Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Minnesota Wild Game Recap

After eight seasons, the only coach the organization has ever had, Jacques Lemaire, decided to leave the Minnesota Wild.  Lemaire was known for utilizing a defense-first, trapping and, at times, stifling style of play.

After Lemaire left the Wild and the organization also replaced general manager Doug Risebrough with former GM Chuck Fletcher, not only did it lead to a wholesale change to the Wild’s coaching and management staff, it signaled a change in organizational direction from the trapping style to that of the post-lockout, vogue up-tempo style of play.

Well, after watching the Wild defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2, all I can say is: You could’ve fooled me.

The Wild came into Nationwide Arena and played a style of game that would have made Jacques Lemaire flat out giddy.  They essentially set the tempo for the style of game that it was going to be.  While being out-shot by the Blue Jackets 37-24, the Wild were very adept at blocking shots, blocking shooting lanes, chipping pucks into the neutral zone and getting pucks deep into the Columbus defensive zone.

The Wild also took advantage of their power-play opportunities, converting on two of four power-play opportunities and adding to their highly-proficient power-play conversion rate of 25.5 percent coming into tonight’s game.

But it was an even-strength goal by the Wild’s Cal Clutterbuck at 10:31 of the third period that proved to be the game-winner for the Wild.  Clutterbuck drove the Blue Jackets' Jakub Voracek into the boards and in doing so, caused Voracek to take Blue Jackets defenseman Marc Methot out of the play as well. 

Having been freed up, Clutterbuck then moved towards the goal slot and deposited an easy feed from teammate Eric Nystrom and scored into a wide-open net, as Blue Jacket goaltender was left out of position. 

The result was the game-winner for the Wild, who spent the rest of the game then chipping and clearing the puck out of their defensive zone to preserve the victory.

Here is an analysis of the Blue Jackets performance tonight summarized by what went right, what went wrong and what needs to be improved upon. 

The Good

Derick Brassard

Brassard has solidified his claim as the Blue Jackets No. 1 center.  He now has erased any concerns about the struggles he experienced since his shortened 2008-2009 rookie season. 

With a dazzling cross-ice assist to Rick Nash, Brassard pushed his point streak to a career-long seven games with an assist on Rick Nash’s first period goal.  Brassard has now notched five goals and three assists during his seven-game point streak.

Kyle Wilson

Mr. “Nose for the Net” continued to score goals for the Blue Jackets, notching his fourth goal in his past six games.  Wilson has now registered four goals and three assists in 10 career NHL games.  Most satisfying for Wilson was to score a goal against the team that originally drafted him in 2004.  It will be very hard to either scratch Wilson or to consider sending him down to the minors. 

Marc Methot

Methot continues to be the Blue Jackets' top overall defenseman and has also been proficient in scoring, time on ice (TOI) and plus/minus statistics, with a plus-seven rating.  Methot now leads the team in assists and has 0-6-6 the past eight games.  It was unfortunate, however, that he was driven out of the play by his own teammate on the game-winning Wild goal.  Overall, another well-rounded performance by Methot. 

The Bad

Mathieu Garon

In fairness to Garon, I wouldn’t classify his performance as bad.  Perhaps OK is a better choice of word, although part of the assessment of Garon’s play comes off the heels of back-to-back shutout performances while registering a shutout streak of 142 minutes and 43 seconds, which equates to over two games and one period of stellar goaltending. 

While perhaps he cannot be blamed for the game-winning goal, he did not make the key saves that he had made during the shutout streak.

Not Staying Out of the Box

For a team that's somewhat limited offensively—new up-tempo system be damned—the Wild are most proficient on the power play.  So it was crucial for the Blue Jackets to stay out of the penalty box; however, four trips to the "sin bin" resulted in the Wild converting on two of their power-play opportunities, the second of which occurred within 10 seconds of the power-play situation.

Not Converting on the Power Play

The Blue Jackets were 0-for-4 on their power-play attempts, thus lowering their overall power-play conversion rate to 11.5 percent, which is the fourth-worst conversion rate in the NHL.  In such a close-fought game and against such an efficient team as the Wild, their inability on the one-man advantage came back to haunt them. 

Room for Improvement

Execution over Effort

In Blue Jackets head coach Scott Arniel’s postgame press conference, he stressed that the execution, particularly in the first 10 minutes of the game, was off, as many pass attempts either didn’t connect or when they did connect, they bounced over the teammate’s stick. 

With upcoming games to the premier teams in the Western Conference, particularly in the Central Division, a lack of puck possession and not executing crisp passes will not turn out favorably for the Blue Jackets.

Up next for the Blue Jackets is a home game against divisional rival St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, November 10.