As the Jackets looked to pull themselves back to .500 before hitting a stretch of divisional games, it seems that they looked a bit past the Winnipeg Jets, but a nasty combination of injuries and the officials didn't do them many favors.

I have been told, repeatedly, that I have to watch my language when recapping games like this, so I'll do my best to hold to that.

As the Jackets came off the frustrating OT loss to the St. Louis Blues, they hosted another Western Conference team in the Winnipeg Jets, who were themselves trying to get back off the mat after a painful 6-4 loss to the Stars over the weekend.

From the start, the Jackets seemed to be getting outmaneuvered by the Jets, but the real problem was on their own bench. After his first shift of the game, Jackets D-man Dalton Prout left the bench, and the team would announce later in the period that he would not return.

Matt Calvert attempted to get some energy going by engaging with Jacob Trouba, dropping the gloves in a fairly split bout, and just a few minutes later Nick Foligno would fire up the bench and the crowd by demolishing Adam Pardy.

Unfortunately, the good news stopped there in the first period. Not long after the Foligno tilt, Derek MacKenzie would spill awkwardly into the boards behind his own net, and while he did try to take a few more shifts after some repairs in the room, it wasn't long before he, too, had to be shut down for the night. (Jack Skille, in theory, was returning to Springfield tonight. Something tells me his phone started ringing before he got to the airport.)

Despite being heavily outshot, though, the Jackets seemed to weather the storm, and even appeared to have taken a 1-0 lead late in the first period off of a scrum in front of Al Montoya, but referee Tim Peel would wave it off due to incidental contact, which could not be reviewed.

(That said, replays pretty clearly showed that Calvert did not contact Montoya before the puck crossed the line, and was being pushed into the crease by Jacob Trouba.)

After that frustrating turn, the game would go scoreless into the second period, though the Jackets had some strong power play opportunities, they failed to make much at all happen in front of Montoya, and ended up giving a shorthanded break to James Wright. Worse, when Fedor Tyutin tried to hook him down to break up the chance, he'd take a high stick to the face that opened up a nasty gash in his face. (And somehow, despite bleeding like a stuck hog and taking the blow right in front of referee Gord Dwyer, there would be no call.)

Tyutin left for repairs, and would not return until the third period, leaving Columbus down a full d pairing.

That fatigue was really starting to show late in the period, especially after the extended penalty kill, and Winnipeg jumped on the Jackets, forcing Mike McKenna to make several big saves.

Unfortunately, the Jets would find an advantage, though once again the officiating had a major impact on the goal. Working a cycle, Jacob Trouba sent the puck to Michael Frolik at the blue line, and replays showed that the puck left the zone. (Not just my opinion on that, either.) The offside play went uncalled, and Evander Kane would drive the puck down to the net before nailing a pass to Mark Scheifle, who put the puck behind McKenna to open the scoring.

That goal put the Jackets a fair way off balance, and they spent the rest of the period reacting, rather than pushing back, and in honesty, the team was lucky to end the period down just one goal.

As the third period began, Tyutin did return to the lineup, but the Jackets would be put under more pressure when Jacob Trouba went down....shall we say dramatically?...after getting stick checked by Cam Atkinson, and this time Dwyer decided to not only call the penalty, but to call a double minor. Given the lack of a call in the second period on a far worse insult, head coach Todd Richards was unsurprisingly displeased, and made sure the officials were aware, but the penalty stood, and the PK was forced to go on, missing two of their best PKers.

The Jackets had nearly shut down the first penalty, but with just a few seconds left in the first two minutes Dustin Byfuglien opened up a hard shot from the top of the zone that went off Bryan Little's stick, then deflected off David Savard's skate and into the net.

Frustration was growing on the bench and in the stands, but the Jackets would finally get a break when R.J. Umberger was able to break the seal on a wraparound. Ryan Johansen drove the puck out of his own zone, then got Calvert going to break through the offensive zone. Umberger got the puck behind the net, curled around, and tucked it in against the near post for the goal.

The cheering had barely faded, though, when Evander Kane went up ice on a 3 on 1 rush and buried his chance, extending the Winnipeg lead to 3-1.

The Jackets weren't quite done, though, and kept the attack going. Nick Foligno would find a loose puck and take a shot on Montoya that rebounded up towards the left faceoff circle, and Fedor Tyutin pinched in, stepping into his shot and scoring his second goal in two games.

With just under eight minutes left after the goal, the Jackets tried to push their way in, and there was a near-miss moment for Matt Calvert that almost tied the game, but unfortunately the Jets pushed back, and kept the Jackets from creating more chaos around the net, keeping the attackers to the outside and trapping the puck at every opportunity until the clock finally, painfully, ran down.

Final Score: Jets 3 - Jackets 2

Standard Bearers:

• Fedor Tyutin - Hell of a thing to get your face can-openered and come back to score a big goal.
• Ryan Johansen - In addition to keeping his personal points streak going, he was strong in the faceoff circle and had a solid overall game.
• Matt Calvert - Should have been a goal. Nuff said.

Bottom of the Barrel:

• Officiating - Un calice de merde d'une multitude de mules malades.
• Offensive push - The Jackets were in a bad place tonight for a number of reasons, but the fact remains that they managed just 24 shots tonight, and almost half of those came in the second period.
• Injuries - This team keeps losing significant bodies. That's taking a toll.

You have to wonder if the Jackets were guilty of looking past this game to the home and home coming up against the Flyers. It's understandable, particularly with only a handful of games left before the holidays, but if so, it came at a significant price. Even an OT game wouldn't have been so bad, since the "bonus point" wouldn't affect the Eastern conference standings, but unfortunately this is another one that just didn't come together.

Here's hoping the injuries are minor, and that James Wisniewski and Marian Gaborik do return to the lineup this week as predicted. The club, and their fans, could use some good news after the past two games.

Before I forget, here's the advanced stats from the guys at Extra Skater.

Now go home, say nothing, and drink to forget.

After a less than amazing three game home stand, the Winnipeg Jets beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in their first of back to back games to start the week off.

After only picking up one point on a three-game home stand, the Winnipeg Jets headed into Columbus on Monday night with the hopes of picking up some much needed road points against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team that has been decimated by injuries this year.

Coming back from an injury of his own was Evander Kane, who had missed six games with a lower-body injury. Zach Bogosian also participated fully in the Jets' last practice before the game, but Head Coach Claude Noel said he would not take part in the back to back games.

The arrival of Kane was much needed by the jets, who lost Anthony Peluso to a 3-game suspension earlier in the week, while losing Matt Halischuk to a forearm injury that has him out indefinitely. Eric Tangradi was released from the press box as a result, as Eric O`Dell continues to stay in St. John's.

Recap:

The game started out rather scrappy, with the referees content to let the teams play. This resulted in a pair of knuckle-chess bouts, as Jacob Trouba got in his first NHL fight against Matt Calvert, while Adam Pardy squared off with Nick Foligno later in the first frame, which ended scoreless with the Jets outshooting the Jackets 7-5. The Jackets had appeared to earn a lead off the stick of Cam Atkinson, but Tim Peel deemed Matt Calvert had interfered with Jets' netminder Al Montoya on the play, and disallowed the goal. Replay showed otherwise, but referee judgement calls cannot be overturned.

The refs unswallowed their whistles in the second, calling 6-minors in the frame, but all were killed off. The power plays seemed to add some much needed energy to the game, and the shots really picked up. It was the newly configured line of Kane, Michael Frolik and Mark Schiefele that found the scoreboard to open the scoring, when a good forecheck by Frolik ended up with Kane, who found Scheifele going to the net and the kid banged in his 4th of the year. The guy picked before Sean Couturier has 8 points in his last 11 games, and is really showing off what Chevy and Co. must have seen in him when they drafted him 7th overall in 2011.

The third period was pretty shambolic from a defensive standpoint, as the teams traded goals a couple of times. The Jets opened up a 2 goal lead when a bit of plinko happened on the power-play. Dustin Byfuglien took a shot from the point which was deflected by Bryan Little which then took a bounce off of Columbus D-man David Savard before beating Mike McKenna. The PP unit actually has not sucked lately, despite failing the eye-test.

