With this team going up and down more than a yo-yo, we’ll dispense with the pleasantries and move directly on to looking at tonight’s three stars. Nary a Jacket among them and you can’t really argue with that.
3rd Star: Alexander Edler
A booming shot for goal number 4 and an assist on goal number 1. On a night like tonight, that’s gonna get you a star.
2nd Star: Daniel Sedin
Sedins are good at hockey – and they both got on the scoresheet tonight. Daniel got goal number 299 – thankfully we won’t be the named team against when he gets number 300. The Sedins are key assets the Canucks are built around and they earned their keep tonight.
1st Star: Henrik SedinIt’s when you start to curse a player that you know they’re playing really good against your team. Two goals and 82% in the faceoff circle means you played a very very good game. For a team looking to come off a 0-3-2 streak, that kind of performance will certainly get you noticed.
Stud: Matt Calvert Coming off not only an injury but surgery will certainly give anyone some cause to be hesitant but Matt came out and challenged right off the bat. He scored the Jackets’ first goal just 10 seconds in to his first shift and reminded us how electric he can be. It was a shame we didn’t see more of it – but he did rack up a more than respectable 14+ minutes in tonight’s game and we can only hope for continued production from “Matty Hustle”.
Dud: OffenseNot sure if it’s really fair to cite the offense since there really wan’t much of it at all. 16 shots and only 46% of the faceoffs against a team you beat in your earlier match up. We’re 24th in SOG in the league and guys just never seem to be in the right place for a rebound, or aggressively crashing the net – see Vancouver’s last goal – you get two guys in front of the net and good things happen. That kind of stuff is what is going to result in goals – particularly for a gritty team like Columbus and we’re just not doing it. Hate to sound like a broken record but these guys have to figure it out.
Overall, there were a few good signs – though very faint. The team had a lot of guys out of the lineup on both ends of the bench: Wisniewski, Gaborik, Dubinsky and Horton all absent – all things considered, it could have been a lot worse. Also, the 2:10 – 3 goal stretch was brutal, but unlike the Edmonton game, we didn’t see the guys completely pack it in. Who is this team? Who shows up from game to game? Looks like we’re still waiting to find out.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
