There's loses and then there was last night when the Minnesota Wild bagged the Columbus Blue Jackets over the head by the score of 4-2 in front of 19,040 at the Excel Energy Center. The score comes no where close to showing how out played the Blue Jackets were by the Wild as it was 3-0 before the team broke out the smelling salts.
“I wouldn't even say it was interesting,” head coach Scott Arniel said after the game. “When we got ourselves that first goal, we were still a ways away.”
The Jackets dug themselves the hole they never could climb out of almost from the drop of the puck as the Wild's Matt Cullen blew by Sammy Pahlsson like he was standing still to go in all alone against Steve Mason (0-2-0) and light the lamp at the 1:10 mark of the first.
The Wild kept the peddle down and exposed the lack of effort by the CBJ when Marco Scandella receives a pass from Jared Spurgeon and gets behind all four Columbus penalty killers. Scandella effortlessly went to the front of the net and buried a 5 hole shot to make it 2-0 Wild at the 16:20 point of the first period.
There was no rebound to start the second period even though Arniel was sure to have gave a non-family friendly talk to the boys between periods.
When Marc Methot went to the penalty box for holding at the 10:30 point of the second period, it took the Wild all of 10 seconds to capitalize. Dany Heatley redirected a Pierre-Marc Bouchard pass from the point and Mason had no shot.
Derek Dorsett tried to make it closer as he set up camp in the blue of the crease and was able to shovel the puck in with 2:07 left in the second period. The Wild crushed any dreams of a comeback as Devin Setoguchi scored only 58 seconds later to make it a 4-1 lead going into the third period.
What came after the score by Setoguchi will be something that the league will look at and had Arniel incensed on the bench. At the face-off after the goal, Matt Calvert went down in a heap as Bouchard's stick hit him in the face which is not up for debate. What is up for debate is the intent. Arniel feels it was an attempt to injure and some say it was a baseball swing to the face. The Wild contend that his stick was lifted into the grill of Calvert.
To have that wide of differentiating opinion of what the action was is hard to believe. A baseball swing and a lifted stick are two completely different actions that are easy to tell the difference. Expect a ruling from the NHL in the coming days on this.
Maksim Mayorov helped make the final score look closer as Calvert continued to play hard and made a good play from his knees to get the puck to Grant Clitsome. Clitsome fired the puck to Mayorov who had a wide open net to deposit the puck.
Out of the two games, Arniel has learned that the special teams are still miles away from where they need to be. The power play looked disjointed last night and is now 0 for 11 so far. What might be even a little more disturbing is the penalty kill which shouldn't need the same time to gel as the power play has killed only four of seven short-handed situations. Without a much improved special teams, the club is going no where fast. The addition of James Wisniewski in another six games will be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Springfield Hammers Albany
The Falcons decided to score by committee as six different players registered a goal in a 6-3 win over the Albany Devils. Nicholas Drazenovic ended up getting the game winner along with two assists and Allen York saved 27 of 30 shots to lead the Falcons to their first win of the season.
Along with Drazenovic, Nick Holden, Brent Regner, Cody Bass, Aaron Bogosian and Dane Byers all twisted the twine for the Falcons. Ryan Garlock also posted 2 assists in the victory.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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