#NHLJets 1/4 so far tonight on the PP. 5/19 over the last 5 games or 26.3%.

— Rick Ralph (@RickRalphTSN) December 17, 2013

R.J. Umberger ended any shutout hopes with a wrap-around that caught a few people napping with just over 11 minutes to go. Less than two-minutes later, the Jackets had a 3-on-1 with only Mark Stuart back. Pretty much the ideal scenario. Instead, they don't get a shot on net, and eventually Stu blocks a shot which goes to Evander Kane. Now with a 3-on-1 of their own, Kane showed off his 30-goal-per-year form with a laser beam over the stick of McKenna and it was 3-1. That margin lasted a minute and four seconds, as Montoya tried to stack the pads on Fedor Tyutin, only to have hi roof the puck over him. The Jets then went into their normal sit back and wait for the final buzzer defensize scheme, and 4 icing calls and a few chances later the horn sounded for a 3-2 road win. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done.

Ten Thoughts:

• Welcome back Evander Kane. The much beleaguered star played on a new line with Schief and Frolo, and it looked pretty good. The unit comibned for 2 goals, 2 assists, 13 shots and was +6. Kane lead the charge with a goal and an assist. He had 6 shots, 18:46 of ice time and managed to hurt himself twice in his first game back.
• Al Montoya plays better when he tries to be Al Montoya and not Dominik Hasek. He's not very good at stacking the pads, but still has a 5-2-1 record with a .920 save percentage this year.
• Jacob Trouba got in his very first NHL fight, after he took exception to the way Matt Calvert was treating Tobias Enstrom. Sure, Calvert dropped the gloves first, but it was more of that nasty side that Jets fans are going to love for years.
• Mark Scheifele lead all Jets forwards with 20:39 worth of ice-time. After some struggles to start the year, he really has been a solid contributor as of late.
• Tim Peel is still a bad ref. The sky is still blue. 'Lumbus fans will be steaming after that disallowed goal in the first. Oh well.
• Injuries continue to be a problem for Columbus. Dalton Prout Derek MacKenzie left the game, joining Segei Bobrovsky, Marian Gaborik, Nathan Horton, James Wisniewski, Jared Boll and Curtis McElhinney as injured players. And folks around Winnipeg were concerned about missing Kane, Bogo, Jim Slater and...well we don't really miss Paul Postma, but we wish him a speedy recovery too.
• The Jets now have a road record of 8-7-1, which isn't terrible. Still, they sit at the bottom of the Central Division well back of wild card playoff positions. If people question why I remain critical of the team even after they win, that's the reason right there.
• As mentioned earlier, Bogo should be back soon, with the Friday game in Winnipeg against Florida being a likely candidate for his return. That shoudl be welcome news to a team that puts Mark Stuart and Adam Pardy out there at they same time. At least Keaton Ellerby can skate. then again, Stu did assist on the game winning goal... #MarkStuart4Mayor
• Point number 9. Evander Kane wears number 9. Maurice Richard wore it, so did Gordie Howe. Gretzky wore 99 as an homage to Howe, because he didn't want to wear the same number as him. Bobby Hull wore 9, so the Coyotes retired his number...yea...anywho...
• The Jets are right back at it tomorrow night against the Buffalo Sabres. I'll tell you, Lenny, I've seen teams suck before. But they're the suckiest bunches of suck who ever sucked. Oh...gotta go. My damn wiener kids are listening.

Boll is expected to miss three-to-four months after undergoing ankle surgery on Monday.

The Columbus Blue Jackets will be without forward Jared Boll for an extended period of time, as the club announced on Tuesday afternoon that the forward will miss three-to-four months while recovering from a torn tendon in his ankle.

Boll was originally placed on injured reserve near the end of November with what the Blue jackets identified as a bruised ankle. Manager Jarmo Kekalainen explained via press release on Tuesday that the team was hopeful that the injury could be healed with rest and rehabilitation.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, via the Blue Jackets:

"Our initial hope was that Jared would be able to return to the lineup with rest and rehabilitation, but it became apparent over the past few days that surgery was the best course of action," said Kekalainen. "We're disappointed for Jared as he has worked very hard and is an important part of our team, but we expect him to make a full recovery and hopefully return to the lineup later this season."

Boll's surgery was performed by Dr. Greg Berlet at OhioHealth's Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Center on Monday. He appeared in 21 games this season and contributed one goal while averaging 7:39 per game.

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The Jackets have been playing much better of late, and will soon get their stars back. Will their return be the boost the team needs to make a run for the postseason?

With just under two weeks remaining in 2013, the Jackets find themselves seventh in the awful Metropolitan Division, yet they are only three points back of the last guaranteed divisional playoff slot. Due to how terrible the Metro has been in comparison to the other divisions, the Jackets can almost forget about a wildcard slot and should be focused on the third and final divisional playoff spot.

The Jackets started off the season slowly, like a team trying to figure out a new coach's system. They were a mess in the defensive zone, and looked disjointed more often than not. Interestingly, when the likes of Marian Gaborik, James Wisniewski, Brandon Dubinsky and Sergei Bobrovksy went down with injuries, that's when the team started to gel. The much-ballyhooed identity that every team tries to forge began to shine through. The team started to look a lot like it did while on its epic run to end last season, and this is all happening without the teams' top-paid players.I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the turnaround also coincided with the return of Matt Calvert, who also missed significant time. He's far from the team's top-paid player, but his energy and nose for the net were sorely missed.

Dubinsky has since come back, and he's brought everything we've come to expect- grit, scoring, and a quick temper. Over the next couple of weeks the team will get top sniper Gaborik back, along with powerplay specialist and defense-scoring leader Wisniewski. With some luck, Bobrovsky should be back in a few weeks as well.

The question becomes, when the stars return will the Jackets continue to play within their system, showing the same effort and energy level, which has led to some success of late? Or will the team revert back to their early-season sloppiness, which looked a hell of a lot like a team waiting for the big guns to carry the load?

I'm thinking we'll see the former. It took some time, but the message is obviously being received.

Gaborik and Wisniewski will help boost the powerplay, which is already pretty good at 11th overall in the league. They'll also help the team score more five-on-five, which would be welcome as the Jackets are currently 17th in the league in goals per game.

A healthy Bobrovsky in a tighter system with fewer shots-against would be the biggest boon, as the Jackets are sitting 19th in goals-against.

Recap / Forecast:

• The team is playing tighter as a whole, showing more energy and cohesiveness. The system is in place.
  
• In short order, Gaborik and Wisniewski will return, which will help the offense substantially.
  
• Also in short order, Bobrovsky will return, and given the better defensive play in front of him, this should help the team defense.
  
• Have I mentioned that Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno are in the midst of career years? I didn't? Ok, well these two guys are having terrific seasons, and in the case of Johansen, he's breaking out in a big, big way.
• Over the past few games, Cam Atkinson and Artem Anisimov- the core of the secondary scoring-have been heating up. Atkinson has been a point-per-game scorer over the last six games, while Anisimov has goals in two of his last three games, and has been far more noticeable in the offensive zone.
• The team has received, and will continue to receive, gritty efforts from the likes of Calvert, Boone Jenner, Corey Tropp, Blake Comeau and Derek MacKenzie.
• Heck, even R.J. Umberger has looked good of late, creating chances and opening up space for Johansen.
  
• Oh yeah, and Nathan Horton is back soon too.

What this boils down to in my mind is that when the big guns return, with the players finally playing like a team, and with the debut of Horton, the Jackets will make their move for a playoff spot. Their slow start has luckily been offset by the lack of success seen by their division mates not named the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The push has already started, albeit slowly. Over the next few weeks, if future injuries can be avoided, the push can turn into a full-on drive for the postseason, led by the team's stars, role players and commitment to the coach's game plan.

We've been starved as a fanbase for playoff hockey, let's get back there in 2014.

The Jackets kick off yet another division rivalry with the Flyers that has a bit too much familiarity.

