Jackets Secondary Scoring Steps Up

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

Why?

Two goals from Mike Peca. One goal, one assist from Sergei Fedorov. one goal, one assist from Joakim Lindstrom. Two assists from Jared Boll. Two assists from Jan Hejda. Two assists 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 sixth 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 seven games, this kid has four points (two goals, two assists). Gilbert Brule had four 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 power play.

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 during 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 penalty kill.

Jackets penalty kill

They were facing the 4th best power play in the league and best at home and they killed off all five penalties—and that was on the second night of a back to back on the road. Very impressive. Norrena was very strong on the penalty kill.

 
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 had 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 losing. 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, because 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 too low in his crease.

Uggh...have I said how much I hate the west coast games? Need. Sleep.

Three 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. Penalty kill: killed 5 of 5 against the league's 4th best penalty kill. 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 eek out two points for a big road win.

This was a game that could have easily went to LA, but the Jackets have lost quite a few and 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 three games at hand on St. Louis, who only sits one point back in 3rd and two games at hand over Chicago, who is two points back, and Nashville, who is four points back. So in other words, we need those teams to lose!

From a conference standpoint they are 9th, just one point out of 7th spot.

They battle the Sharks in San Jose Saturday night. The Sharks haven't won at home in three weeks and lost to Calgary in OT last night. The 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.