Whenever you are facing a team that is on a losing tear, especially as long as the Canes, you are going to be in for a fight. Carolina wants nothing more than to end the embarrassment and put it behind them and their opponents need to be ready. The Canes will break out of their streak against someone, that was my fear tonight. The first 2 period were examples of great hockey from Carolina and great hockey from Steve Mason.
3 quick minutes to open the third period potted us with 3 quick goals, a lead, and chili. This effort lead to our 3-2 win tonight.
When I looked at our d pairs tonight, I thought to myself this could be the best defense the Jackets have EVER iced. You could put each pair on the ice with little concern. Any one of those pairs could have been the top pair on a Jackets team of yesteryear. We still lack the top pair, offensive guy, but in my opinion tonight we played 5 top four defenders.
The top line honors of the night had to be the 4th line. Filatov was the engine that set it going. His speed, offensive instincts and defensive sacrifice stood out. He was the most visible Jacket tonight. Hopefully it is a sign of things to come. I thought MacKenzie had a mediocre game. He made some bad turnovers and wasn’t completely solid in the defensive zone. Overall I like his energy and this tenacity and I would like to see him stick over our 4th line options.
Boll and Dorsett both played well tonight and directly contributed to goals. Boller got his first one of the year. It reminded me of his first ever NHL goal… a goal that after I saw it, I anointed him with the “potential 20 goal scorer tag”. Turns out he’s got a cute hockey goal in him every 3 years.
Hopefully Cam Ward is okay and we never got a good update. His trip to the bench looked really bad. He might have been a little freaked out not be able to see the wound, assuming the worst. Hopefully he’s okay.
Rick Nash made a great individual effort and scored a beauty. He capped the 3 goals and the momentum was pouring on the Canes. At the time it felt like a dagger, but it ended up being the game winner. It was a careless d zone turnover and Nasher made no mistake.
Now we had yet another final 10 minute breath-holding competition. I don’t get it. I suggest a change. Our players compete to the opponent’s blueline and dump in. 30 second changes and they go right off. Can’t we at least send in one forechecker on these dumps? Put a little pressure on them rather than give them free reign to come and make a dump into our zone and send three forecheckers. This is an incredible stress on our d. I want us to send one forechecker deep. Cause some havoc, if not bust it to the bench and get their change. The way we were playing after the 3rd goal (until the Torres penalty) is how you want to finish games. Carolina was on their heels. We kept attacking.
Watching the game, I felt we got destroyed in faceoffs. According to the stats we lost 32 and won 29. I guess we didn’t win the “big ones” .
Mancrush of the Night : It has to be #1 tonight. He made some big saves in the 1st and 2nd. If the game becomes 2-0, I’m not sure we win it tonight. Steve Mason has played four solid games in a row after 4 bad ones. His assist was actually a really good play. The d had a guy get loose, but Mase cleared the puck out before there was any threat. Let’s keep it going.
Whipping Boy tonight is the Cameraman for me. Was it just me or were we panned out far the entire night? I like to a little more of the screen filled up with hockey rather than seeing about 8 rows of fans. Maybe I was just in a strange mood when I was watching it tonight. Since Cannon whipping boy status has recently had a great slumpbusting effect, I’m going to put Derick Brassard here tonight. We need 08-09 Brassard back. He created 5 on 5 offense. He did make a sweet corss ice pass to Torres tonight, but we need more.
November 7th and still in first place in the division. Pinch Me. Do you need a pinch too? We haven’t even started to play well. Fire Away! Hit the comments.