In this Friday Morning Shrapnel, we help you get a little closer to the Blue Jackets experience. Please read this article to help you piss away two minutes of your workday. (Possibility of 6 on 4 goals being scored against you vary by employer.)
Seriously, no two bones about it, that sucked. You heard it here, you can hear it at CBJ Blog, you can hear it at Martini Hockey, you can hear it at Puck-Rakers, you can hear from Michael Arace, and you can hear from DBJ. It hurts so much worse because the team was flying high for 58 minutes before that incredible plummet.
At Ten Minute Misconduct, Jeff Little looks at the whole situation and sees Scott Arniel losing control – not just of the game or the team, but of himself and his ability to handle the pressure. One wonders how Scott Howson is feeling this morning knowing that he’s likely to hear from the NHL about disciplinary action against his head coach AND one of his players. (Probably a fine in both cases, but the NHL has suspended coaches from games before, and even though Nikitin has a pretty clean record, we have been the Shanahan “example-o-matic” this season…)
If there is consolation, it is that Misery Loves Company. Andy Sutton, for example, is staring into a big dark hole. Predators fans, for all their joy at last night, are truly fearful about losing Ryan Suter. Martin St. Louis had his ironman streak snapped at 499 games after taking a puck to the face in practice (and you wonder who feels worse – St. Louis, or Dominic Moore, who hit him with the errant shot!), and the Kings…well, believe it or not the Kings are worse than us lately.
Meanwhile, Greg is trying to suck it up at Full Mental Jackets, Crimespree says the Jackets are clear winners in the realignment, and Alison is bathing in the glory of #15 over at Heart of a Jacket.
Finally, a few more tidbits from around the NHL before we charge out into the chill of a December Friday (…which reminds me, December Friday is the name of my Collective Soul cover band), Backhand Shelf features Martin Brodeur talking about his mask designs, Paul Bissonnette reached out to help the homeless, Puck Daddy thinks the Senators won the Heatley trade after all, MLSE may be sold after all, and there’s a list of the best Non-Crosby forwards in the NHL.