Jooris performed well in his NHL debut, but he got a lot of help, starting almost exclusively in the offensive zone. Still, it paid off for him, and that's never a bad thing.

It wasn't a bad game. It started off that way, but eventually, the Flames were able to turn it around. They just waited too late to do it, but this is game five of a six-game road trip; a road trip that's been plagued by the flu and has had its fair share of wacky moments and percentages already. And while the Blue Jackets completely dominated for long stretches, the Flames had their fair share of chances, too.

It's cool that a lot of them were sparked by a rookie, who brought real, genuine enthusiasm to the game, and was wonderfully rewarded for it. And besides, this is just year two of a rebuild. Moral victories still mean something here.

The Flames were definitely outplayed, but managed to even it up by the end (well, except on the scoreboard, but they were so close to their third overtime game in three games). Via HockeyStats:

So, every period the Flames fell behind, and every period they got themselves back in it. It reflects in the score: the game never turned into the blowout it looked like it might have become. And they were a goalpost away from tying it up. Period by period analysis from NaturalStatTrick:

Flames at Blue Jackets - All Situations

• Score effects resulted in the Flames ultimately generating more shot attempts. The Jackets never really took their skates off the pedals, but it took being down three goals - and then being down one goal with just a few minutes left - for the Flames to really get their butts in gear.
• Still, one good period (in this case, the third, geez) isn't going to win you many games. They came close to extending it, but the Flames have been, well, playing with fire the past couple games.
• Considering how tired the team probably is by now, though, at least they can dig down and find that extra gear when they really need it.

Flames at Blue Jackets - Even Strength

• The Jackets had five powerplays to the Flames' four, but factoring those out, the Flames actually had a worse game overall. It makes sense: the Flames had an aggressive penalty kill, and generated a number of shot attempts from there.
• Games are mostly played at even strength. Gotta be better there. Period.

Even Strength Corsi Data

• Josh Jooris is the obvious standout here, and rightfully so. He had an excellent debut. A sheltered, excellent debut, since he had the second highest zone starts out of the entire team, and I'm pretty sure he didn't start a single shift in the neutral or defensive zones until the third period. Great numbers, but remember, there's a strong context for them, and he isn't likely to repeat.
• As for his most frequent linemates, Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler got slightly better zone starts, but were unable to maintain Jooris' numbers. That's because they faced tougher competition than Jooris. Still, those zone starts clearly helped them: they had some of the best numbers on the team largely because of them.
• Continuing with the high offensive zone starts theme, Brian McGrattan and Brandon Bollig were sheltered, but not quite as heavily so. Still, they put up some of the worst possession numbers on the team. McGrattan and Bollig played 5:46 and 5:56 respectively, and didn't see a second of ice time in the third, when the Flames had their best period. Hartley didn't trust them to take part in the comeback, and rightfully so.
• Jumping around a bit, Lance Bouma had the worst numbers, but that's with a return from injury and much weaker zone starts. He had the third least amount of ice time, but was the most frequent forward on the penalty kill (this doesn't factor into the chart, it's just interesting to note).
• Lowest zone starts: Paul Byron and Mikael Backlund. They were, predictably, under par for the team, but did a pretty formidable job considering what they were given. It's great to see they're sticking together as a pair, too, because they work really well with one another.
• Curtis Glencross, meanwhile, did really well with his ice time, and was one of the top Fenwick players with it. He most frequently played with Byron and Backlund, but shared time with Stajan, Monahan, and Jooris as well. Stajan and Jooris in particular bolstered him.
• Considering his zone starts, Joe Colborne didn't perform particularly well. He wasn't as bad as McGrattan or Bollig, but he was next in line. His most common linemate, Mason Raymond, had a better performance despite spending more time out of the offensive zone. And while Raymond's numbers really aren't anything remarkable, I really like him as a free agent pickup.
• Defencemen! Ladislav Smid and Raphael Diaz got the worst starts. Smid broke even, but played the least; Diaz was finally given a bit more trust, and put forward a respectable effort.
• Kris Russell and Dennis Wideman were the sheltered pair, zone start-wise, and did not have as great a performance; that said, they both played over 20 minutes, so they had more to work with. Wideman was more sheltered than Russell, and the stats say Russell did far better when he was separated from his defence partner. Wideman did better away from Russell as well, and even Smid and Diaz seemed to have increased performance when not playing with one another. Small sample size, but maybe further experimentation with a partner swap is in order?
• Last but never least, Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie were given slightly favourable zone starts, but also faced the toughest competition, and while they got burned on Columbus' first goal, were by far the best defensive pairing. Of course they were. They always are. They had four shots apiece and played 24~25 minutes, too.

