Columbus Blue Jackets Blog Posts

Poor Early Exits Provide Little Experience

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:38:12 EDT

The Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues entered the 2009 NHL Playoffs with high hopes for their respective teams. Those thoughts became nothing but a few pipe dreams for their fans and players what seemed like minutes after the playoffs had begun.

St. Louis suffered a series sweep at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night. This was a fate that the Blue Jackets faced to the Detroit Red Wings just a short 48 hours later. Both of these teams felt devastation after they lost in their home arena, which adds much insult to injury to these young teams.

"It's a tough way to lose,” commented Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash. “What can you say? There's 19,000 people. Everyone saw what happened and I don't need to comment on it."

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Another Win for the Pens

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:41:58 EST

Normally, I would expect the Penguins to beat the Blue Jackets. But even with the Penguins having won their last game there hasn't been much reason to be certain of anything this sseason. Thankfully, for the sake of my sanity and surely that of many others, the Pens played the way the were expected to going into ths season and soundly handled the BJ's.

The main reason for this win, although the offense played great getting contributions from everyone you'd expect and some you wouldn't, was Marc-Andre Fleury. In a scoreless first period Fleury made several noteworth savesand kept Columbus off the board when theycould easily have been up two or more goals. This brilliance and a timely powerplay opportunity in the second open the door for the Pens to open a three goal lead.

Of course, in the recent past even a lead of this size has left Pens fans worrying but tonight the Pns did what any respectable professional sports team would do. They did give up one powerplay goal but otherwise they shut theirn opponent down. This convincing win could not have come at a better time with huge games looming in the next week against Detroit and San Jos, the number 2 and 3 teams in the league respectively. With these challenges ahead, hopefully the Pens have finally righted the ship.

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Where is the Love for Mason

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:13:14 EST

When 20 year-old Steve Mason was named as the WJC MVP and the tournament’s top goalie in early 2008, the bar was set high for the youngster. Leading Canada to a Gold Medal that tournament, the 6’3” goaltender has risen above and beyond those standards. Posting a league-best .934 save percentage and being tied for first in the league with five shutouts through 23 games, he is pretty much a shoe-in for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, right? Wrong.

Mason was snubbed for Anaheim Duck J.S. Giguere (voted as the starter by the fans), Minnesota’s Niklas Backstrom and Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo. Giguere gets the fan-favorite vote, and Backstrom has been stellar between the pipes for his club, posting a 2.14 GAA, which places him fourth in the league. But Roberto Luongo has seen limited play this season after suffering a groin injury which has had him sidelined since November 22nd. Even though Luongo is very talented, it is almost an insult to choose him over rookie Steve Mason.

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Los Angeles Kings Columbus Blue Jackets 122107

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:54:49 EST

The Los Angeles Kings gave us hockey fans yet another lackluster performance, one almost not even worth writing about! They faced-off with the Columbus Blue Jackets in Ohio earlier tonight.

It actually wasn't all bad at first, The Kings got on the board in the first period with a Power-play goal from Michael Cammalerri, his 15th of the season. Assisted by two potential all stars this season in Anze Kopitar and Captain Rob Blake. The Kings made it out of the 1st period with a 1-0 lead.

In the second period the Kings continued to do a good job of keeping the Blue Jackets off the board and staying out of the penalty box. Then with less than three minutes left in the 2nd period the Blue Jackets got a controversial goal to tie it 1-1. It appeared King's goalie Jason LaBarbera had the puck covered under his pad waiting for a whistle, when Blue Jacket's forward, Novotny hit LaBarbera's pad causing the puck to slide past him into the net. Was the ref slow on blowing his whistle? The Kings bench sure thought so, but anyhow the 2nd period ended in a 1-1 tie.

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