Statement Made!

The Columbus Bluejackets beat the Calgary Flames tonight, 5 - 0. Let me repeat that . . . the Columbus Bluejackets beat the Calgary Flames tonight, 5 -0. And you know what? The game wasn't that close!

Playing the most spirited 60 minutes of masterfully executed hockey that I can remember seeing, at both ends of the ice, the Bluejackets had the Northwest Division leaders skating aimlessly in their own end, and frankly looking a bit shell-schocked.

With the real possibility that these two teams could meet in the first round of the playoffs, the Bluejackets wanted to make a statement -- show that the physcial intimidation (a.k.a. thuggery) that Calgary loves to employ would not put the CBJ off their Game. (AP Photo -- Paul Vernon)

The superlatives in this one are too numerous to put in a blog entry. Starting with Mason, who was other-worldly. Not seriously challenged until the 3rd, he was amazing throughout. We surrendered 7 power plays to the #4 power play team in the league, and they got zip, nada, zilch. A lot was due to our PK, which was a simple extension of our defense all night long. We challenged the puck all over the ice, from the forecheck through the neutral zone. We kept wings wide, cleared the crease, and made smart and quick exit passes. Hejda was a monster tonight -- all over the ice.

On offense, Hitchcock obviously saw something when he chose to keep Malhotra on the top line, and Williams on the 3rd line. Might have had something to do with faceoffs -- the CBJ enjoyed a 44 - 24 advantage, with Malhotra going 15-8, and Vermette 20-6. Two (and really three) power play goals. 4 assists each to Nash and Huselius. Umberger notching another one, as does Torres.

You want to know how good an effort this one was? Jason Williams scores two goals (and plays superbly otherwise) and can't even crack the 3 stars! (3. Mason, 2. Huselius, 1. Nash).

Finally, although the Jackets were outhit substantially, it was a meaningless number. As anyone watching will tell you, there was some brutal action out there. Phaneuf engaged in his usual cheap shots. Klesla, of all people, takes on Todd Bertuzzi in a fight, and crushes him!! Boll and Vandermeer go at it at the same time, and Boll is the victor there, though it cost each of them a game misconduct. A scad of roughing penalties, including 4 10-minute misconducts, were handed out for a scrum at the end of the 2nd. 124 penalty minutes in all were dished out tonight. A physical statement was made . . .

It is with great joy that I present the +/- tonight:

+ Special Teams -- It is so nice to be able to say this. Our power play was 2 for 5 (and really 3 for 5, given that Torres' goal came just after the penalty expired, and before the player got back in the play. They controlled and moved the puck, got bodies in the paint, put shots on net. The PK was perfect, killing off all 7 Calgary power plays, including 1:17 of 5-on-3 and a bizarre double minor for hooking and holding called on Commodore in the 3rd.

+ Defense -- Keeping Calgary off the board is always quite and acheivement, and although we gave up a fair number of shots, almost half of them came in the 3rd period, when things had already been decided. We checked, we put pressure all over the ice, and we supported beautifully in our own zone.

+ Offense -- So much for worrying about top line production, eh? 9 points and +5 between them tonight. We kept possession, we put pucks on net, we passed beautifully, and we were patient. We chased Kiprusoff!!! And as productive as we were, it could have been far bigger. We hit at least two posts, and some terrific saves were made. In the third, Vermette made a no-look, laser beam pass from the right corner behind the goal, straight to Umberger's stick in the crease. McIlhenny just happend to be there or it is a highlight reel goal.

+ Team -- This was 60 minutes of Hitch Hockey at its finest! Everyone, and I mean everyone, contributed at both ends. Well, I guess tecnically Mason only contributed at one end, but we'll take it.

+ Coaching -- Whatever Hitch saw in the films of the Calgary loss at Pittsburgh last night, it sure worked! Nicely done!

+ Officiating -- This may seem like a strange one, and I frankly started writing this with the intent of making hte officiating my only minus, when I realized that they really called the game they had to. They were hyper vigilant about making calls, were ruthless with the misconduct penalties, and gave no inch of room. Unusual for this time of year, but given how Calgary was trying to play, I can understand why they called what they did to keep some vestige of control. A couple of tooth grinders when the official next to the play makes no call, but the guy 80 feet away does. When they actually called Dion Phaneuf for an elbow, I knew the officials were serious.

Another milestone game for the CBJ. Nash sets a new personal best with 71 points for the year. I erroneously reported this as a CBJ record in my Tweets from the game, but in fact is 5 short of Ray Whitney's club record.