Columbus Blue Jackets at Philadelphia Flyers

December 19, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
Wells Fargo Center - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Broad Street Hockey
SBN's Blue Jackets vs Flyers coverage

Alrighty, then. After a couple of days off, the Jackets are looking to bounce back after a, how you say, less than fulfilling game against Winnipeg on Monday, and are kicking off a stretch of five straight division games, including two straight against Philly. Conversely, the Flyers are riding high after smoking Washington the other night. But, that's not what we're here to talk about, are we?

It's goalie night!

Well, at least half of it, anyway. Sergei Bobrovsky misses his first chance to stick it to the Flyers, still out nursing his groin. That said, on the other bench there's a guy we know all too well...

Steve Mason.

At first glance, the change of scenery appears to have done him good, as he's sporting a 12-9-4 record in 26 games (25 starts), with a 2.34 gaa and .924 save%. Before you get all huffy, remember, it's only been 25 games. The East hasn't seen a lot of him yet, and I think it's important to note that as Philly gets closer and closer to a playoff spot, the pressure and expectations start to ramp up. And, we all know how that tends to go for Mason.

For the record, in December, Mason has seven games played (six starts), and is toting around a 3.09 gaa and a .894 save%. He's been pulled once, and has given up four goals three times in those six starts. That said, he's 3-1-2 over that span, which speaks to the team in front of him getting it together a bit.

After starting out 1-7-0, the Flyers have actually been getting solid results even if their numbers don't jump off the page. They've gone 13-7-5 since that start, and have jumped up into fourth place in the Metro. That's what makes these two games against them so important: only two points separate the two clubs.

For the Jackets, the injury bug bit again on Monday, with Dalton Prout heading to IR with an ankle injury. We also found out that Jared Boll is gone for basically the balance of the season. James Wisniewski and Marian Gaborik had hoped to play tonight, but neither will; both are hoping to go on Saturday against these same Flyers in Columbus. Derek MacKenzie is out tonight in favor of Jack Skille, and Tim Erixon finally gets another chance to play. Some good injury news: Curtis McElhinney made it through practice this week, and should be good to go tonight in net for the Jackets. Will all respect to Mike McKenna, the longer he was in there, the less confidence I was having in his ability to hold up.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(14-16-4, 32 Points; 7th division, 13th conference)

Philadelphia Flyers
(15-15-4, 34 Points; 4th division, 9th conference)

Season Series

12/19/13 - Columbus at Philadelphia
12/21/13 - Philadelphia at Columbus
01/23/14 - Philadelphia at Columbus
04/03/14 - Columbus at Philadelphia

Head to Head Stats

Philadelphia		Columbus
2.35 (23)	GPG	2.53 (16)
2.65 (14)	GAPG	2.76 (19)
17.8% (16)	PP%	19.1% (11)
82.9% (12)	PK%	81.1% (19)
Matt Read, 10	G leader	Ryan Johansen, 12
Claude Giroux, 19	A leader	James Wisniewski, 16
Claude Giroux, 26	Pts leader	Ryan Johansen, 27
Zac Rinaldo, 88	PIM leader	Brandon Dubinsky, 66
9-7-0	Home/Road	6-8-2
12/17 vs. Washington, W 5-2	Last Game	12/16 vs. Winnipeg, L 3-2
5-3-2	Last 10	5-4-1

The Jackets kick off yet another division rivalry with the Flyers that has a bit too much familiarity.

Columbus Blue Jackets at Philadelphia Flyers

December 19, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
Wells Fargo Center - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Broad Street Hockey
SBN's Blue Jackets vs Flyers coverage

Alrighty, then. After a couple of days off, the Jackets are looking to bounce back after a, how you say, less than fulfilling game against Winnipeg on Monday, and are kicking off a stretch of five straight division games, including two straight against Philly. Conversely, the Flyers are riding high after smoking Washington the other night. But, that's not what we're here to talk about, are we?

It's goalie night!

Well, at least half of it, anyway. Sergei Bobrovsky misses his first chance to stick it to the Flyers, still out nursing his groin. That said, on the other bench there's a guy we know all too well...

Steve Mason.

At first glance, the change of scenery appears to have done him good, as he's sporting a 12-9-4 record in 26 games (25 starts), with a 2.34 gaa and .924 save%. Before you get all huffy, remember, it's only been 25 games. The East hasn't seen a lot of him yet, and I think it's important to note that as Philly gets closer and closer to a playoff spot, the pressure and expectations start to ramp up. And, we all know how that tends to go for Mason.

For the record, in December, Mason has seven games played (six starts), and is toting around a 3.09 gaa and a .894 save%. He's been pulled once, and has given up four goals three times in those six starts. That said, he's 3-1-2 over that span, which speaks to the team in front of him getting it together a bit.

After starting out 1-7-0, the Flyers have actually been getting solid results even if their numbers don't jump off the page. They've gone 13-7-5 since that start, and have jumped up into fourth place in the Metro. That's what makes these two games against them so important: only two points separate the two clubs.

For the Jackets, the injury bug bit again on Monday, with Dalton Prout heading to IR with an ankle injury. We also found out that Jared Boll is gone for basically the balance of the season. James Wisniewski and Marian Gaborik had hoped to play tonight, but neither will; both are hoping to go on Saturday against these same Flyers in Columbus. Derek MacKenzie is out tonight in favor of Jack Skille, and Tim Erixon finally gets another chance to play. Some good injury news: Curtis McElhinney made it through practice this week, and should be good to go tonight in net for the Jackets. Will all respect to Mike McKenna, the longer he was in there, the less confidence I was having in his ability to hold up.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(14-16-4, 32 Points; 7th division, 13th conference)

Philadelphia Flyers
(15-15-4, 34 Points; 4th division, 9th conference)

Season Series

12/19/13 - Columbus at Philadelphia
12/21/13 - Philadelphia at Columbus
01/23/14 - Philadelphia at Columbus
04/03/14 - Columbus at Philadelphia

Head to Head Stats

Philadelphia		Columbus
2.35 (23)	GPG	2.53 (16)
2.65 (14)	GAPG	2.76 (19)
17.8% (16)	PP%	19.1% (11)
82.9% (12)	PK%	81.1% (19)
Matt Read, 10	G leader	Ryan Johansen, 12
Claude Giroux, 19	A leader	James Wisniewski, 16
Claude Giroux, 26	Pts leader	Ryan Johansen, 27
Zac Rinaldo, 88	PIM leader	Brandon Dubinsky, 66
9-7-0	Home/Road	6-8-2
12/17 vs. Washington, W 5-2	Last Game	12/16 vs. Winnipeg, L 3-2
5-3-2	Last 10	5-4-1

The Flyers and Blue Jackets have made a bunch of fairly meaningful trades in the past couple years that have helped shape the long-term outlook for each franchise. Tonight we'll see them play each other for the first time in two-plus years.

Over the past two and a half years, the two teams that will face each other tonight in the Wells Fargo Center have become about as familiar and intertwined with each other as two teams that only actually played against each other once in that time frame possibly can. The Blue Jackets have been the Flyers' most frequent trade partner over the past few years, and we've seen the storylines from those trades develop in quite a few different directions.

As fate would have it, tonight only one side will really be showcasing the products of its trades in the past few seasons. Lucky for us, our side will have that privilege.

Columbus Blue Jackets (14-16-4, 32 pts) at Philadelphia Flyers(15-15-4, 34 pts)
7 p.m. | Wells Fargo Center | South Philadelphia
TV:CSN Philly, FS Ohio | Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Get the Columbus perspective at The Cannon

Yes, the matchup that was more or less pegged in the offseason when the schedule came out as "Sergei Bobrovsky returns to Philadelphia and laughs at Steve Mason and the Flyers" has been shelved, for a couple of reasons. Not just because Mason's mostly been good this year, but sadly also because our old friend Bob -- the reigning Vezina Trophy winner who's had a slightly less impressive time in his second season with the Jackets -- has been recovering from a groin injury in December. 'Tis a shame.

