Columbus-Montreal: Jackets Win One for Gainey

Leclaire was a rock. Nash banged, crashed, and potted one; and poor Carey Price whiffed on one, if not two, he should have been able to squeeze the pads on.

At the end of the day, a 3-0 shutout of a team who, until recently, had been playing some pretty good hockey is a positive sign.

On "Gainey Rocks" night (it was nice to see the Jackets participate in this, each with their No. 23 Columbus jersey on during the ceremonies), the Jackets came to play.

From the openning drop of the puck it seemed that the matchups kept resulting in the Blue Jackets knocking les Canadiens all over the boards.

The rest of the time guys like Zherdev and Chimera (who showed me some pretty impressive speed last night, wow) were rushing end to end like it was pond hockey.

Granted, with all the hoopla and fanfare around the pre-game activities, Montreal may have been a little off, but let’s not forget, the Jackets stood around with cold legs and gatorade filled bladders too.

This wasn’t a romp over a powerhouse, but it was a solid effort.

Leclaire didn’t see too much rubber to get his league-leading 9th shutout of the year. Most of the shots came from about 15-20 feet and he had a clear view.

That doesn’t change the fact that his confidence should continue to grow.

He’s Brodeur 2.0 in the making; there, I said it.

I would liken him to a certain Patrick somebody, if not for my personal dislike of him.

The one player I have been on the fence about is Peca.

If last night is any indication of his contribution, trade him for a case of Molson and some hockey tape.

He was supposed to come in and provide this awesome spark to support the team, the "heads up young campers" speech guy with Foote and Federov.

He has simply proven to be an injury prone, financial drain on the team.

Hockey is a business first, and while I might be ok if the guy dated my sister, I want more out of him on the ice when he is cashing checks like the ones he drops in his bank on a regular basis.

The good news is that the Jackets have won two in a row.

From a scheduling perspective, they see some teams like Edmonton (twice) and Chicago (three times) over the remaining schedule.

The bad news is that Detroit is also in there for four games. Youch.

With the right moves at the deadline (see "Rafter Talk - Blue Jackets - Players win games, not prayers"), anything can happen.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Jackets dreams of a first trip to the playoffs come down to their back to back series with St. Louis.