There is no cute way to say it, no sugar coated way and no reason to avoid the obvious, the Blue Jackets were horrible and have been for half their games so far.

The team seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde type of group so far. At the beginning of the season, no one could score against the CBJ's PK, now everyone can. 3 power play goals given up tonight which hasn't happen since....oh that's right Edmonton last Thursday! No where is it more evident that this team is needing Jan Hejda back than when you watch the PK.

I know Steve Mason would enjoy some help as he doesn't look to be the same goalie of last year. As I have said before, Mason looked bad in preseason and then it looked like he flipped a switch. The early season might have been a mirage. In what would be a good time for Mathieu Garon to get the net, instead Hitch is staying with Mason for the Penguins game Friday night as he stated tonight in his press conference.

I will say, that the walk through the locker room tonight was an entire team that is very down. My guess is that they are looking for answers and can't find them. They no longer believe that their goalie is unbeatable and maybe even the opposite of that. They know that their best defenseman is out and could be out still for awhile longer. They are getting nothing from their top 2 lines in regards to scoring.

If you are looking for the first Scott Howson mistake, you might have finally found it in Kristian Huselius. Juice is bad and I mean really bad right now. You can tell that he is deep in Hitch's dog house.

If the team is looking for answers, like all things in life, go to the K.I.S.S. method! Keep It Simple Stupid! Straight line hockey. Get the puck deep. Go hard to the net. Win board battles. Shoot the puck!

The team has become intoxicated on skill and trying to make the cute play instead of the smart play. The play that will make ESPN and not the grinder play that only hockey purest would enjoy. We all begged for more skill on this team for years and now you have it. With it comes some consequences and you are seeing it now.

Tonights Attendance (13,184)

Blue Jackets Team Notes

* After opening the season 5-1-0, Columbus is 1-4-0 in its past five games
o The loss tonight was the Jackets first home loss of the season
* The Blue Jackets scored a first period power play goal, giving them at least one power play goal in 8-of-11 games this season
* Columbus scored the first goal of the game tonight, snapping a six-game streak where the opponent scored first
o The Jackets were 3-3-0 in those games



Blue Jackets Player Notes

* C Derick Brassard scored a power play goal in the first period, his second goal of the season
o After being held scoreless the first three games of the season, he has registered 2-4-6 the past seven games
o In seven career games against Phoenix, he has collected 3-2-5, the most points he has against any one team in the NHL
* LW Raffi Torres assisted on Brassard’s goal, his first assist of the season
o All of his points this season have come on the power play ( 4-1-5 in 11 games)
+ He had 2-0-2 on the power play in 51 games last season
* D Kris Russell also assist on Brassard’s goal, his third helper of the season, which snapped a four-game pointless streak
* C Antoine Vermette had a career high (tied) five-game point streak come to an end tonight
o He had 1-4-5 during the stretch
o He won 14-of-19 face-offs (73.9 percent)

Blue Jackets Head Coach Ken Hitchcock

Commenting on tonight’s game…

“Too many plays with the puck that are too light, that come back to haunt us. We’re paying for the errors that we make. We’re not doing the things in the competitive areas that we need to do. We had a decent first period and a then the turnover machine in the second. We’re going to have roll up our sleeves and dig in. We played okay today. We’ve played a lot worse and won hockey games. We’re going to have to raise our whole level as a group. The penalty killing is a perfect reflection of this – it’s your competitive level.”



Commenting on the team’s penalty kill…

“We’re not doing a good job killing penalties and we’re paying for it. When you can’t kill penalties, it puts a lot of pressure on other areas (of the game). We’ll work on it; we have work to do there.”



Commenting on the top two lines…

“Not much. You have to work to score in the League. Lines that score, score based on second and third efforts. The goalies (in the NHL ) are good and the defensemen are good, you need second and third efforts to score and we’re not getting it.”



Commenting on the team’s play…

“We’re not playing as hard as we can or as hard as we’re going to have to (to win).”





Columbus Blue Jackets Player Quotes

Blue Jackets Right Wing Rick Nash

Commenting on tonight’s game…

“I think we did alright in the first period. After that we just didn’t do the simple things, didn’t get pucks deep, and didn’t do the hard things to win at home.”



Commenting on playing both ends of the ice…

“We’re taking off offense first, not picking up defense. We’re a young team; that will happen. We’ve just got to correct it, it’s a long year. We’ve got to be a lot better. We have a hard days work tomorrow, work on defensive coverage, and make sure we’re a lot more solid.”



Blue Jackets Defenseman Mike Commodore

Commenting on tonight’s game…

“Obviously our penalty kill is struggling. We came out and played pretty well to start I thought, but it all just kind of turned around very quickly.”



Commenting on opposing teams playing Columbus tougher…

“We’re not flying under the radar anymore. I don’t think teams are doing anything different as far as, you know, technical stuff. They’re not reinventing the game or anything, I think it’s just that team’s aren’t taking us for granted. And that’s how it should be. If we want to get better and want to grow as an organization we’ve got to get used to seeing other team’s bests.”





Phoenix Coyotes Quotes



Phoenix Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett

Commenting on the win…

“We just wanted to play a grittier game. We were fortunate to get some power play goals, and we got some big saves from our goaltender. There were a lot of small gritty plays that we had to make and we got them done. That makes a big difference for our hockey club and the results of the game.”



Commenting on getting scoring/first goals of the year from several players tonight…

“That’s were we are going to be all year. It’s good to see our defensemen get involved in it again a little bit. I like some of our traffic, which helped our defensemen score. We had goals by defensemen, good play from (Keith) Yandle. It was a good solid group effort and we have to continue to build on that. We want consistency of that, not up and down and that’s what we are looking for.”



Commenting on goaltender Jason LaBarbera…

“He was excellent. A big guy, who makes it hard, even with traffic there it is hard for the puck to find the back of the net. He hung in there and when they did have some chances he made good saves for us and that’s what we are looking for from our goaltender. It was a great effort from him.”





Phoenix Coyotes Goalie Jason LaBarbera

Commenting on tonight’s game…

“I have been feeling good in practice and makes it easier when you can carry that over into the game We kind of had the frame of mind today that we had to get after it. We had to me more aggressive and more competitive than we have been the last couple of games.”



Commenting on it being difficult to play after not playing for several weeks…

“Usually it is, but for whatever reason it wasn’t difficult tonight. I think the biggest thing is feeling good in practice.”


The Blue Jackets try to right their wrongs tonight at Nationwide Arena against the Yotes. Head Coach Ken Hitchcock is hoping that a little home cooking will find this team on the winning size of the ledger. A little defense and goaltending wouldn't hurt either. The defense was horrible during the last road trip and must tighten up or the Union Blue have no shot. Can I also say that Steve Mason was horrible too? I know it may be blasphemy but it's the truth. Mason and the Jackets hope that some time spent with goaltending coach Dave Rook will cure what ails him and can get back to what he was last year.

I will be doing a live in game blog called "Live Fire" starting at 7pm. Be sure to join me.





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Eric Smith
Eric.Smith@HockeyBuzz.com

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