Bleacher Report - Articles by Bryan L.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Looking Back On The Year

Bryan L. — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:56:41 -0400

The Columbus Blue Jackets finished the 2007-2008 season with an unflattering 34-36-12 record.

The team bid farewell to Nikolai Zherdev and David Vyborny, both of whom left every Blue Jackets fan puzzled after dismal defense and sporadic play on offense.

To substitute the loss Columbus brought in journeymen-defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Mike Commodore, while also acquiring former Ohio State Buckeye star R.J. Umberger.

Even with all the off-season traffic, the capital city was unsure what team would take the ice come early October.

On October 10, Columbus started the season with a thrilling overtime victory over the Dallas Stars.

The team would flirt around the .500 mark until January, when the Jackets, with an 18-18-4 record, switched gears and finished the season on a 23-13-7 run.

Good enough for sixth place in the West.

On Thursday, Columbus enters Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, for their first ever playoff game. But before the puck is dropped, let's take a look back on who surprised, and who didn't.

Good Surprises

Jan Hejda

Hejda had a plus-23 rating, breaking the previous record of plus-13 by a Blue Jacket.

Kris Russell

Russell more than doubled his points output from last season. His speed helped the Blue Jackets gain an edge in the offensive zone throughout the season.

Antoine Vermette

Vermette tallied 13 points in 16 games with the Blue Jackets. The best thing about seeing him in a Columbus jersey means that goaltender Pascal Leclaire and his spiked hair is busy getting hurt somewhere else.

Derick Brassard

When Brassard had shoulder surgery he already had 25 points, and it was only December. Columbus can't wait for this Center to perhaps put on a few more pounds and return bigger and better for the 2009-2010 season.

Jason Williams

Williams joined the team in January, right around the time Columbus decided to be a playoff-caliber team. Coincidence? I think not. The last time Williams was in the playoffs he was sporting a Red Wings jersey.

Bad Surprises

Rusty Klesla

Klesla was the team's first ever selection. Nothing like setting the tone for your team with a big, slow, stay-at-home Defensemen. Last season, Klesla played in all 82 games, leaving fans with high optimism for 2008. But he was soon sidelined with an injury, and another, and another, and another.

Jiri Novotny

Novotny wins about half of his face-offs, but only played in half the games this season and put up a whimpering seven points. Novotny is not, and will never be, a points scorer but he needs to increase his offense to keep up with the young guns surrounding him.

Michael Peca

If you solely look at Peca's stats, you wouldn't understand why the Blue Jackets are paying him approximately $1.3 million. But his veteran presence has fans thinking he can add chemistry to the team. Didn't Doug MacLean do the same thing with numerous players?

Regardless of the individuals, the team trumped just about every other aspect in the organization's history. No matter what happens in the first round (Wings in six) the team has accomplished more than fans could have imagined.

With young players finally showing their potential and Steve Mason, well, being Steve Mason, General Manager Scott Howson, and Coach Ken Hitchcock will have an eventful offseason trying to keep the Blue Jackets atop the Western Conference for next year.

Blue Jackets Look Forward to Upcoming Road Games

Bryan L. — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:27:23 -0500

After six games in nine days, the Columbus Blue Jackets finally get to hang up their skates for a two-day break.

The team went 4-1-1 during the strenuous slate of games.

On Saturday, Anaheim invaded Columbus after the Blue Jackets came away with closer than expected victories over St. Louis and Toronto on consecutive nights.

The game against Anaheim was one-sided as the Ducks skated circles around the depleted Blue Jackets.

Goaltender Steve Mason, who was masterful in the five games leading up to the final stanza, gave up five goals out of 13 shots. There was no doubt Columbus was lacking the stamina and effort that led the team into sole possession of sixth place in the Western Conference standings.

With the loss behind them Columbus will look to rebound on a Canadian road trip. The Jackets will face Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver with two days to rest between each game.

The Flames and Canucks hold the third and fifth spots in the West, while the Oilers are one point out of eight place.

Columbus will face a Calgary team on Tuesday, Feb. 24 that has won five of their last seven games.

But with left wing Rene Bourque out, the Flames may be less physical and lack a serious scoring threat on the left side.

The Blue Jackets then travel to Edmonton to battle the streaky Oilers. After reeling off three straight victories, Edmonton has dropped their last three.

The Oilers are 4-5 since losing fifth leading scorer Lubomir Visnovsky on Feb. 3 to a season ending shoulder surgery.

Edmonton will rely on other scoring defensemen to get the job done.

Sheldon Souray and Tom Gilbert will look to improve the team's 27th-ranked penalty kill against Columbus' power play, which ranks last in the league.

The Blue Jackets end the road trip with a visit to General Motors Palace in Vancouver. Currently, they are two points behind the Canucks in the conference standings.

Vancouver has been on a tear as of late.

The Canucks have won eight of their last nine games. In those eight wins, Vancouver scored under four goals only once.

The Sedin twins, along with Pavol Demitra, seem to be registering points every game. Fedor Tyutin, Mike Commodore, and the rest of the defensemen will need to be prepared for a Vancouver offense that ranks eighth in the league in goals scored.

The match-up will also unite former Ohio State teammates Ryan Kesler and R.J. Umberger.

