Oh. My.
What a gag show on national television in a rare appearance for the small market hockey group.
The bell of the ball is here. To the moon are the fans. Johnny Gaudreau. Johnny Hockey is here. Extension to Laine.Big money to Zach Werenski. The core is set.
Trust the development and grow from within.
Nope, don’t. Scratch that. Look at this performance.
6-0 AFTER 1.
9-2 AFTER 2.
What a joke. Stay last. Just suck.
Demote the kids. Trade the rentals. Shoot the goalies and let them find their confidence. Shuffle the lines. Fire Larsen? Fire Kekalainen? Fire Davidson? What can anyone do? Get new medical staff?
Update 4:20pm
No news from the Jackets after the loss.
9-4 was the final score between Buffalo and Columbus.
The Sabres opened the scoring with 6 unanswered first period goals.
Dylan Cozens opened the scoring with his 10th of the regular season on the power play.
Tage Thompson scored 4 of his 5 goals in the first period in 16:40. That means every 4 minutes and 10 seconds in the first, he had a goal. He is now at 21 goals on the season.
Rasmus Dahlin was the only other player to have a first period goal.
Columbus came back with back to back goals from Laine and Nyquist.
Buffalo came back with 3 more goals late in the second - Thompson, Krebs, and Tuch.
Columbus then had two goals in the third — again from Laine and Nyquist.
Both had sub 0.900 save percentages for Columbus… horrendous efforts.
Where was this home team’s identity? Are they gassed, when they have played 4 games in 6 days with travel and going cross country? Are the kids not ready?
Thoughts:
1. Recall Tarasov : 3 goalies = no goalies but he is their best and is in the AHL. Only one over 0.900 save percentage. He’s young, and tall. Look at the success of Russian goalies lately. Sorokin. Igor. Bob. Vas. Samsonov. Askarov.
2. Waive Merzlikins and Trade Korpisalo (and retain salary) — give Elvis a chance to breathe recover and reset on a lost season. Petersen cleared at $5M. Elvis won’t get claimed on a career worst season. Korpsialo waived is at league Min, may recover an asset.
3. Demote the Kids, Investigate the Farm — Trent Vogelhuber has the guys running Cleveland, where Larsen and the Columbus kids seem to not be running. Sillinger is having a true sophomore slump; maybe Texier saw something we didn’t?
4. Trade Nyquist, Gavrikov, and Bayreuther — Keep Guys Who are Here Beyond 2023. Retain on Nyquist and Gavrikov, thank them for their time, and let them win. The more retained, the higher the return.
5. Rearrange the Organization — move everyone out and redo it all.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»