to 26 according to the score sheet. That's a lot of hitting. Dustin Brown and Raitis Ivanans had some biggies on the CBJ.
Freddy Norrena. Has some bad bounces turn into goals but he stopped enough and the team finally scored enough to get him a win. He's played much better this season but they ended up losses. Such is the ebb and flow of NHL hockey.

Watching the LA feed since there was no local broadcast I thought the Kings TV guys did an excellent job.

Busted bulbs

The Nash-Novonty-Zherdev line went a collective -8 on the night and really struggled in terms of scoring chances, defensive play and turnovers. They need to forget this one quickly.

Thank you Jason Labarbra. I watch the Kings and I think how in the heck can these guys be the worse squad in the NHL b/c they can flat out fly and move the puck? Well, I'll tell ya - they have horrendous goaltending and it showed tonight when Labarbra let in some extremely questionable goals. I'm no goaltending expert but even I could tell he was playing way to low in his crease.

Uggh... have I said how much I hate the West Coast games? Need. Sleep.

3 bright lights on the night

1. Secondary scoring - guys like Feds, Peca and Chimera chipped in on the score sheet in a big way for this one
2. PK - killed 5 of 5 against the league's 4th best PK. In a game that could have went either way this was huge
3. Found way to win on road - I actually thought the team looked much better against Anaheim but they found a win to eeek out 2 points for a big road win

This a game that could have easily went to LA but the Jackets have lost quite a few they deserved to win so its nice to see the tables turned a bit.

The Jackets move into 2nd in the Central with the win and now sit with 44 points at the half way mark of the season for them. They do have 3 games at hand on St. Louis who only sits one point back in 3rd and 2 games at hand over Chicago who is two points back and Nashville who is 4 points back. So in other words, we need those teams to lose!

From a Conference standpoint they are 9th just 1 point out of 7th spot.

They battle the San Jose Sharks in San Jose Saturday night. The Sharks haven't won at home in 3 weeks and lost to Calgary in OT last night. Boys are in a for a fight but if they play like they did against Anaheim they can definitely get out of there with a win.

-LTL