Every point matters for the Blue Jackets as they continue to climb the Western Conference ladder. While eight points separate fourth from fifth place in the West, only 11 points divides fifth place from 15th.

If Columbus can come away with four points during their visit to Canada, the team will be on steady ground in the race to fill out the bottom half of the eight available spots in the West.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Sitting Pretty For The Time Being

Bryan L. — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:46:05 -0500

The Columbus Blue Jackets had one of the most impressive weeks in team history. After dropping three straight, the Blue Jackets have reeled off four quality wins.

Last Friday the team traveled to Pittsburgh for a match against a Penguins team coming off an intense overtime victory against The Tampa Bay Lightning and former teammate Ryan Malone.

The lifeless Jackets barely registered a pulse, giving up three second-period goals in a 4-1 stomping. To make matters worse, the Jackets were playing host to division-leading San Jose next.

Ken Hitchcock's team, sitting at 24-23-5, was methodically falling behind the playoff race in the Western Conference. It didn't help that goaltender Dan LaCosta would be making his first career start in place of Steve Mason, who was out with mononucleosis.

Jason Williams scored less than two minutes into the game and Rick Nash added another in the first period, but the Blue Jackets couldn't muster any more offense until overtime, when Christian Backman netted the game-winner against Evgeni Nabokov.

The Jackets put the weight on LaCosta's shoulders, and he delivered with a stellar performance not only against the Sharks, but against the Avalanche three days later.

LaCosta stopped all 31 shots against Colorado, and Jason Williams scored his second goal in as many games, while Andrew Murray added two assists.

Three days later, with Mason back in goal, Detroit rolled into Columbus riding a six-game win steak. The standing-room only crowd was not disappointed as Mason put aside a bevy of shots in the final minutes, and Columbus escaped with a 3-2 victory.

Rookie Jakub Voracek had two helpers and Jason Williams, acquired in January, kept his goals streak alive with the game winner.

Winning over so-called "rival" Detroit kept the momentum going on the ride down to Hurricane territory. Carolina and Columbus held identical records, 27-23-5, but the Jackets were 7-3-1 against Eastern Conference opponents.

A home-and-away on consecutive nights couldn't deter the Jackets.

Kristian Huselius totaled three points and Mason was dominant once again in a 5-1 thrashing. The Blue Jackets' power play unit also came to life by adding two goals on the man advantage.

Monday night the Jackets welcome the Dallas Stars into Nationwide Arena. Dallas and Columbus both have 61 points on the year, but Dallas is ranked fifth in the playoff race while Columbus follows right behind.

A win over Dallas could propel the Jackets into fifth place in the West and behind division rival Chicago.

Dallas' offense can be potent.

In early February the Stars put a 10-spot on the scoreboard against the New York Rangers. But last game, Marty Turco didn't show up in a 6-2 loss against the Blackhawks.

Steve Mason will need his defense to step up in order to win his 22nd game of the season.

If Columbus lights the lamp first, and the accurate passing continues, Columbus could put their foot on the bottom half of the conference's throat with upcoming games against St. Louis and Toronto.

Steve Mason: The Guiding Light for the Columbus Blue Jackets

Bryan L. — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:52:45 -0500

If the NHL season ended today the Columbus Blue Jackets would not make the playoffs. Since the puck dropped in Columbus in 2000, Blue Jacket fans have come to expect this result and have deemed the team's lack of competitiveness as acceptable.

But Jacket fans have a reason to rejoice, because the savior for hockey in Columbus was a third-round surprise.

Steve Mason has gone above and beyond Columbus' expectations. He has compiled a 19-12-2 record, with seven of those wins coming by way of shut out. That shut out mark puts him ahead of every other goaltender in the league, including All-Star Niklas Backstrom.

The man between the pipes also leads the NHL in Goals Against Average. But instead of seeing Mason battling to get noticed by the rest of the league, he is currently battling a case of Mononucleosis. I guess Steve Mason is human after all.

When Columbus selected Rick Nash with the top pick in 2002, the team falsely claimed they would become contenders with Nash anchoring the top Left Wing position. But in his first four seasons, Nash has barely been able to keep the boat afloat.

Now in his fifth season, Nash can sleep easy knowing Columbus has their first, true goaltender in the club's existence. Marc Denis, who either started or split time in goal from 2000-2006, totaled 146 losses in his stay in the capital city.

When a team has a solid netminder, the energy level escalates rapidly. Defensemen lay out for speeding slap shots, forwards dump and chase until they can't skate. And Steve Mason makes save after save after save.

With his .923 save percentage, Mason has started a new chapter in Columbus, and Rick Nash and the rest of the Blue Jackets are thankful, because they could hardly open the book.

With the season slowly approaching the 82-game mark, coach Ken Hitchcock needs to make sure the rookie gets a few extra days of rest before the last 10 games of the season. Only four of those games are against teams that are positioned in the top eight in their respective conferences.

Only six points separates the fifth-place team in the Western Conference from the 13th-place team. So Columbus will need all the points they can get versus as weak of a closing schedule as one can get.

If Hitchcock plays his cards right, and gives his backbone in goal some rest in mid-March, the Columbus Blue Jackets might actually have a postseason.