But in seriousness, with Bob on the shelf, it's no secret that the big storyline for tonight will be Steve Mason and his .924 save percentage facing off -- for the first time -- against the franchise that drafted him, brought him up to the NHL, saw him succeed for a year, gave him a chance to be the #1 guy, saw him fail spectacularly for a while, gave up on him, traded for his replacement, saw his replacement flourish, and exiled him to Philadelphia, where he's now trying to get things back together. (Did I miss anything in there?)

It's a big game for Mason, who's in the midst of his first real stretch of struggles (stretching over his last five starts) as a Flyers goalie. He played a decent game on Tuesday night against the Capitals, letting in one bad goal early but making a few nice saves as the game went on. Despite his struggles in December, he's largely been a good goalie and the Flyers' best player since they acquired him last April. You figure he wants to show that to his old team that it isn't a fluke and that he's still got it (as you can imagine, they're skeptical about that), so it's a big test in what is (for him, at least) a high-profile game.

That said, Mason having a good game won't be easy. The Jackets, against all odds with the injuries they have (they're still waiting for prized free agent acquisition Nathan Horton to make his season debut), have been lighting the lamp a fair bit of late. They've scored four or more goals in four of their seven December games after a rough start to the season offensively.

Mason's got to make the stops on his old teammates, but the Flyers will have to do their job as a whole to keep things from getting to him. Hopefully they're up to it -- with the exception of ten minutes or so in D.C. on Sunday afternoon, the Flyers' defense has done a pretty good job in its past few games. Continuing that against a relatively hot offensive team would be nice.

And meanwhile, the Flyers have also been getting offensive help lately, too. Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek (another former Blue Jacket who's come into his own since the last time these two teams met) have looked more like their selves of recent years in the past few games, especially since Michael Raffl was moved up to their line. The third line, led by Matt Read and Sean Couturier (who was technically not ever a Blue Jacket, but we got him with their pick from the Jeff Carter trade, so he kinda counts, right?), has scored in two straight games while winning the territorial battle as it often does.

Even the second line, with recently-injured Brayden Schenn, has been looking alright and had a very good game on Tuesday before Schenn got violently pasted into a wall by Tom Wilson. Things have been looking better up front lately, and it's on them to keep that up against a team with a pretty respectable defense group that's also been getting pretty good goaltending lately from Bobrovsky's reinforcements.

No guesses at the lineup just yet because we don't quite know what Schenn's status is (ignoring the fact that the possibility that he might play in this game, while allegedly not even being tested for a concussion on Tuesday night, is beyond ridiculous). The lines might get a bit messy if he's out.

The aforementioned Steve Mason and Curtis McElhinney will be your starters in net. Game thread up around 5. Go Flyers.

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In a game that featured odd bounces and inexplicable reversals of fortune, the Blue Jackets snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a 5-4 loss that left everyone scratching their heads.

It did not quite have the panache of the recent return to New York City for Brandon Dubinsky& Company.   This was, after all, Philadelphia, not The Big Apple, and the numbers of former players from each squad were not close.  Still, the intrigue was present, with a resurgent Steve Mason in goal for the Flyers and Jake Voracek prowling the offensive zone.  Unfortunately, Sergei Bobrovsky was missing for this one, but R.J. Umberger was returning to his former venue.  Add the drama of discovering who was healthy enough to play for Columbus and the tight competition in the Metro playoff race between the two clubs, and the ingredients for an entertaining affair were clearly there.

Sometimes Ugly Works

Some of the personnel drama was appeased early, with the return of Curtis McElhinney between the pipes.  Dubinsky remained paired with Matt Calvert&Cam Atkinson, and  Ryan Johansen came out first with Boone Jenner and R.J. Umberger, but shortly settled back with Nick Foligno.  WIth Dalton Prout down, Tim Erixon finally got a chance, paired with Nikita Nikitin.

Early play was sloppy for the Blue Jackets, particularly in their own end.  Repeated turnovers and some bad rebounds gave the Flyers tons of possession time in the offensive zone, and a few choice opportunities.  Shots were 7 - 1 Philadelphia by the time the Flyers got the first power play of the night at the 9:14 mark (holding by Dubinksy), and the Flyers added three more during that extra man session, including a near miss that trickled through McElhinney's pads, but was rescued just shy of the line.  Columbus was truly fortunate to be in a scoreless tie.

A bizarre twist came at the 12:05 mark , when the entire arena thought a penalty was coming to Zac Rinaldo for a hit to the head of R.J. Umberger.  The referee's hand dutifully went in the air, Philadelphia took possession, and  . .  .nothing.  The Flyers came up the ice, believing that they had the power play, Mason left the crease and everyone was stunned.  When the Blue Jackets touched up, the officials huddled and realized the folly of their ways.  The Blue Jackets had the extra man, setting the stage for another bizarre sequence of events.

The power play was largely impotent from the outset, unable to maintain any pressure or consistent possession  WIth 45 seconds left in the extra man situation, Nikitin made an awful turnover in the neutral zone, and grabbed the Flyer in order to prevent an odd man rush the other way.  45 seconds of 4-on-4, then another 1:15 of power play for the Flyers.

The penalty kill did it's job -- keeping the Flyers to the perimeter and challenging the play at the blue line.  With just under ten seconds left in the extra man situation, Ryan Murray and Cam Atkinson forced the play at the left point of the defensive zone.  The puck bounced over the Flyer's stick, onto Atkinson's, who led a 2-on-1 break down the ice, with R.J. Umberger coming down the right side.  Atkinson looked at Umberger, Braydon Coburn properly played the passing lane, and Atkinson properly zipped a laser through Mason's five hole for a short handed beauty.  1- 0 Columbus with 4:44 left in the period, and 4 seconds left in the power play. Murray earned the assist on the play.  The Flyers -- players and fans -- were visibly and audibly upset, as they rightfully felt that they had dominated the contest up to that point.

The Blue Jackets surrendered yet another penalty with 2:42 left, when Tim Erixon was whistled for holding.  Again, the penalty kill was outstanding, and McElhinney -- looking far more comfortable -- made a series of very nice saves.

At the end of one, the Blue Jackets trailed the Flyers in shots, 14-4 (with 2 of the Columbus shots shorthanded), and had to be thanking the Hockey Gods for their good fortune in holding a lead.  Thanks to the PK unit, the efforts of McElhinney in crease, and a solid edge in the face-off circle, Columbus survived the first. -- could they find the rest of their game during the break?

Odd, but Beautiful

The second period started in much improved fashion for Columbus.  They created more pressure, and placed five of the first seven shots on goal.  Although the Flyers were able to maintain some time of possession, most of that was spent in scrums along the boards, and posed no real danger.

Then came the ultimate deja vu experience.  With 4:44 gone in the period, Jack Skille gathered the puck at the right point of the defensive zone, and began an odd-man rush at even strength, with Boone Jenner his wing man on the left.  Coburn was again the lone defensman.  Again, Coburn played the pass.  This time, it was Skille firing the laser, beating Mason for a 2 - 0 lead.  Yes, it was high glove.  Letestu and Nikitin garnered the assists.

Columbus continued the pressure offensive game, and held an 11 - 5 edge in shots for the period by the halfway mark.  Unfortunately, the injury bug appeared to bite them again, as Jack Skille blocked a shot off the right glove, and was in obvious difficulty, as they say.  He scurried off to the locker room and the Flyers'  X-Ray facility.  While the results were there, there was still some suspect play in the defensive zone.  Interviewed during the period, assistant coach Dan Hinote noted that the play was "hazy" their own zone, and they were playing with fire.

Fire or not, the Blue Jackets nearly extended the lead to 3 - 0 near the 13:00 minute mark.  Nick Foligno led another odd man rush with Umberger, floated a nice saucer pass onto Umberger's tape, but R.J. put it wide.   The Flyers then had a flurry of their own in the offensive zone, but McElhinney was up to the task.

The Blue Jackets went back to the power play with 4:04 left in the period (what is it with this "4" thing?)  This was a much better session with the extra man, keeping possession in the Flyers' zone for the full first minute, and generating some solid chances, if no goals.  It was an exhausted bunch of Philadephia penalty killers that left the ice at the end of that one.

