After three completely normal and drama-less days off, the Blue Jackets returned to the ice to face the Seattle Kraken.
First Period
Columbus came out absolutely flying to start the game. The new Gaudreau-Sillinger-Chinakhov line started the game with a fantastic shift, and that pressure continued through the early first. The first three whistles were a Kraken icing, a Kraken icing, and a Blue Jackets goal.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Ivan Provorov from Adam Fantilli – 1:41 1st Period
The goal was shortly followed by a tripping call on Adam Larsson, which was then followed by an underwhelming powerplay. The Jackets continued their pressure through the first 13.5 minutes, getting 24 shot attempts off in that span; the Kraken would only have 15 all period. And while Jordan Eberle would tie the game shortly after the midway point, birthday boy Ivan Provorov would reclaim the lead 33 seconds later with an incredibly lucky deflection.
KRAKEN GOAL – Jordan Eberle from Adam Larsson and Tomas Tatar – 11:37 1st Period
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Ivan Provorov (2) from Kirill Marchenko and Andrew Peeke – 12:10 1st Period
Unfortunately, the game shift towards Seattle after Provorov’s second goal. After putting up 24 shot attempts in the first 13 minutes, the Jackets would only have three in the last seven minutes. Jared McCann would tie the game at 15:31.
KRAKEN GOAL – Jared McCann from Oliver Bjorkstrand – 15:31 1st Period
But to be honest I wasn’t really paying too much attention because HOLY SHIT ADIDAS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE.
Adidas Unveils 2024 NHL All Star Jerseys
Midway through the first, Adidas made available the 2024 NHL All Star Game jerseys on their website, about a half hour before they unveiled them during the first intermission of the Canadiens-Oilers game. They’re so bad I’m now writing an article within an article to bash them ASAP.
Holy cow. Where even to begin? I guess we need to start with the design philosophy. These jerseys were design in collaboration with Justin Bieber’s design company, Drew House. As such, they’re more “street wear” than “ice wear.” Maybe they’ll be popular with the general public. They sure aren’t popular with me.
In terms of positives, there’s four different jerseys, so each team will have their own jersey. Each jersey is a distinct color. That’s about it.
The most prominent design element is the… unique logo treatment. The NHL logo has been adapted with a graffiti-style design, with a large yellow star placed behind and several smaller stars surrounding the main crest. Oversized logos can work, in the right context (Los Angeles and Washington have done it in their recent Stadium Series games to great effect), but it simply is not enough to carry the jersey. Unfortunately, these end up looking more like the logo was put through a Comic Sans filter, and it just does not work. That and the logo-in-a-logo thing makes it so that it’s less of a large logo, and more of a large graphic element around the logo.
The striping also has a unique treatment. It’s vertical for one thing, with a very awkward gap for the sleeve numbers and two stars below them. It’s a decent idea, but unfortunately, it just looks clunky. What really kills it, however, is that Adidas used three thin, equidistant stripes. That’s can’t be read as anything other than their Three Stripe branding they use on, well, everything, including NHL practice jerseys. And that’s it in terms of design elements. It’s a big, bad, logo and striping that is almost literally ripped off a practice jersey.
One more thing I want to mention is the number font and name treatment. It only appears in one photo, and it’s quite hard to tell the details from that photo, but it looks to be a similar graffiti-type treatment to the NHL logo. It… does not look good. And then the name is placed under the number, common in women’s hockey but rare in NHL circles, in a contrasting namebar, which is mostly a Philadelphia thing, and in lowercase, which is unheard of. Each individual change makes can be explained (Toronto’s last All Star game in 2000 also had the names under the number, the yellow-on-black coloring means they only need one set of name fonts, and if they use players’ social handles, lowercase would make sense), but together it just looks so foreign. Couple that with the almost non-existant striping, and it looks just like a specialty jersey that a team would wear for their Gen Z night.
They’re just so, so bad, man. I was going to see they’re the worst jerseys in league history, but the more I think about it, I don’t think that’s true. I can see what they’re going for. It just fundamentally does not work.
