"Thanks for carrying me on your back, Kaner"Funny thing happened this Wednesday morning. The sun came up. That's about all we could say about the shutout loss to St. Louis. The worst thing about it was that all of us fans had a day to stew over it. I suppose that taking on one of the more terrible teams in the league was a good way to try and smack the funk off their junk. This being said, the Blue Jackets were able to manage their only two wins at home. So much for playing devil's advocate.
With a 16 shot first period, the Hawks were able to go up 2-1 at the end of the first period. This was a considerable improvement, but lets take into account the opponent. The second period was all Blackhawks, as they scored 3 goals, and the Jackets were booed off the ice. They even managed a power play goal. They opened up the third with a quick goal and set the family truckster on cruise control for the rest of the game. Columbus was able to gain back two goals of their own, but the game was already FAR out of hand, and they were basically pity goals.
- Basically, anyone playing with Hoss is going to have a good night. He is a man possessed, and everyone around him benefits.
- Tazer opened up the scoring, for the Hawks, on a rebound chance from Lucky Number Sleven. Between Deuce, Sleven, Tazer and Stalberg, they were passing around like adults playing against 8 year olds.
- One-Trick-Bick looked like he got the message that Q was sending with his benching in St. Louis; for part of the game, at least. He had several good chances early on but, kind of, lost interest like the rest of the team.
- I still maintain that Rosty Olesz is just fine working with the forth line, and he did nothing to make me think otherwise, in this game. Olesz had several good offensive zone chances, and made a couple of nice passes. So tell me again, JOEL, why is this man on the depth chart behind Big Slow?
- Tazer had his second goal of the night late in the first, as he threw one at Steve Mason from an awful angle, and it snuck through. Jackets 1 - El Capitan 2.
- It took the unlikely line of Tank, Krugs, and Bruno to get the Hawks powerplay going, and that's not something I thought I'd EVER say, nor SHOULD I. Columbus should be embarrassed; just ashamed.
- Who could have predicted that Tank would play a very important role in the powerplay last night. He scored the second powerplay goal of the night, AT WING. He sat in the slot wide open and took a pass from Deuce, who was pinching down low, and put it home. This completed his Gordie Howe hat trick, and good for Tank. It's great to see him coming around, because he looked like one hot mess in the early going.
- Car Bomb and Kaner hooked up with minute left in the second frame to make it 5-1. Kaner was being a complete and total lazy ass coming back defensively, and Columbus had basically forgotten about him. Car Bomb took the puck and couldn't believe Kane was that wide open. He sent it ahead, and Kaner beat Mason 1-on-1.
- I've said all along that it made sense to have Deuce and Sleven back together, Leddy and Hammer together, and Montador with one of the the remaining guys, just not Scott. I guess I got 5/6ths of my request, and for what was a whole game, no less.
- Thirty two seconds into the third period and the combination of Tazer, Hoss and Stalberg scored off a sloppy Steve Mason give way. At that point, it just wasn't fair. The reaction by the Hawks was almost that of disgust. That also ended up being a plus 3 for that line, on the night. I guess you could say Hoss has a positive effect on the other two.
- Big Slow gets pushed around and bodied off the puck more than any 270 pound player EVER. Just fucking brutal. While he didn't cost them at all, you're playing against what might be the worst team in the entire league. He's not bringing anything valuable to the table either. If anyone wants to try and argue the value of Big Slow to Pistol and Lurch, I may have to smack you and abruptly remove your fan card.
- The penalty kill continued to mimic the Powerplay, as Clitsome scored 12 seconds into a bad Stalberg offensive zone penalty. It was a long slapshot that Crawford should have had, even though he was fighting a pretty thorough screen.
- Once, again the Hawks penalty kill was taken advantage of, after a sloppy Big Slow penalty. Letestu scored his first Jackets goal , while the Hawks just looked simply uninterested. I guess we can let it slide when it's 6-1.
- The Hawks were actually eaten up in the faceoff dot. Only Tazer was over 50%, with Kruger only going 6 of 18.
- Wizzer was a brutal -4 on the night, and Nash was almost equally as bad, at -3. OOO-FA! That'll make writing those paychecks so much easier.
- The last goal, on a one timer from Clitsome was just a total yawner. The Hawks were clearly looking forward to leaving Columbus and, in their minds, they were already gone.