The Flyers seemed willing to coast through the final two minutes, but Columbus was having none of it.  Dubinsky was on the ice with Foligno and Johansen, and kept the play alive in the zone.  Jack Johnson, who had pinched on the play. gathered the puck below the goal, and fed it to Foligno in the slot, who let the puck go immediately.  Mason got a big piece of it, but it trickled across the line with just nine seconds left in the period -- one of those "end-of-period" killers that so frequently victimize the Blue Jackets.

The "hazy" play in the defensive zone aside, this was a truly solid period for the Blue Jackets, who found their speed and pressure, and dictated the pace.  They avoided the penalty box The gentle, friendly Philadelphia fans were booing vociferously as the teams left the ice -- which was music to Blue Jackets' ears.

Really Odd . . . and Unspeakably Ugly

Remember that "hazy" play that Hinote referenced?  That looseness in the Blue Jackets' own zone to which I alluded?  Well, that came back to roost in the third, with a vengeance, resulting in one of the more infamous collapses in recent memory.  Think Mr. Hyde on steroids.

Ominous signs were there from the face-off opening the third.  The Blue Jackets were spectators once again, moving their eyes instead of their skates.  McElhinney somehow lost his swagger in the locker room, and looked shaky from the outset.   By the time Jake Voracek got the Flyers on the board with a wrister from the high slot just 4:20 into the final stanza, the shots stood 5-1 Philadelphia.

Just 1:02 later, Braydon Coburn extracted revenge for being the lone blue liner on the two Columbus odd-man goals. He retrieved the puck at the right point, after both Mark Letestu and Corey Tropp failed to secure the puck along the half wall.  Coburn skated the puck along the blue line, with Tropp close at hand, and let a harmless little wrister go toward the net.  Except that it wasn't so harmless.  The puck bounced on the ice, about six feet in front of McElhinney, positioned at the top of the crease.  The puck took a bit of a crazy bounce back to the stick side, and past the bewildered netminder.  While it certainly was an odd bounce, McElhinney appeared to nonchalant the play, unnecessarily going down in place instead of moving to the puck.  It was a bad goal, and brought the Flyers back to life.

At this point, Artem Anisimov had seen enough.  Although not rewarded with goals as frequently as he would like this season, he has been doing a lot of good things away from the puck in all three zones, and this was just another example.  Anisimov took the puck in the neutral zone, crossed the blue line with speed, and got the puck deep.  On night of weird bounces, one actually went the Blue Jackets'  way, when the puck caromed hard near the half-wall on the right, with Scott Hartnell thinking that the puck had gone out of play into the netting. He let up, but there was no call.  In the meantime, Anisimov hustled below the line to retrieve the puck, put a swift pass on the stick of Comeau, who deposited it past Mason with equal speed for his third goal of the season.  Seemingly, the momentum had turned, with the margin doubled and just over half a period of hockey left.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hyde had other ideas.  The Columbus lethargy returned, and  delayed penalty to the Blue Jackets gave Philadelphia an extra attacker. When Foligno and Umberger both got caught heading the wrong direction on the forecheck, the Flyers had numbers entering the zone.   Claude Giroux made a nifty move around Ryan Johansen, then let a wrist shot fly.  The shot  bounced off Wayne Simmonds, landing directly on the stick of Erik Gustafsson, who easily netted the goal, narrowing the lead to one.

The remaining lead would last less than a minute.  Voracek took the puck into the offensive zone at the right point, then cut to the center.  He sent another off-speed pitch toward the goal, which McElhinney dutifully watched as it skittered off a leg and off  the left goal post, where Claude GIroux obligingly finished the job.  Tie game.  Another strange bounce, to be sure, but McElhinney was again caught rooted in position at the top of the crease, and seemed either unwilling or unable to make the necessary lateral move to impact the play.

The final ignominy came a scant 2:08 later, when Giroux took the puck near the goal line to McElhinney's left.  David Savard was in full contact with Giroux, and was in the process of riding the Flyer into the ice.  Before he reached the ice, however, Giroux let loose a Hail Mary backhand, with his back to the goal and the rest of the players, which amazingly and improbably beat McElhinney high to the short side.  5 - 4, and while the stunned Blue Jackets manged a couple of decent chances with the net empty, there was no coming back from this one.

Lessons Learned

This one was a microcosm of the entire season to date, with the quality of the Blue Jackets' play ranging from sublime to ridiculous, all within a 60 minute span.  While the 7 - 0 loss in Edmonton was humiliating, it was simply an overall bad outing  -- with no redeeming features.  The fact that the Blue Jackets played some of their best hockey in the second - - - and their worst hockey in the third -- made this one tough to take.  While the shaky play in the defensive end was a constant across the three periods, the Columbus contingent had the game solidly in control at the second intermission.  Except that they didn't.

Make no mistake, this was an abject failure in the defensive zone, from the crease out.  McElhinney's play did an abrupt about face from the first two periods, when he plugged the defensive holes.  He simply seemed detached and passive for the entire third period -- at a time when the club could least afford it.  They guys in front of him were no help, allowing Philadelphia ridiculously easy entries, making bad decisions on angles and passes, and overall looking like a club that was mailing it in.  Columbus was out-shot 16-7 in the final period, and two of those shots came after the deciding goal was scored.  Only the Comeau, Anisimov, Jenner line showed any spark in the third.

This was not a physical collapse, it was a mental one, and that is concerning.  With five games against division opponents at hand, Columbus has a great chance to reach the mid-point of the season at or above the .500 mark, and even after this nightmare, the club is just 4 points out of a playoff slot.  While youth is undoubtedly a part of it, this kind of retreat is hard to fathom.  Rumbles about leadership were once again heard in the locker room, and you have to wonder whether that captain decision needs to come sooner than later.

Fortunately, the Blue Jackets get a return match at home on Sunday, though reports suggest that Mason will not be in goal.  Regardless,  this next game will be a test more of the club's internal resolve than external skills.  They desperately need to pas that test.

The Jackets get two key players back in an effort to try to actually play 60 minutes against the Flyers and/or not give up five goals in a period.

Philadelphia Flyers at Columbus Blue Jackets

December 21, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
Nationwide Arena - Columbus, Ohio
Radio - WWCD 102.5 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Broad Street Hockey
SBN's Flyers vs Blue Jackets coverage
Tickets

Well, that sucked. First and foremost, our apologies for the site issues we experienced Thursday night and all through Friday. All of SBNation was affected, and the tech folks worked literally without sleep for the greater part of 36 hours to fix it. We know the timing was pretty unfortunate (it seemed the network crapped out right when the Jackets were doing the same), and we appreciate your patience as the team behind the scenes worked to fix it.

Now, on to tonight's game. I'm not going to touch on Thursday much, because let's face it: the sooner we can get past that, the better. The teams go again tonight, and the Jackets get a hopeful boost in the return to action of both James Wisniewski and Marian Gaborik. The latter prompts some pretty sweeping lineup changes, and at first glance I don't like really any of the lines. But, that's why I sit and brood watching my team crap out on TV and the coaches get paid to actually coach the team.

The other story line is a bit unfulfilling: barring an injury or a complete implosion by Ray Emery, Steve Mason is going to duck the Columbus crowd tonight. That's one of the biggest disappointments from Thursday. Mason played pretty damn awfully, and still managed to get the win because the ENTIRE Jackets roster played even worse in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Suffice it to say, I expect/hope/pray to see a fired up Jackets team that skates hard and plays a physical, physical game. I suspect if they manage to build a lead tonight, we won't see them try to simply hold off the Flyers. If we do, well, there are some bigger issues that will need to be dealt with. Let's hope.

