What does a horrible powerplay combined with bad goaltending get you?
A 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Jackets had two straight early powerplays... a chance to grab this game by the horns early and have all the momentum... Instead the powerplay was again powerless. No momentum. No win.
...and then what happens when the Pens get their first powerplay of the evening? A goal.. a 1-0 lead... All the momentum. The win..
The PP goal at the end... meaningless.. the game was already in hand.. that goal has to be scored when it means something...when the game is still on the line.
The Penguins were physical, opportunistic and got great early goaltending from Fleury when it meant something.
The Jackets came out strong but deflated as the game went on. The missed powerplays combined with some Pillsbury dough soft goals by Dublielewic and that was all it took to take the Jackets out of this one.
The guys that should be scoring aren't... Nash/Huselius/Modin/Voracek/... nothing.
Nash no goals in his past 4.
Huselus 1 in his past 8.
Modin a big 0 for his past 12 games.
Voracek 2 goals in his past 9.
Peca, Chimera, Torres.. just bodies out there.
They aren't playing with any confidence in front of Dublielewicz and they don't have a Mason to keep them in game until they decide its time to play and put pucks in the net.
If there was any doubt whether or not the Jackets should claim Manny Legace Howson should have his answer. Dublielewicz I'm sure is a cute little lovable guy, and he had a nice save or two tonight, but this guy has no business being in the Jackets net. He certainly isn't capable of keeping a Jackets team who only seems to hit posts in the thick of this playoff hunt.
Anyhow....no stoplight tonight. Hell if I did one there would only be one light flashing...and that's a bright red.
Man those Jacket Backers got a long drive home.
I would love to say brighter days are ahead... but with San Jose up next I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect this losing streak to extend to 4. I may need to buy an extra $9 beer tomorrow to stomach it.
-LTL
Friday, February 6, 2009
Jackets sliding right out of this thing..
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8 comments:
They laid a stinker. After the 1st, they seemed to stop doing everything right; poor passing, no checking, not shooting the puck on net. The list goes on.
Granted, Dubie is not great in goal, but I think we (the team included) got spoiled by having Mase in net. Any back-up (Dubie, Legace, Sanford, etc.) we put behind Mase will be rusty by virtue of the fact that Hitch will ride that horse (Mase) until he keels over.
I was sure the Pens would be looking ahead to the Wings, but the guys played flat. A free 2 points and they blew it.
On a happier note, are you going to the Rbar pre-game? I'll be there 4:30ish.
What can we say, we came out flat and deflated even more in the 2nd and 3rd.. this team has been without spark/energy/enthusiasm since the all-star break... we need to step it up... Nashville just passed us in the standings(won 4 in a row), the stars whipped the RANGERS 10-2... at Dallas I believe..
Here is the competition breakdown:
HOT:
Dallas - 7-2-1
Nashville 6-4-0 (won last 4 in a row)
Avs 3-7-0 (BUT just won 2 in a row)
Kings 5-4-1 (Won 2 in a row)
Blues 5-2-3 (Obtained points in 8 out of 10 games)
COLD:
Ducks 4-6-0 (lost 2 in a row)
Coyotes 3-7-0 (lost 5 in a row)
Blue jackets 4-5-1 (lost 3 in a row)
Stuck in Neutral:
Wild 6-4-0 (lost 1)
Oilers 6-4-0 (won 1)
Canucks 2-5-3 (won 1) This team could be the coldest team in the west IF they lose again...
I know we have all followed the standings .... and ALL the teams below us have turned up the heat !! The Stars, AVS, Kings, Preds and Blues were all lower ranked western teams for quite some time... now the Preds and Stars are passing us and the others are starting to string together winning streaks...
The two teams who were at the top of the Bubble are now sinking fast (Ducks and Coyotes...)
The teams in the middle of the pack are stationairy... the Wild, Oilers and Nucks aren't hot or cold at the moment... however the CBJ who has been at the been part of this group is slowing crawling into the bottom part of the bubble...
OH forgot to mention.. the Pens looked very beatable.. they had great offensive rushes.. BUT their D would start to fall apart after only seconds of pressure in their zone... they would leave people open, commit to the wrong forward, get out of position etc, etc... overal I was suprised to see that the Penguins have fallen so much since last year.. anyhow... this is a team we could have beaten... sure Fleury was excellent last night but we just didn't go the extra mile...
Sunday the red wings will play them at Pittsburgh, I bet the wings will put them away quickly... they really aren't that good... 2 points we should have had...
Let's keep the faith kids. Standings change daily... that's the world we live in right now. No sense crying about it, yet. We're still 4 points out of fifth.
The Jackets are in a bad position right now and have to muddle through it. There's no point in getting a super-duper goaltender for the short term while Mason is recuperating. With some luck and for the kind of goalie he is, Dubie wasn't that bad. 3 goals, in my mind, is somewhat acceptable for a backup.
The Jackets need to deal the fact that they've long settled for clanging posts & missed opportunities, while still managing to win... having a dynamic goalie to cover their asses takes the pressure to score off. They could be cool and patient, and wait for that right opportunity to knock one home.
But in light of the current goaltending (even going as far back to Norrena's games), the Jackets need to increase scoring. Forget about shut-down hockey if you can't totally rely on your goalie. Bail him out with MORE goals. The Jackets need to become an offensive threat... they are not going to win many games, no matter who is in goal, if you can barely score one goal a game. They could have dominated the Pens but didn't.
Hey Rick.. I'm also looking at getting down there between 4 to 4:30.
Great comments everyone per usual!
-LTL
Legace cleared waivers.
LaCosta starting in net, Dubie back-up (flu), Methot (flu) out, Commodore has food poisoning. The rollercoaster ride has already started and the puck hasn't dropped yet!
Really, it was going to suck for the Blue Jackets in the beginning. Pittsburgh just came off of that gigantic 4-3 comeback win only two nights before and the team has been a buzz about it for days. As for the idea that the Pens could have been looking forward to the Wings, pretty fat chance because the Pens are in the same exact position as the BJs right now. Every game is a must win so they even make the playoffs, let alone if they don't want to play Boston or Washington in the first round only to be playing golf in a week.
The Pens have a horribly weak defense right now (despite having 9, yes 9, NHL level defensemen in the system) and I was hoping I would be able to see Nash do something amazing, but unlike Malkin, whom you can always tell is on the ice, Nash blended in with the rest of the BJs. He made maybe one or two moves all night that screamed "I'm Rick Nash."
I was happy to see the BJs last night in the Mellon, but it wasn't the game I was looking for. Maybe it will be when I try to head over for the rematch in March at your place.
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