Columbus 5 Colorado 4 OT. A solid win over a tough opponent capped by a game-winning, power play goal by defenseman Jaroslav Spacek. David Vborny continued his hot streak, scoring a goal and gaining four assists. Zherdev returns and nets a power play goal, his seventh. Manny Malhotra gets his eleventh goal and Geoff Sanderson his thirteenth. Marc Dennis records 36 saves to earn the win.

Impressively, the Columbus power play nets three goals in seven power plays against a quality team. Colorado went 1 for 5.

A road win! Bluejackets 4 Blackhawks 3
Luke Richardson nets a game-winner in the third. A rare goal - his first of the season. Lots of guys with two points in this one. Vborny has playing quite well since the all-star game. Too many shots on goal again, as Chicago had 36. Fred Braithwaite, back from reassignment, is in goal and he gets the win. Big game tomorrow against Colorado. Let's hope they can build on this one and beat a good foe.

Blackhawks 4 Blue Jackets 3. A tough loss on home ice. Late goal netted off a nice redirection after Andersson got a little loose with his check. Denis did not have a good game, allowing a very weak top-shelf goal to Ruutu when he flopped into butterfly far too soon. Three assists for Nash.

Nikolai Zherdev's NHL fate will be decided this week. Hopefully for the Blue Jackets, he will not have to go back to Russia and do a hitch in the army. It would be nice to be a fly on the wall in that negotiating room. Makes you wonder how much money will pass around (or is that under?) the table.

Defenseman Rostislav Klesla is on IR indefinitely because of a sprained wrist. Klesa was picked up and rammed into the boards on Monday night at San Jose. The cheap shot was penalized, but it makes you wonder why you can injure a guy in such an obviously intentional manner and only get two minutes. To replace Klesla, center Andrew Cassels was activated from IR after a month and a half on the injured list. 7pm home game tonight against Chicago.

Off day for the Blue Jackets but a great opportunity has arisen! The Blues were crazy enough to blame their coach for their record and so they fired Joel Quenneville. So their general manager Larry Pleau skates free while they fire a guy who has his team winning 40 games a year.

Two words for the Blue Jackets front office: Hire Quenneville!