Friday, February 24, 2006

Olympic Break Nearly Over

Finland will play Sweden for the gold medal tomorrow. Hard to believe that neither Canada nor the United States will even sniff a bronze medal. Not enough young fresh legs for either side when playing on the larger rinks.

As a Blue Jackets fan, I am not sure that I wanted to see Rick Nash play given his rash of injuries this season. I would never want to stop someone from representing his country, but Nash did not perform well, scoring no goals, for Team Canada. I imagine that Gretzky must have second thoughts about passing over young stars like Crosby and Cheechoo and seeing little offense punch from the veterans. We'll see how things get shaken up for the next Olympiad.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Jackets Tumbling

Been sick so away from the computer. Thanks for the email from Janie. Amazes me that people notice when you stop posting; her was concern nice to read. Back to hockey (c:

At the same time as my illness, the Blue Jackets have cooled off from their hot January. They continue to score at a decent clip, but the defense has faltered. A continued weakness is the power play. Too many goals allowed and not enough conversions when they have the extra man.

On Saturday, the negative trends all came forward. Nashville was a decent 2-4 on the power play while Columbus was 0-4. Nash and Zherdev scored, but the team fell 5-2. Berard's injury is hurting the team now like Nash's injuries did earlier this season.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Columbus 2 Edmonton 1, SO

In a happy homecoming, Jason Chimera's goal on the eighth shot of the shootout gave the Jackets a third period comeback road victory. Edmonton's Steve Staois scored in mid-third period to give Edmonton the lead after two scoreless periods. Nikolai Zherdev's 17th goal with less than four minutes left in regaulr play gave the team the equalizer.

Both goalies (Markkanen and Denis) were quite sharp. Edmonton outshot Columbus 36-27. Teh Blue Jackets have now won five straight games - a team record. The Jackets were 8-2 in their last ten games and have climbed to third in the Western's central division.