Weak Sauce

Before I get into it, two things that really irked me tonight:

First: I’m all for the d-men joining the rush, but when it means that Huselius is on the blue line because Rusty is horsing around deep in the zone I have a problem with it.

Second: At this point, I don’t give a shit that these fancy 1-piece composite sticks are 3 ounces and add a bit more zip to a shot – they are junk that have absolutely no utility at this level. I don’t know how many times I looked up to see the ice scattered with broken twigs. If Easton and Warrior can’t make sticks that’ll hold up, then go back to the wooden Sherwood Feather Lights, far and away my all-time favorite.

On to the game. Tough loss.  They actually played a lot like the first game, without the lucky bounces.

Phoenix is frightening. They may not be a top-tier team this year, but the outlook in the desert could not be brighter. Talk about a green group – I think the average age of their lineup tonight was 16 or so.

Kevin Porter, former U of M Wolverine and last year’s Hobey Baker winner saw his first game in a Yotes uniform and played extremely well. Two other guys seeing their first taste were Mikkel Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov. Point of interest, these aren’t guys who spent time developing in the farm system. Both Boedker and Tikhonov are fresh out of the 2008 draft. Then of course we’ve got potential Calder candidate Kyle Turris – who got a nice “Welcome to the NHL” from Jan Hejda – as well as sophomore phenom Peter Mueller and tough guy Daniel Carcillo. Like I said… scary.

This was a hard game to watch. Besides getting outplayed, I thought our boys got legitimately homered by the refs, and I rarely make that assessment. Lots of crap calls against the Jackets and lots of missed calls against the Yotes. I still can’t believe Doan got away with the elbow/boarding on Novotny.

Somebody get Nash a new stick, or at least a different blade – maybe a nice toe curve. Two short-handed breakaways, two missed nets. Not missed goal, missed net – Lordy.

Couple of bright spots though – Brassard was once again a dominant player, scoring the only goal. He was rewarded too, late in the game Hitch moved our young center between Nash and Huselius. I think you could make a legitimate case that this is not the same guy that we saw last year, just someone with the same name.

Then there was Derek Dorsett in his NHL debut making it very clear that he wanted to stay. There is a guy who has a niche as an agitator and really does his job well. He’s going to be a great roster fill once the season really gets underway, that’s if he’s sent back down I guess.

We are really going to have to regroup after this one.  Lots of sloppy hockey.  Lots of turnovers, lots of cluster hockey.  Luckily it’s early in the season.  I think once we have a few games under our belt and get Peca back we’ll be just fine.

Oh, Peter Mueller looks like a damned frenchman.  Stupid pencil thin rat stash and goatee thing.  Gross.

Posted in Bluejackets buzz   Tagged: Blue Jackets game review