Monkeys off the back

It was a night of banishing the monkeys. The Jackets secured a critical 3-2 in the ever competetive Western Conference. In games where the opposing team scores first, the Jackets were winless this season. That changed last night...finally. Usually you can fast forward your way through CBJ powerplays, we potted one. Hopefully these two statisics can be dusted under the rug.

The Jackets played another stellar game. 5 on 5 play was dominated all night as we have come to expect from this team. Our PK surrendered the only two tallies of the night, but they did kill the one with the game on the line.

The highlight of the night. SAVE of the YEAR from Steve Mason stonewalling Wellwood in the finally seconds with his mystical glove hand. Mason continues to play his way into more starts. Pazzy may not just be getting used to the bench, it may even be in a different city.

Freddy Modin got the powerplay of the snide off of a nice feed from Huselius. It was nice to see the PP get rewarded. The PP is like another player, it is streaky and right now the PP is moving the puck well, but is snakebitten. Hopefully we'll be able to tear off a few goals in a row. PP goals win games. If you told me we had the worst powerplay in the league at the quarterpole, I would have assumed we were in the Hedman sweepstakes.

My mancrush on Kevin Bieksa grows by the day. This guy is my type of player. A dream addition... in my dreams.

Murray's goal was very clutch. Maybe I'm a jaded Jackets fan, but I haven't gotten used to the concept of comeback. I always find "the comeback" as a reward rather than expectation.

On the negative side the Vorassard was invisible again tonight. It is the peaks and valleys of young players. Other teams adjust to them and they need to make the adjustments to get back on track.

Mancrush of the Game : Kristian Huselius. The guy is a hybrid Vyborny-Zherdev. He continues to get great scoring chances. I love his backchecking, I love his effort. When we signed him, I was expecting a lot more of a playmaker, but I've been pleasantly surprised with his tendency to shoot.

Whipping Boy of the Game : Fortunately there haven't been any sore thumbs for most of the games. I'll put Vorassard in here tonight. They need to catch another point rush. It will come.