Sunday, October 29, 2006

Tough Loss

The Devils make a second period goal hold up as they edge the Blue Jackets 1-0 in New Jersey. Lecalire plays his second consecutive solid game, but this time he is outdone by future hall of famer Martin Brodeur.

Rebounds: The Devils won the faceoff battle by an unbelievable 35-10. Jody Shelley has 4:46 of ice time and 17 penalty minutes. The teams went a combined 90-9 on the power play.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Shut Out

Pascal Leclaire earns his first shutout of the season as the Jackets beat the Kings in Columbus 2-0. Goals by Zherdev and Modin power the team to a much needed victory in a game dominated by Los Angeles and won by superior goalie play. The team gave their confidence in the off-season by promoting Leclaire to starter through the trade of Marc Denis.


Rebounds: Despite winning 2-0 the Jackets were badly outshot, 38-14. Suffice to say that they will not win many other games when they are out shot by a whopping 24. Both teams combine for 0-13 on the power play.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

San Jose 3 Columbus 0

The Jackets lose again on home ice and now four straight overall. The offense looked invisible as there were many players with significant ice time that could not manage a shot on goal. Add to that yielding two power play goals and you have a sad looking loss at home to a better team.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Wild 5 Jackets 0

There's no way (or reason) to sugar coat this one: the Blue Jackets were crushed by Minnesota on the road. Continuing their torrid start, Minnesota moves to 5-0-0 on the season. Best to put this one behind them and move on to the next game. It's a long season and it was a long game tonight.

Rebounds: Shelly had 8:02 ice time and 7 penalty minutes. The formerly hot power play unit went 0-3; Minnesota converted 2-7 power play chances. In the second period rookie Fredrik Norrena made his NHL debut when he replaced a shelled Leclaire after Pascal gave up four goals.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Columbus 5 Phoenix 1

Nikolai Zherdev made his season debut and netted two goals, and Duvie Westcott, David Vyborny and Rick Nash had three points each. Leclaire has his first strong game of the season, stopping 23 of 24 shots.

Rebounds: The Jackets were 3-12 on the power play and shut out the Coyotes 0-9.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Road Win in Chicago

Rick Nash scored two goals and teh power play unit continued its strong play, scoring three times on four power play opportunities. Defense was limited for both sides, but it was fun to see the offenses go at each other. Duvie Westcott's second period goal was the game winner as the Jackets had to weather the comeback by Chicago in the third period.

Rebounds: Game with 9 goals had only 46 shots combined. While Jody Shelley has played less than 9 minutes in the last two games, last night Adam Foote was on the ice for 30+ minutes.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Jackets Drop Season Opener

In the home and season opener for Columbus, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Blue Jackets 3-2 on an overtime goal by Daniel Sedin. After a good preseason, the Jackets were outshot 44-20 by the Canucks.

The Jackets jumped out to a two goal lead after power play tallies by Mark Hartigan and David Vyborny. Good to see the power play unit start strong by going 2-5.

Nikolai Zherdev and Rusty Klesla did not play for Columbus. Rusty is erving a two game suspension for a hit in the preseason. Bryan Berard and Sergei Federov start the season on injured reserve.