Next post will update playoff situation. Wife and I sported the blue hair for the first time tonight, drawing anticipated looks of confusion. The Blue Hair is now safely in the suitcase, as we fly to St. Louis at 6:30 AM tomorrow -- getting in a day early to scout out the opposition and get ready for Saturday, when we rendevouz with our Jacket Backers bus passenger and invate the Scottrade Center. More postings from St. Louis, and Twitter feeds from the game.

Go Jackets!

Playoff Update for Thursday

Latest Playoff Race spreadsheet is accessible (hopefully) here. Calgary preview later today.

Playoff Math -- Another Magic Number

Another day, another 5,000 views, statistics, omens and other indicia of who will make the playoffs, when the CBJ will clinch, etc. etc. In keeping with the spirit of service to my loyal readership, I humbly offer yet another statistical way to evaluate the crazy Western Conference Playoff Race (henceforth referred to simply as the WCPR).

There are multiple problems in coming up with a true "magic number" in the context of the WCPR. First, we do not know with certainty how many points will qualify a team for the playoffs in the West. Though my tracking over the course of the season leads me to strongly suspect that the number will be 88, that lacks the certainty you need for a magic number. Similarly, with respect to the CBJ, there is no one defined pursuer against whom a magic number can be calculated. The Bluejackets are in 6th place, so even if the 7th place team passes us, and the 8th place team passes us, we are still in the playoffs, so long as nobody else passes us. Complicating the situation is that there are several teams who could fall into any of those slots. So, the key is to develop a magic number for each contender, and gear it off of the concept of them passing us, rather than any unknown absolute number.

If you look at the chart that I have made available through the other posts below, you will note that I have included the maximum possible points that a team could reach, assuming they won all of their remaining games. It is then a relatively simple matter to compare maximum possible values, and, using 2 points for a victory, 1 point for OTL, determine what combination of CBJ Wins/OTL and pursuing team Losses and OTL are needed before it becomes impossible for the pursuing team to pass the CBJ. For example, Los Angeles has 70 points now, and 9 games left, giving them a best possible total of 88 points if they win the rest of their games. The CBJ have 83 points, so need 6 points to shut out LA from equalling or passing them. Thus, dividing by the 2 points awarded for a win, the CBJ's magic number for LA is 3. Any combination of CBJ wins and LA losses that totals 3 does the trick. An OTL by either team reduces the magic number by 0.5.

The magic numbers for the CBJ with respect to each of their pursuers are as follows:

Los Angeles 3
Dallas 5
Minnesota 6
St. Louis 6.5
Nashville 7
Anaheim 7
Edmonton 7.5

In terms of clinching, the CBJ will have definitively secured a playoff spot as soon as all but two of the teams listed above have been eliminated.

Simple? Maybe not, but easy to track ;-) I'll post the numbers here. Go Jackets!!

Updated Playoff Chart

Newest version of the playoff chart can be found here.

Jackets end up picking up a point on Edmonton, who gave up two late goals to Detroit, while their margin over 8th remained the same. With Anaheim winning, the margin over 9th reduced by one.

Dallas and Minnesota are now in desperate situations. St. Louis is looking strong now, but they have 2 home games left this week, against Vancouver and then the CBJ. Starting Sunday in Nationwide, the Blues play 6 of the last 7 on the road.

Go Jackets!

Great Defense . . . A Road Point . . .But . . .

You can't really complain a lot about getting 3 out of 4 possible points on the road, but this one left the feeling that a point was clearly left on the table.

The Jackets posted one of their best defensive games of the season -- heck, of ANY season, and outshot the Lightning 34 - 17, but could not bury the big chances. A gorgeous shot by Martin St. Louis in OT, going far post to the left while his momentum was taking him to the right.

Give McKenna credit for making lots of key saves, but we missed our chances as well. Voracek missed an open net. Huselius double-clutched under similar circumstances. Williams rattled one off the post. Need to bury those.

It was almost like the Jackets were so dominant in posession, chances, shots, etc. that they put themselves to sleep. They lacked that killer sense of urgency throughout the contest, though they came out with it in the third.

No need for wailing or moaning over this one. A game effort, just one lacking a bit of intensity and finishing. Here are +/- for tonight:


Defensive Play -- We really smothered them all night long in our defensive end, and the neutral zone. We cut off passes, kept them wide, lifted sticks and otherwise made life miserable for Lecavalier, St. Louis and Stamkos. You never had the sense that we were seriously threatened for any extended period of time.

Discipline -- Only one penalty all night long, which unfortunately ended in a tip in by Malone cutting across the crease. We showed good clearing of the puck out of our zone, and good control in the neutral zone.

