Gobble, Gobble

Well, the CBJ gave us a turkey a week late. I suppose they were due for a bad game, but this one had no redeeming social value. My takeaways from the game:

What Jump?? First 10 minutes of the game were played in slow motion. We just came off a big effort against the best team in hockey, and could have/should have blown the fenders off these guys early. Nope. A little too much of the LA mellowness got to the boys apparently. Hitchcock gave them an optional skate yesterday. I'm beginning to think that "optional" should be removed from the CBJ vocabulary for awhile.

Waiting for . . . what exactly?? Much of our problem tonight was that we waited too long before making a play, whether that was taking a shot, passing, whatever. We had a classic 3 on 1, and Umberger tries to make the almost impossible pass across to Huselius, rather than taking the shot himself and letting Nash and Huselius clean up the rebound, or dropping a pass to Nash coming into the high slot. With the gambling defense that LA plays up high, indecisiveness is punished severely.

Indifferent Defense Nothing so glaring that you could point your finger and say AHA! THAT cost us the game. Just overall blah, no edge to the defense, no opportunities created from the back end.

Give credit to LA for playing stifling defense, and LaBarbera for making some good saves, but we are a better team than this. Mason deserved a better fate, screened on one goal, deflected on the other.

On the bright side, this is the first time the Jackets have been shut out this year, which is an improvement over past years. Man, I can dig down deep to find a silver lining, eh?

Finally, what was up with the ice tonight? I haven't seen that many people fall down since my wedding reception. And that was many moons ago . . .

No time to stew over this one. Bring both barrels loaded for Duck hunting tomorrow! Quack!