Finally, let's put a f**king body on Claude Giroux.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(14-17-4, 32 Points; 7th division, 14th conference)

Philadelphia Flyers
(16-15-4, 36 Points; 3rd division, 8th conference)

Season Series

12/19/13 - Columbus 4 at Philadelphia 5
12/21/13 - Philadelphia at Columbus
01/23/14 - Philadelphia at Columbus
04/03/14 - Columbus at Philadelphia

Head to Head Stats

Philadelphia		Columbus
2.43 (22)	GPG	2.57 (16)
2.69 (15)	GAPG	2.83 (21)
17.3% (18)	PP%	18.8% (12)
83.1% (13)	PK%	81.7% (16)
Matt Read, 10	G leader	Ryan Johansen, 12
Claude Giroux, 21	A leader	Brandon Dubinsky / James Wisniewski, 16
Claude Giroux, 30	Pts leader	Ryan Johansen, 27
Zac Rinaldo, 90	PIM leader	Brandon Dubinsky, 68
6-8-4	Road/Home	8-8-2
12/19 vs. Columbus, W 5-4	Last Game	12/19 @ Philadelphia, L 5-4
5-3-2	Last 10	5-4-1

The Jackets get two key players back in an effort to try to actually play 60 minutes against the Flyers and/or not give up five goals in a period.

Philadelphia Flyers at Columbus Blue Jackets

December 21, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
Nationwide Arena - Columbus, Ohio
Radio - WWCD 102.5 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Broad Street Hockey
SBN's Flyers vs Blue Jackets coverage
Tickets

Well, that sucked. First and foremost, our apologies for the site issues we experienced Thursday night and all through Friday. All of SBNation was affected, and the tech folks worked literally without sleep for the greater part of 36 hours to fix it. We know the timing was pretty unfortunate (it seemed the network crapped out right when the Jackets were doing the same), and we appreciate your patience as the team behind the scenes worked to fix it.

Now, on to tonight's game. I'm not going to touch on Thursday much, because let's face it: the sooner we can get past that, the better. The teams go again tonight, and the Jackets get a hopeful boost in the return to action of both James Wisniewski and Marian Gaborik. The latter prompts some pretty sweeping lineup changes, and at first glance I don't like really any of the lines. But, that's why I sit and brood watching my team crap out on TV and the coaches get paid to actually coach the team.

The other story line is a bit unfulfilling: barring an injury or a complete implosion by Ray Emery, Steve Mason is going to duck the Columbus crowd tonight. That's one of the biggest disappointments from Thursday. Mason played pretty damn awfully, and still managed to get the win because the ENTIRE Jackets roster played even worse in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Suffice it to say, I expect/hope/pray to see a fired up Jackets team that skates hard and plays a physical, physical game. I suspect if they manage to build a lead tonight, we won't see them try to simply hold off the Flyers. If we do, well, there are some bigger issues that will need to be dealt with. Let's hope.

Finally, let's put a f**king body on Claude Giroux.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(14-17-4, 32 Points; 7th division, 14th conference)

Philadelphia Flyers
(16-15-4, 36 Points; 3rd division, 8th conference)

Season Series

12/19/13 - Columbus 4 at Philadelphia 5
12/21/13 - Philadelphia at Columbus
01/23/14 - Philadelphia at Columbus
04/03/14 - Columbus at Philadelphia

Head to Head Stats

Philadelphia		Columbus
2.43 (22)	GPG	2.57 (16)
2.69 (15)	GAPG	2.83 (21)
17.3% (18)	PP%	18.8% (12)
83.1% (13)	PK%	81.7% (16)
Matt Read, 10	G leader	Ryan Johansen, 12
Claude Giroux, 21	A leader	Brandon Dubinsky / James Wisniewski, 16
Claude Giroux, 30	Pts leader	Ryan Johansen, 27
Zac Rinaldo, 90	PIM leader	Brandon Dubinsky, 68
6-8-4	Road/Home	8-8-2
12/19 vs. Columbus, W 5-4	Last Game	12/19 @ Philadelphia, L 5-4
5-3-2	Last 10	5-4-1

Gaborik's return from injured reserve ended terribly, and now Columbus could be without him for another extended period of time.

Less than a period into his return from injured reserve on Saturday, Columbus Blue Jackets winger Marian Gaboriksuffered a broken collarbone and will be out indefinitely.

Gaborik was injured in the first period on Columbus' first scoring play. Gaborik skated into the zone and passed the puck away before getting sandwiched between Zac Rinaldo and Brayden Coburn.

Gaborik left the game and didn't return. This is tough news for Gaborik, who was participating in his first game since missing the last 17 games with a knee sprain. The Blue Jackets have struggled without their top scorer and now will play most of the rest of the regular season without him.

More from SB Nation NHL:

• The Rink of Dreams: One Mich. family created an outdoor hockey paradise

• Here are the Rangers outdoor game jerseys

• Nice dive, Ville Leino

• Avoiding a Shanaban: Both sides of the Tom Wilson hit

It took 37 games into the season, but tonight the Carolina Hurricanes finally face new Metro Division rival Columbus Blue Jackets.

Carolina Hurricanes vs Columbus Blue Jackets
December 23, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
PNC Arena - Raleigh, NC
TV - Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio - 99.9 The Fan

SB Nation Rival Blog: The Cannon (@cbjcannon)

Hurricanes Record: 14-14-8 (36 pts.)
Blue Jackets Record: 15-17-4 (34 pts.)

The Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets finally get a chance tonight to begin a Metro Division rivalry. The teams will meet five times this season; three times at PNC and twice in Columbus. The Canes are coming into tonight's game off a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. The Blue Jackets picked up two important points with a 6-3 home win against divisional opponent Philadelphia Flyers, also on Saturday.

The Canes and Jackets met twice in the preseason: the first a 5-4 loss in Raleigh (featuring the famous "jersey tuck" incident), and the second a 2-1 Canes win in Columbus (featuring close to an opening night roster). As far as regular seasons go, the Canes haven't beaten Columbus since 2005, the Blue Jackets have won the last five straight, the most recent an R.J. Umberger hat trick in Columbus for a 5-1 win on March 23, 2012.

Both teams are middling in the Metro Division, outside a playoff spot, but only three points separate New Jersey in third from Columbus in seventh, so division wins, especially in regulation, are critical for both teams at this juncture.

The Blue Jackets have suffered severely on the injury front this year. Off-season acquisition Nathan Horton has yet to suit up for the Jackets after shoulder surgery, but is traveling with the team to assimilate into the group. 2013 Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky remains on IR recovering from a groin strain, as does Jared Boll, who is recovering from a torn ankle tendon. The hapless Marion Gaborik just returned Saturday from a 17-game absence due to a knee sprain, only to suffer a broken collarbone which puts him back out of the lineup indefinitely. Matt Calvert also left Saturday's game with an upper body injury and did not travel to Raleigh.

A few positive rosters changes as James Wisniewski returned Saturday after missing six games with an upper body injury, and Derek MacKenzie and Jack Skille will return tonight.

Ryan Johansen leads the Jackets with 29 points (14g, 15a), followed by Brandon Dubinsky with 22 points (6g, 16a). Johansen has 16 points in his last 13 games. Umberger is on a hot streak with three goals in his last 3 games.

Curtis McElhinney will make his third consecutive start in net; he is 0-for-2 career against the Canes.

Projected line-up from Jackets official web site (note, does not reflect Calvert out and MacKenzie in):

Nick Foligno - Ryan Johansen - RJ Umberger
Matt Calvert - Brandon Dubinsky - Blake Comeau
Boone Jenner - Artem Anisimov - Cam Atkinson
Jack Skille - Mark Letestu - Corey Trapp

Fedor Tyutin - Jack Johnson
Ryan Murray - James Wisniewski
Nikita Nikitin - Dalton Prout
David Savard

Curtis McElhinney
Mike McKenna

The Canes didn't practice Sunday after arriving home from Tampa, and they won't skate today either, although Kirk Muller will hold a media scrum around 11:00 am.

Jay Harrison left the game early Saturday after suffering an upper body injury, his status for tonight is unknown. With Ryan Murphy and Mike Komisarek sitting out as healthy extras, perhaps at least one will be back in the lineup tonight.