Anyways, let me know what you think.
Second Period
Wait, what? There’s a game to recap? Right. Forgot about that.
Anyways, the Kraken started the second period how they ended the first: Absolutely kicking ass. For the first four minutes, they were incredibly dangerous, and created a plethora of chances. Luckily for the Blue Jackets, things would shift quickly. As Johnny Gaudreau was stopped on a breakaway, Will Borgen was nabbed for holding as the Kraken were called for too many men, giving the Blue Jackets a full two minutes of 5-on-3. Kirill Marchenko would capitalize to once again give the Jackets the lead.
BLUE JACKETS 5-ON-3 GOAL – Kirill Marchenko from Adam Boqvist and Johnny Gaudreau – 4:43 2nd Period
Shortly after the other penalty expired, the Kraken would go to the powerplay thanks to Alexandre Texier hooking Vince Dunn. And while they wouldn’t score on their attempt, they were unable to clear the zone once Texier was released, and Seattle would get some delayed gratification to tie the game for the third time.
KRAKEN GOAL – Tye Kartye from Vince Dunn and Yanni Gourde – 9:45 2nd Period
It’d be more even after the 3-3 goal, with neither team getting a shot attempt for a few minutes. 12 minutes in, Cole Sillinger would be called for boarding on Matty Beniers. While I thought it was boarderline, Vince Dunn apparently did not: He immediately dropped the gloves and started beating on the Columbus youngster before he was even ready. There was no instigator called, much to the chagrin of the 5th Line. And of course, our old friend Oliver Bjorkstrand would score the powerplay goal to give the Kraken the lead.
KRAKEN POWERPLAY GOAL – Oliver Bjorkstrand from Jared McCann and Justin Schultz – 13:42 2nd Period
The Jackets were able to push well to end the third period, with Yegor Chinkhov and Justin Danforth nearly connecting on a rush, before creating a flurry of netfront rebounds. Joey Daccord held firm, as he did all night. Columbus would go to the second intermission down a goal, 4-3.
Third Period
As with the other two periods, there was a stretch where Seattle dominated, and a stretch where Columbus was in control. Unfortunately, our stretch was after Seattle had scored two more goals to effectively put the game out of reach.
KRAKEN GOAL – Jared McCann (2) from Justin Schwartz and Brain Dumoulin – 6:17 3rd Period
KRAKEN GOAL – Brian Dumoulin from Justin Schwartz and Alexander Wennberg – 8:28 3rd Period
Now, to give the Blue Jackets credit, they did play really well after the 6-3 goal. Whether that’s just score effects is up for debate, but the Kraken didn’t have a shot attempt for a ten minute stretch. Daccord absolutely robbed Sillinger on a wide open chance, and shortly after Emil Bemstrom was paid back with his first goal in 15 games.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Emil Bemstrom from Kent Johnson and Andrew Peeke – 12:29 3rd Period
The great play continued to close out the period. The Jackets pulled Tarasov with 3:30 to go, and for the next two and a half minutes, the puck never left Joey Daccord’s end of the ice. However, the Kraken did excel at blocking shots, allowing only a couple through to Daccord. Unfortunately, once the puck did leave the offensive zone, it resulted in an empty net goal for the Kraken. 7-4 final.
KRAKEN EMPTY NET GOAL – Eeli Tolvanen from Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand – 18:55 3rd Period
Despite the score, it was a pretty even game for Columbus. Not great or even that good, but even. Both teams had stretches where they were firmly in control, and the shots on goal ended 35-33 Seattle, and expected goals 3.73-2.59 Columbus. The difference was goaltending. Daccord wasn’t perfect, but he made several clutch saves when it mattered. Of the six goals Tarasov allowed, one was a great tip by Kartye, once McCann was left on his own, and the other four he was just cleanly beaten. On the wake of a goaltending controversy, that’s not the performance you want.
The Blue Jackets are back at it Monday, for a Martin Luther King day matinee with the Vancouver Canucks. Hooray.