I’m sitting at home watching the Columbus Blue Jackets .vs. Nashville Predators on cable television (and simultaneously listening to the Dayton Flyers basketball game on radio). I must say that the Blue Jackets are an ugly team… They are out-hustled to the puck in the corners, and the team is very soft when it comes to using the body. It’s obvious that the Columbus players are intimidated in almost every physical situation. It’s very frustrating watching this team struggle after five years (I’ve had too many years of rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals).
While I’ve always had the greatest respect for players such as Sergei Fedorov, it appears that he has lost his passion for the game. And what’s the deal with this Carter guy they added to the team? This basketball player doesn’t have the slightest notion of back-checking (he got burned for a goal tonight). Although Columbus just fired their coach, it appears that they may just have the wrong player personnel and it’s time to clean house.
I feel your pain. Forgive me for the length of this response but I saw this game in person and feel like I have the right to rant. All I can say at this point is ‘Go Bucks’.
I was there with the other 39 fans in attendance. I regretted not wearing a mask – not because I’m ashamed to be a Blue Jackets’ fan (the jury’s still out on that one) but because there were so many boos from the fans that I looked for kids dressed as ghosts thinking it was Halloween and I’d missed my chance at candy.
It’s funny you used the term “soft” to describe their physical play because I turned to a buddy after the Jackets gave up 2 goals in less than a minute in the third and said that the Jackets’ play was “soft batch”. “Soft batch” (like the cookie) is a phrase coined by an old dormmate to describe a style of play that resembles a certain part of the female anatomy that rhymes with ‘wussy’.
A simple disappointing fact of this hockey club (among many points) is the amount of short-handed goals they’ve allowed. I think they’re second in the league in this stat. Of course allowing a back-breaking one in this division matchup didn’t help things.
On the plus side the Jackets were able to *actually* score goals – a multigoal game by the Jackets is truly a treat (anything less with their potential offensive talent is unexceptable). Additionally Rick Nash got on the board with 2 goals and 1 helper.
Interestingly enough Rick Nash’s third point was interpreted by many fans as a goal – thus Nash’s second hat trick of his young NHL career. Many hats were tossed onto the ice. I restrained from tossing my cap because it looked like from our angle that he most likely dished it off. Sure enough he fed it to Freddy Modin and therefore was credited with an assist. I don’t know if the fans’ reactions speak more of the unrealistic expectations placed on the shoulders of Nash or the lack of Hockey knowledge here because Columbus is a ‘Buckeye town’ and not a hockey town.
While leaving Nationwide Arena I heard many ‘O-H I-O’ chants, the fans obviously exhibiting where their true thoughts are this week (the Game which has been dubbed ‘Judgement Day’). I felt like William Wallace because I turned to a friend and stated that “I’d be willing to trade all the (Jackets’) games from this game to that (the end of the CBJ season) for one chance, just one chance, to come to the Shoe and tell our enemies (Michigan) that they (the Red Wings) may beat our hockey team but they’ll (the Wolverines) never take our FOOTBALL!”
Oh yeah, big suprise – the Jackets lost 3-0 to Colorado tonight. Playing the Jackets is just what the Avs needed, having lost 4 straight games. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day and all I can say is “Go Bucks, Muck Fichigan.”