Although the ultimate outcome was a loss, with his 47-save performance Saturday night, many of the highlight reel variety, it's likely Justin Peters will get the start in net again tonight. Peters has never faced Columbus; Cam Ward is 0-for-4.

Projected lines based on Saturday's game:

Jeff Skinner - Eric Staal - Tuomo Ruutu
Nathan Gerbe - Jordan Staal - Alexander Semin
Jiri Tlusty - Riley Nash - Patrick Dwyer
Drayson Bowman - Manny Malhotra - Radek Dvorak/Kevin Westgarth

Andrej Sekera - Justin Faulk
Ron Hainsey - Brett Bellemore
Jay Harrison - Tim Gleason
Mike Komisarek - Ryan Murphy

Justin Peters
Cam Ward

For those watching the broadcast, Fox Sports Carolinas will be rocking the Phantom Cam tomorrow night. We'll have the open game thread ready to roll at 6:30 pm. See you at the rink.

Visualizing the Stars Forward/Defenseman pairings using Corsi.

A few days ago, Tim Bonnar from the excellent Winnipeg Jets' blog, and fellow member of the SBNation family of hockey blogs, Arctic Ice Hockey, wrote a post about why he thought the Jets were doing as poorly as they were.

Tyler Dellow at mc79hockey picked up on it, as well as a few other bloggers including Canucks' blogger Cam Charron and Blue Jackets' blogger Nick Bliss. If you've followed Dellow's Twitter account much in the past few days, you may have noticed him posting datagrids with the hashtag of #corsivis, or some variation thereof.

Dellow dabbled on this topic during the summer and came to the following conclusion:

I fooled around with something a little bit this summer that I didn’t end up publishing. If we assume that the coach uses his best players the most, we would expect that the Corsi% for when the most heavily used defenceman and the most heavily used forward are on the ice to be the highest on the team, barring something really unusual – a defenceman who plays exclusively in the defensive zone or something.

I decided since I already track multiple advanced statistics based on opponent's lines, I could create a datagrid for the Stars to test Tim Bonnar's and Tyler Dellow's theory.

To weed sample sample sets of data, Dellow set a minimum of 10 games played and 60 minutes on the ice, together.

For that reason, you won't find Dustin Jeffrey, Lane Macdermid, or Chris Mueller on this chart for the forwards. Likewise, Jamie Oleksiak and Kevin Connauton are omitted amongst

Then the list is ordered by whomever had the highest TOI/60. For the purpose of this exercise, I chose to order by Extra Skater's TOI/60 for the Stars.

And since the chart contains exactly 12 forwards and 6 defensemen, I've divided the chart into a four equal quadrants to test the theory that the forwards and defensemen with the heaviest 5on5 minutes will have the highest Corsi For % on the team.

The result?

As you can see, the chart plays out the way you'd think it would. The upper left hand quadrant with the highest TOI/60 for both forwards and defensemen has 12 out of the 18 cells colored in green with the Whitney/Goligoski pairing at exactly 50%. In addition, the top three forwards in TOI/60 all have above 50% Corsi For percentages when paired with the top three defensemen in TOI/60.

From that standpoint, it proves Dellow's hypothesis correct.

What's somewhat surprising is the lower right hand quadrant has 8 cells colored in green, 9 in red, and one at exactly 50% (the Chiasson/Jordie Benn pairing).

Other notable observations:

• Erik Cole is the only forward with a Corsi For percentage under 50% when paired with every defenseman on this list. A few days ago, Shawn Horcoff joined him in this inauspicious territory. As you can see, he's up to 50% with Dillon, Goligoski, and Robidas on the ice.
  
• Alex Chiasson has similar CF% numbers, but is above 50% when Trevor Daley and Alex Chiasson have been on the ice.
• Ryan Garbutt is one half of the pairing with the highest CF% with a 0.5778 mark when paired with Sergei Gonchar.
• He's also one half of the pairing with the lowest CF%. With Brenden Dillon, he has a 0.4439 mark.
• The quadrant with the most red cells is the lower left hand quadrant (high TOI/60 for defensemen and low TOI/60 for forwards). That checks in with 11 red cells and just 3 green cells).

Having just started tracking this, I can only assume the first part of the season would not have only seen some reds, but some ugly numbers to go along with the reds. Since then, the Stars have improved their play in Corsi overall.

Not to mention, Colton Sceviour is going to find his way on this graph. He has too small a sample size to qualify, but his play certainly indicates he's going to be sticking on this roster for the foreseeable future.

And I'll be interested to see what his numbers look like.

The Jackets righted the ship on Saturday, but if they want to continue to be taken seriously for the playoffs, another division win is needed against the Hurricanes.

Columbus Blue Jackets at Carolina Hurricanes

December 23, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
RBC Center - Raleigh, North Carolina
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Canes Country
SBN's Blue Jackets vs Hurricanes coverage

First and foremost, for those of you who celebrate Christmas (no judgments here!), we hope you have a safe, happy, and stress-free holiday. We apologize that we weren't able to recap the Philly game from Saturday, but sometimes the holidays and work and family pre-empt our abilities to sit in front of the computer. Suffice it to say, it was pretty awesome to see the Jackets come out in the third period and lay all kinds of funk down on the Flyers.

That said, the game wasn't without trepidations. The Jackets lost Marian Gaborik again after just a few shifts to a broken collarbone. Matt Calvert left the game as well, and won't be in the lineup tonight. Philly also managed another crazy flurry in which they scored twice in under 30 seconds to tie the game late in the second period. Ugh to all of it.

But, the Jackets came out in the third period, and scored three strong goals to knock Philly's you-know-what in the dirt. And, even when Philly pulled their goalie and managed to cut it to 5-3, all credit to R.J. Umberger for creating an empty-net goal to completely seal it with nothing but effort and hustle.

So, that's where tonight comes in. This game has some importance, as a regulation win would push the Jackets into a tie (in which they hold the tie-breaker) with these Hurricanes (and could put them ahead of the Rags, pending their game tonight). The Jackets do get some guys back in the form of Derek MacKenzie and Jack Skille, so the loss of Calvert is mitigated a bit (I don't really think of Gaborik as a "loss" at this point because they've been playing without him for over a month anyway). If the Jackets, honestly, can play like they did in the third period--and most of Thursday's road effort in Philadelphia--I really like their chances tonight. And, here's why.

Carolina is getting it done with smoke and mirrors this year. They can't score with any regularity, and they're only slightly better defensively than the Jackets and middle of the pack for the league. They're not strong on special teams at all, including a pretty atrocious Power Play. They do a few things well: they stay out of the penalty box (fourth best in the league in PIM/game), they manage shots on goal (almost 30 a game), and they have been good at getting to overtime and earning those extra points. Columbus has more wins than this team, but Carolina has four more OT points, hence the standings. There's something to be said for that. To that point, they've lost five of six games, but they've managed to grab five points in that span (1-2-3). When the Jackets have had losing streaks, they don't steal those points.

So, that's where this game will be won in my opinion. The Hurricanes don't score at home (just 36 goals in 18 games). They don't score on the Power Play. They don't kill penalties with total efficiency. They do, however, play good defense at home, with just 44 goals allowed in those same games. The Jackets need to get ahead early, and impose their will with forechecking and strong defense. They need to watch the top line of Carolina, with Jeff Skinner and Eric Staal driving the bus.

But, most of all, if they have a lead in the third period again, they need to slam the freaking door. This Canes team can hang around and steal those OT points, and the Jackets have shown that they can falter a bit with a lead on the road.

