Cannon Blasts: Take The Fall, Act Hurt, Get Indignant

In the aftermath of the Jackets’ loss to the Blackhawks on Saturday, Aaron Portzline wrote about the importance of keeping the physical aspect of the game in balance with the newfound flashy, skill side that Columbus has a ton of.

It’s an interesting take to have if you’re going off the box score alone, which indicates it was a fairly physical game on both sides - the Jackets landed 27 hits while the Hawks were credited with 32.

However, as Portzy notes in his piece, it isn’t just the fact that the Jackets need to be physical, but they need to use their physicality methodically.

And, while I can’t sit here and recall who was the most physical player Saturday for Chicago (which is kind of Portzy’s point - they were all playing that part of the game), I can distinctly think of who won the night in that category for the Blue Jackets: Lukas Sedlak.

Sedlak has been playing really physical all evening long. #CBJ

— The Cannon (@cbjcannon) October 8, 2017

He would finish checks in the corners along the boards (especially in the offensive zone) and if he was going to rough someone up, he was not going to let up until he felt he was done either getting into the other guy’s head or he was letting that override his play too much.

It was just one of the small takeaways I had in a night that wasn’t superb for the Jackets.

Happy Monday, everyone! Believe it or not, we didn’t miss a ton of stuff from over the weekend.

Columbus Blue Jackets news

• Here are our recaps from the .500 weekend. It was a great night against New York, while it was one to forget against Chicago.
• That didn’t take long - Josh Anderson spent one game with Cleveland before being called back up. Can’t wait to see him in action tomorrow./

Cleveland Monsters news

• The Monsters also had a night to forget, this time in their season opener, falling to the IceHogs.
• Fox Sports Ohio and SportsTime Ohio will be televising nine Monsters games this season. The full schedule can be seen here, but you’ll have to wait until late December to view the first one./

National Hockey League news

• I know it’s only been two games, but will anyone stop Alex Ovechkin this year?
• Are you KIDDING ME with this play, Minnesota?!
• This story broke late in the week and not over the weekend, but the NWHL’s Riveters and the Devils announced a historic and pretty sweet partnership.
• How ‘bout them Vegas Golden Knights? They are currently 2-0-0 and that’s pretty awesome.
• It was a week that saw a ton of extensions, and the Florida Panthers got in on the extension party by signing Michael Matheson to an eight-year deal./

Sports news

• MLB PLAYOFFS UPDATE: The Red Sox will live to fight another day and the Yankees were able to close out a game as both teams forced Game 4’s.
• Here are the 130-team college football rankings, via the #fancystats.
• And, here’s the Top 25 rankings that actually kind of matter. Ohio State is #9, if you are wondering. (Right in front of my Auburn Tigers.)
• Yesterday was kind of a weird day across the NFL, not even mentioning the Bengals beating the Bills. Full scoreboard./