No Love from Former Buckeye

Ryan Kesler looked a little too comfortable in his old stomping grounds this afternoon. Kesler, who earned an honorable mention for the CCHA All Rookie Team as a freshman for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2002-2003, scored twice to help the visiting Vancouver Canucks defeat the Blue Jackets 4-1.

The Blue Jackets sent 36 shots at goalie Curtis Sanford who stopped all but a power play goal by Rick Nash. Sanford did his job well but the shot totals were deceiving as many were from the perimeter and with little traffic in front of him.

Chalk this up to another lesson to learn for the Jackets in this young season. After playing a perfect game on Friday against Buffalo, the Jackets came out a bit flat in the first period and found themselves behind the eight ball trying to catch up. They played hard the entire game but didn't generate many scoring chances from the place that seems to be off limits to all Blue Jacket players besides Rick Nash, the front of the net. The Jackets need to find some secondary scoring and the way to do it is to get into the dirty areas of the ice. Right now nobody seems willing to do that.

The Jackets need to find some consistency in their play, as the early season has been a roller coaster ride from one game to the next. The early pattern has either been a shutout by Pascal Leclaire or the Rick Nash show. It's time for the other forwards to start finding a way of stepping up onto the score sheet. The first place I would recommend looking is around the front of the net. Lets hope they can get started on Tuesday when they play at division rival Chicago.