If the third period from Saturday is to have meant anything, the Jackets will need to not let that happen tonight.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(15-17-4, 34 Points; 7th division, 13th conference)

Carolina Hurricanes
(14-14-8, 36 Points; 5th division, 10th conference)

Season Series

12/23/13 - Columbus at Carolina
01/10/14 - Carolina at Columbus
01/27/14 - Columbus at Carolina
03/18/14 - Carolina at Columbus
03/29/14 - Columbus at Carolina

Head to Head Stats

Carolina		Columbus
2.28 (27)	GPG	2.67 (13)
2.72 (16)	GAPG	2.83 (20)
12.5% (27)	PP%	19.0% (14)
79.5% (23)	PK%	82.5% (15)
Jeff Skinner, 12	G leader	Ryan Johansen, 14
Eric Staal, 20	A leader	James Wisniewski, 17
Eric Staal, 29	Pts leader	Ryan Johansen, 29
Eric Staal, 38	PIM leader	Brandon Dubinsky, 68
7-7-4	Home/Road	6-9-2
12/21 @ Tampa Bay, L 3-2 (OT)	Last Game	12/21 vs. Philadelphia, W 6-3
4-3-3	Last 10	5-4-1

The Jackets righted the ship on Saturday, but if they want to continue to be taken seriously for the playoffs, another division win is needed against the Hurricanes.

Columbus Blue Jackets at Carolina Hurricanes

December 23, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
RBC Center - Raleigh, North Carolina
Radio - WWCD 102.5 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Canes Country
SBN's Blue Jackets vs Hurricanes coverage

First and foremost, for those of you who celebrate Christmas (no judgments here!), we hope you have a safe, happy, and stress-free holiday. We apologize that we weren't able to recap the Philly game from Saturday, but sometimes the holidays and work and family pre-empt our abilities to sit in front of the computer. Suffice it to say, it was pretty awesome to see the Jackets come out in the third period and lay all kinds of funk down on the Flyers.

That said, the game wasn't without trepidations. The Jackets lost Marian Gaborik again after just a few shifts to a broken collarbone. Matt Calvert left the game as well, and won't be in the lineup tonight. Philly also managed another crazy flurry in which they scored twice in under 30 seconds to tie the game late in the second period. Ugh to all of it.

But, the Jackets came out in the third period, and scored three strong goals to knock Philly's you-know-what in the dirt. And, even when Philly pulled their goalie and managed to cut it to 5-3, all credit to R.J. Umberger for creating an empty-net goal to completely seal it with nothing but effort and hustle.

So, that's where tonight comes in. This game has some importance, as a regulation win would push the Jackets into a tie (in which they hold the tie-breaker) with these Hurricanes (and could put them ahead of the Rags, pending their game tonight). The Jackets do get some guys back in the form of Derek MacKenzie and Jack Skille, so the loss of Calvert is mitigated a bit (I don't really think of Gaborik as a "loss" at this point because they've been playing without him for over a month anyway). If the Jackets, honestly, can play like they did in the third period--and most of Thursday's road effort in Philadelphia--I really like their chances tonight. And, here's why.

Carolina is getting it done with smoke and mirrors this year. They can't score with any regularity, and they're only slightly better defensively than the Jackets and middle of the pack for the league. They're not strong on special teams at all, including a pretty atrocious Power Play. They do a few things well: they stay out of the penalty box (fourth best in the league in PIM/game), they manage shots on goal (almost 30 a game), and they have been good at getting to overtime and earning those extra points. Columbus has more wins than this team, but Carolina has four more OT points, hence the standings. There's something to be said for that. To that point, they've lost five of six games, but they've managed to grab five points in that span (1-2-3). When the Jackets have had losing streaks, they don't steal those points.

So, that's where this game will be won in my opinion. The Hurricanes don't score at home (just 36 goals in 18 games). They don't score on the Power Play. They don't kill penalties with total efficiency. They do, however, play good defense at home, with just 44 goals allowed in those same games. The Jackets need to get ahead early, and impose their will with forechecking and strong defense. They need to watch the top line of Carolina, with Jeff Skinner and Eric Staal driving the bus.

But, most of all, if they have a lead in the third period again, they need to slam the freaking door. This Canes team can hang around and steal those OT points, and the Jackets have shown that they can falter a bit with a lead on the road.

If the third period from Saturday is to have meant anything, the Jackets will need to not let that happen tonight.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(15-17-4, 34 Points; 7th division, 13th conference)

Carolina Hurricanes
(14-14-8, 36 Points; 5th division, 10th conference)

Season Series

12/23/13 - Columbus at Carolina
01/10/14 - Carolina at Columbus
01/27/14 - Columbus at Carolina
03/18/14 - Carolina at Columbus
03/29/14 - Columbus at Carolina

Head to Head Stats

Carolina		Columbus
2.28 (27)	GPG	2.67 (13)
2.72 (16)	GAPG	2.83 (20)
12.5% (27)	PP%	19.0% (14)
79.5% (23)	PK%	82.5% (15)
Jeff Skinner, 12	G leader	Ryan Johansen, 14
Eric Staal, 20	A leader	James Wisniewski, 17
Eric Staal, 29	Pts leader	Ryan Johansen, 29
Eric Staal, 38	PIM leader	Brandon Dubinsky, 68
7-7-4	Home/Road	6-9-2
12/21 @ Tampa Bay, L 3-2 (OT)	Last Game	12/21 vs. Philadelphia, W 6-3
4-3-3	Last 10	5-4-1

Carolina allows two goals late to blow lead in loss to Columbus at home

Carolina Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller summed it up after the game when he was asked what happened in the last five minutes of his team's latest home loss.

"We beat ourselves", the coach said.

The Canes were up 3-2 and were dominating in the third period, but a couple of errors later, and a couple of odd man rushes for the Blue Jackets, and the home team found themselves at the wrong end of a 4-3 loss to the visitors.

The game was pretty evenly played until the third period when the Jackets got off to a fast start, but then the Hurricanes took the lead on an Alexander Semin goal, drew a penalty call, and were setting up camp in the Columbus zone.

With 4:02 left in the game, the home team turned the puck over and Ryan Johansen made them pay with a pretty shot that beat Justin Peters.    Then, just 1:28 later, the Jackets came down with another odd man rush, this time after a slow Hurricanes line change, and Jack Skille made another open shot on Peters to give the visitors an unlikely lead.

The Hurricanes could not light the lamp on Mike McKenna again and the Jackets held on for the win.

Columbus jumped out to a 1-0 lead 9:45 into the opening period as Cam Atkinson fed Artem Anisimov in front of the net.  But the Hurricanes tied it up late in the period when Jeff Skinner jumped on a puck right after a faceoff win by Eric Staal.  It was a powerplay tally for Carolina.

After Corey Tropp gave the Jackets the lead again in the second period as he knocked in his first goal near the crease, Skinner would strike again as the Canes got a two man advantage.  Alexander Semin took a Jordan Staal faceoff win and fed it to Skinner, who was open in the slot area.

It was Skinner's 14th goal of the season and his 10th in his last 10 games.

After two periods, it was a dead even game as both teams had 17 shots on goal, missed the net eight times, and had 11 shots blocked.  But the Canes had the special teams advantage as they were 2-4 with the powerplay while the Jackets were 0-4.

Carolina was doubling up the visitors with shots on goal in the third, (16-8).  They took a 3-2 lead when Jordan Staal held the puck and fed an open Semin, who made no mistake with a snap shot.  The Canes did not hold back and continued to attack the net and even had another powerplay chance, but things backfired when Jiri Tlusty turned over the puck at his blueline.  Johansen made him pay.

After Skille made it 4-3, Skinner had another beauty of a chance to get his second hat trick of his career and season, but McKenna made the stop.

The team and coach were not happy about this loss, but will try to learn from it as they go into a three day shut down by the NHL.  They will next take on the Penguins on Friday night at the PNC.

Game Notes:

• The Canes got 33 shots and were led by Justin Faulk with five.  Skinner and Sekera had four each. 
  
• Justin Peters allowed four goals on 25 shots and probably wished he had a couple of those goals back, but the last two he allowed were on open shots and were not easy saves.
• The team was credited with 31 hits and were led by Tim Gleason and Brett Bellemore with five each.
• Andrej Sekera had a team high 25:39 of ice time.  Faulk was next with 22:58.
• The Carolina powerplay looked much better and went 2-6 while the penalty kill did not allow a goal, (0-5).
• The Jackets were without their big guns in this game, as Sergei Bobrovsky, Nathan Horton, and Marian Gaborik were all out with injuries.