Intensity -- We lacked that gritty little edge that we have had in so many games this year. We were outhit 27 - 14, and they had almost twice as many takeaways as we did. Played down to the opponent here.

Precision -- Just could not get the tape to tape passes when we needed them, or if we did, the recipient could not pull the trigger. Power play, except for the third one, showed good movement, but could not get shots all the way through.

No need to call out the calvalry on this one, but another of those educational opportunities that was cheap enough. Minnesota lost, and is in a tough spot. Nashville and Anaheim had a 3 pointer, but the net effect was zero to the Jackets, as Anaheim took Nashville's spot in 8th and we kept our 5 point gap over 8th. Vancouver took Dallas, which just about ends the Dallas run. St. Louis enhanced their chances with a shutout of LA, who is officially toast. Detroit trails Edmonton at the moment, but we will see how that ends up.

Jackets are still in great shape, and will be very intense for Calgary on Thursday, guaranteed. Go Jackets!

Tuesday Tidbits and Lightning Preview

The Bluejackets' Excellent Adventure in Florida comes to a close tonight, when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning, which will bring the Games Remaining number down into single digits.

This is another one of those "trap" games -- one we should win easily on paper, but the game has to be played on the ice. Tampa has had a hellish year, with turmoil in the front office, the coaching ranks and on the ice. Still, they have Vincent LeCavalier and Martin St. Louis who can light it up at any time. Over the past 10 games, they are a respectable 3 - 3 -4, so they are not going down easily.

Tampa has had a tough time getting all of the pieces and parts to work together this year. They are 23rd in Goals Scored (on a per game basis) and 28th in Goals Against. The PP is a respectable 18th, but the PK has struggled to a ranking of 24th in the league. Between the pipes, the Lightning have struggled to find consistency. Mike Smith did not inspire confidence, but turned his numbers around a bit before being sidelined since mid-February with post-concussion syndrome. Since then, the goaltending has been platooned between Mike McKenna and Karri Ramo. Both have GAAs north of 3.0 and save percentages south of .900, though Ramo appears to have the hotter hand of late. After being a disappointment for much of the season, rookie Steven Stamkos has come on of late, and now has 18 goals and 20 assists for a respectable 38 points in his first season.

Befitting their name, the Lightning prefer to strike quickly and use their outside speed in transition, preferably off turnovers from the neutral zone in. Unfortunately, their defense has not been able to force many turnovers, and while Ryan Malone is having a solid offensive year, the defensive effort has not been there, and the inconsistency in goal has not helped.

For the Jackets to prevail, they need to do the following:

• Don't believe the press clippings -- this one still requires 60 minutes of solid hockey
• Break them up in the neutral zone, disrupt their tempo and keep them to the perimeter
• Take care of the puck -- no turnovers
• Lots of pucks and traffic on the goaltenders, who can be had.

After tonight, we have only four more road games (2 St. Louis, 1 each @ Nashville and Chicago). A chance to put another step or two between us and the chasers, and to inch a bit closer to Vancouver and Chicago.

In other news:

Team Records -- The Jackets have already surpassed their team record for wins in a season with 38 (old record was 35, set in 2005-2006), points with 82 (old record 80 in 07-08), home points with 48 (old record 47, set in 02-03 and 07-08), and road points with 34 (old record 33 in 06-07 and 07-08). A win tonight would give us the most road wins in team history with 16. We also have a positive goal differential (GF - GA) for the first time ever at this point in the season.

NHL Network Respect -- NHL Network has conceded the playoffs to the Jackets. All of their discussions on NHL On The Fly have been focusing on 7th and 8th place.

Infighting -- Big night for the playoff hunt in the West, with all of the contenders in action, and many facing each other. We clearly want the Rangers to beat the Wild, and Detroit to topple Edmonton. We also want LA, who is effectively out of it, to beat the Blues in St. Louis. The Anaheim vs Nashville and Vancouver @ Dalls matchups are good news/bad news stories either way. If Dallas loses, that will all but pull the curtain down on their playoff run. Limber up those thumbs -- the remote might get a workout tonight.

Road Trip -- There should be quite a presense when the CBJ take on the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday. The Jacket Backers are sending a busload, as is the R Bar. We will be at the Scottrade Center for the festivities, and will Twitter away from St. Louis, starting on Friday.

Great time to be a Jackets fan!!!

Chart FIxed (I think)

After being advised that I was apparently the only one who could access the chart, I think I have solved the problem. Try this link. Let me know if it works.