We missed Saturday’s Bizarro game due to some family visits at the homestead here, so the Video Blue Jackets had a long weekend to stew in their loss to the Video Bruins. They worked on some things over the weekend, however, and brought the funk back today against the Video Flames.
After bag skating them a bit this morning, there was a new focus on defense and passing. Against the Video B’s there was too much “I can skate by erebody!” on offense, and less effort setting up scoring chances, so I thought I needed to be a little more careful in terms of not getting beat the other way by thinking I could just bodycheck my way back to possession of the puck.
On offense against Boston, there was way too much D-men pinching and attempting to forecheck/killshot after every ensuing turnover. Me and my coaching staff went back to the drawing board. I’m not going to say it was always perfect, but it was a defensive improvement, for sure. How’d we do? You’ll have to find out!
Video after the jump followed by some game notes. Enjoy!
1st Period
2nd Period
3rd Period
Final: Blue Jackets 5, Flames 1 – Game Notes:
- Three Stars: 3. Jeff Carter, 2. Derek Dorsett, 1. Samuel Pahlsson
- This one got off to a slow start, what with me trying not to get repeatedly burned on defense. We also saw an increase in ice time for the third line. Judging from the bullet point above, they were the best line tonight. That said, Pahlsson’s late-3rd goal was complete crap. Not sure how that went in. Dorsett’s play on that goal was better.
- It was an awesome display of CPU/AI forechecking on the Carter goal. You’ll notice I was selected as Carter, ready to drift back and play D. CPU Prospal made that play, and deserves the credit for it entirely.
- The defensive focus–other than the Jarome Iginla goal–was better. You may have noticed some defensemen and backchecking forward intercepting a lot of cross/slot passes. Yep, I was trying to play more defense.
- My faceoffs got better, but there’s still some work to be done.
Again, this is all just for fun. Here’s hoping the real Jackets’ offense can get going like this. Enjoy the game!