Columbus Blue Jackets Deserved Better Fate

The Columbus Blue Jackets lost last night 2-1 in a game in which they deserved a better fate—the Ducks scored both of their goals on lucky bounces.

The first was a pass by former Jacket Francios Beauchemin that took a deflection off of a Jacket defender past Foote and Hejda and hopped right onto Ryan Getzlaf's stick for a mini breakaway. He wasted no time getting Leclaire down and roofing it on the back hand.

The second was also a fluke—with seconds remaining on the clock in the second period Chris Pronger lobbed a shot from the point on net that was screened twice and which Ron Hainsey tried to block. Instead it redirected off his hand and into the goal. As anyone can tell you, re-directions are a goalie's nightmare and are the most common type of goals scored in the NHL. That was bad break number two.

The Jackets did get on the board with rookie Andrew Murray collecting his first of his career. They played very well in long stretches and had some really good looks on the PP. Alas, their offense once again failed them and they dropped another one-goal game.

Lit It Up

I thought Leclaire played very well. He only allowed two goals off of 34 shots and made some fantastic saves. The team has to help this guy out with potting some because if you only allow two goals the team has got to at least get a point out of the night.

Andrew Murray—Not only did he score his first NHL goal but this dude was flying all night; he had some great energy. He played over 12 minutes, had a couple of hits and shots, and was a +1.

Nice call by Hitch to dress Murray over Glencross.

Dim the Light

Manny—Boy did he ever look re-energized out there. He played a very solid game for his first game back. He only went three for eight in the faceoff circle though so there is definitely room for improvement. Generally speaking I really noticed his game last night.

Boys went hit for hit with the Ducks last night. Each team was credited with 16 hits a piece. Overall the Jackets had some really good energy—especially after weathering the early Anaheim onslaught in the first.

PK killed five of six including a brief five on three. They would have been perfect if not for that late second period fluke goal by Pronger.

Jiri Novotny once again led all forwards in ice time. In fact he led all players including defensemen with more than 23 minutes. This guy is really becoming a main piece of this team and he looked solid again last night. I think Hitch may have found his "Handzus" type guy on this squad.

Busted Bulbs

Offense once again failed to score more than a goal. This is the fifth one-goal loss of the year and that's not including all the overtime and shootout losses. Lots of points have been lost because of this offense's inability to generate key goals.

Nash was shut down last night by Pronger. Nash has got to find a way to fight through and score against these top defensive units. Easier said that done I know, but all the great scorers do it—Iginla, Crosby, Heatley, Ovechkin, Lecavalier, etc..

I hate late night West coast games during the work week...uggh.

3 Bright Lights on the Night

1. Andrew Murray—first NHL goal
2. Pascal Leclaire—made 32 of 34 stops on the road
3. Good energy—matched Anaheim blow for blow in this game

As Portzline mentioned in the Dispatch blog, CBJ fans shouldn't feel terrible about this one. The team showed up and played hard. Unfortunately they did not get the bounces last night and with this team's play and lack of scoring, all it takes is one bounce to end up in the loss column. That said, this team has got to figure out how to score more than a goal a game consistently. It's been their Achilles heal all year long.

They really should have gotten at least a point out of this one but it's over now—time to focus on LA tonight and put some points back on the board tonight.

-LTL