Player Spotlight - Matt Stajan

And then there's Stajan, he whose percentages shot way up. He saw much more playing time - 13:35 minutes - than normal, with his usual linemates benched for the entire comeback period. This gave Stajan the chance to play in more difficult circumstances with players who can match his skill set, and, well, took a look for yourself as to how he did:

• Individual game WOWYs are always a really small sample size, so they have to be taken with a grain of salt. Especially in a case like Stajan's, where he played the least out of all four of Calgary's centres. That said, we can take some stake in a very clear pattern here: the second he was no longer flanked by McGrattan and Bollig, he started performing very, very well.
• At even strength, Stajan played about four more minutes than McGrattan and Bollig. He spent the bulk of that time with Glencross and Jooris, while Jooris was having his outstanding third period effort. He seemed much livelier and involved with the play then, probably because, well, he had more to work with.
• Quick defence analysis: Of course he fared best with Giordano and Brodie. Smid and Diaz pulled respectable numbers for little ice time, while Russell and Wideman didn't have great nights, so everything's in line with what we can expect here. Gio and Brodie though. Dang.
• #FreeMattStajan.

So yeah. Small sample size, but very, very clear pattern. Matt Stajan is not a fourth liner, so don't play him with them.

The first sustained road trip of the season begins tonight in Ottawa. It's time to build on the early success with a sixty minute performance.

Columbus Blue Jacketsat Ottawa Senators

The Blue Jackets and Ottawa Senators share a number of common traits coming into this early season matchup.  They boast identical 3-1 records, sit 2nd in their respective divisions, and are likely considered as somewhat of a surprise in the early going.  Columbus is not know for its fast starts, and the loss of Boone Jenner and Brandon Dubinsky for the early part of the season was not a good omen.  Ottawa is still stinging from the loss of Jason Spezza in the off-season, and is without former Blue Jacket Marc Methot, who is rehabbing a nagging back ailment.

Both clubs also have proven to be tenacious in the early going.  Columbus dominated the games against Buffalo and the Rangers, made a strong comeback bid against Dallas, and came out of the gates strong against Calgary, storming to a 3 - 0 lead after two periods, and holding on for the 3 - 2 victory.  Ottawa played three one-goal games in victories over Tampa Bay and Florida, and a loss to Nashville, before overcoming an early three goal deficit against Colorado.

Clarke MacArthur has carried much of the early offensive mail for the Senators, who have also gotten some stellar play in goal from Robin Lehner and Craig Anderson.  With Bobby Ryan and Kyle Turris lurking, the Sens are a potentially dangerous offensive team, as their third period rally against the Avalanche demonstrated.

The Blue Jackets have seemed dominating at times, but have also taken periods off.  They were emotionally flat in the first period against the Stars, and allowed Calgary back into the game in the third.  With Curtis McElhinney slated to make his season debut in net, a sixty minute effort is essential.  Speed and an aggressive forecheck can force Ottawa into taking penalties, enabling Columbus to potentially take advantage of the Senators' spotty penalty killing unit.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets

(3-1-0, 6 Points; 2nd division, 3rd conference)

Season Series

10/18/14 - Columbus at Ottawa

10/28/14 - Ottawa at Columbus

2/7/15 - Columbus at Ottawa

Head to Head Stats

A preview of the game between the Ottawa Senators and the world famous #Lumbus Blue Jackets.

The Ottawa Senators have managed to win three consecutive games despite being outshot in every game so far this season. After being outshot by 17 in Nashville in the season opening loss, Ottawa was outshot by six and seven in wins in Tampa Bay and Florida respectively. The Senators closed the gap to three in winning their home opener against Colorado on Thursday.

The Senators will make a couple changes with Mike Hoffman stepping in for Erik Condra while Robin Lehner will start. Here are the lines and pairings for Ottawa courtesy of Bruce Garrioch.

Ottawa

MacArthur - Turris - Stone
Ryan - Zibanejad - Chiasson
Michalek - Smith - Lazar
Hoffman - Legwand - Neil

Phillips - Karlsson
Wiercioch - Ceci
Borowiecki - Gryba

Lehner (starter)
Anderson

Here is how #Lumbus lined up last night against Calgary as per Rob Mixer. With Sergei Bobrovsky starting last night, former Senator Curtis McElhinney will start tonight.

Lumbus

Foligno - Johansen - Atkinson
Hartnell - Anisimov - Wennberg
Calvert - Letestu - Skille
Tropp - Chaput - Boll

Johnson - Savard
Tyutin - Prout
Erixon - Wisniewski

McElhinney (starter)
Bobrovsky

Some notes for tonight:

• Everyone has to love #Lumbus right? Easily the most adorable team in the league.
• After a rather disappointing game from Patrick Wiercioch against Colorado, I was expecting Paul MacLean to take him out of the lineup. I am not sure if MacLean is trying to give Wiercioch an extended opportunity or that MacLean has just had enough of Jared Cowen, but either possibility is very pleasing.
• Mike Hoffman will also get back into the lineup giving the Senators at least two skilled players on every line. With all the question marks on defence, the Senators do appear to have a lot of depth up front.
• The one line that is some what struggling is the second line of Ryan - Zibanejad - Chiasson. Although Ryan did tie the game, they don't seem to be generating a lot of sustained zone time. On the other hand, MacLean has chosen to use them exclusively in defensive situations with them not being on the ice for a single even strength offensive zone face-off on Thursday.
• Kyle Turris has a point in every game so far this season, Erik Karlsson has a point in the last three wins while Clarke MacArthur has scored a goal in the last two games. Karlsson also has 17 shots this season including 15 in the last three wins.
• Lumbus' top line are all above a point per game with Foligno having five points in four game, Johansen with six and Atkinson with five.
• After having one of the worst penalty differences, the Senators have the second best power play minus penalty kill difference. They have been on the power play for 12:44 more than they have on the penalty kill. The only team with a bit difference are tonight's opponents who are at 14:28.
• The Senators have received strong goaltending from both players this season. Craig Anderson has stopped 93.9% of shots in his three starts and Robin Lehner is at 95.0% in his only appearance.
• Ottawa could theoretically end the night in first place in the eastern conference with the right combination of events!

A recap of the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Columbus Jackets.

Columbus has always seemed like an odd opponent to me, since they're technically an Eastern Conference foe, but the fact that they've been here for just one year means no rivalry has really had the chance to develop. The Red Wings had the added benefit of stealing signing Daniel Alfredsson to brew immediate distrust among Senators fans, but most view Ottawa's Nick Foligno-for-Marc Methot trade as a win-win type of trade. All this to say that the hate factor to start the game was about as low as it could be for an all-East match-up. Probably the biggest story coming in was that both the Sens and the Blue Jackets came in with impressive 3-1-0 records. The Sens' was impressive because nearly all pundits picked them to be a lottery team, and Jackets' because they were missing key cogs Brandon Dubinsky, Nathan Horton, Boone Jenner, and Ryan Murray. Games between winning teams are always more exciting, and this one promised to provide excitement.

1st period

It must have been a slow first period, because I had very few notes about the game itself. I noticed that Bob Cole was very complimentary of Mike Hoffman and Erik Karlsson, that Curtis Lazar has adopted his landlord's pointing technique, and that yet another Tim Horton's dark roast ad convinced me to turn to the American feed. Every time the Sens did something right, they followed it up by getting hemmed in their zone or by some sloppy giveaways. This allowed Robin Lehner to make several great saves, including this robbery of Alexander Wennberg, who was looking for his first NHL goal.

Hoffman was easily the Sens' player of the period, building off Cole's praise by streaking in and drawing a penalty shot. He tried the (Peter) Forsberg on the penalty shot, but ex-Sens goaltender Curtis McElhinney didn't bite.

Today I've heard McElhinney called a former Senator more times than the number of games he played for the Sens

— Ross ShCrazy (@Sheer_Craziness) October 18, 2014

(Seriously though, he played seven games as a trade deadline acquisition for the team in 2011. Stop trying to force a narrative.)

Hoffman followed this up by opening the scoring with some slick hands and skating, though David Legwand got credited with the goal since he actually did the act of putting the puck in the net. Chris Neil got an assist on the play, giving him a two-game points streak. Looks like his linemates last year were holding him back.

The Sens (and my fantasy team) got a late scare, when Jack Johnson went knee-on-knee with Mark Stone, the latter of whom went immediately to the dressing room. But the Sens went on the powerplay, and drew another penalty to stay on the powerplay for the rest of the period, keeping the 1-0 lead.

Best moment of the period: The #Lumbus announcers' pronunciation of Michael Chaput. They called him "sha-POO!!!!", apparently relishing the chance to shout the word "poo" as loudly as possible while on TV.

2nd period

The best news for the Sens came early, when Mark Stone was back on the ice. Keeping with the good-then-bad theme of the game, Cam Atkinson was allowed to glide in and shoot a rebound off the crossbar. The Sens were lucky to not concede on that play. The Sens caught a lucky break shortly after, when Nick Foligno forgot which team he played for, and ran his own goalie. Unfortunately for him, Karlsson had passed the puck to the net, and Foligno carried it into the net. McElhinney was unable to continue, and Sergei Bobrovsky had to come on in relief. The refs declared that "the decision on the ice stands" after a long review, which was pretty funny since none of the refs made any call on the ice. They went on to explain that this give the Sens a goal.

However, this was where the good luck ended for the Senators. Whether Curtis Lazar felt bad about having the lead on an own-goal, or whether he was still bitter at Zack Smith for stealing his first NHL goal, Lazar scored his first NHL goal into his own net (credited to Foligno). 41 seconds later, David Savard fired home a slapshot from the point, a shot which a screened Lehner never tracked. Suddenly, the score was tied. The second period ended, setting up a third period that was anybody's game.

3rd period

12 seconds into the period, Karlsson made a sharp turn, causing Scott Hartnell to tumble past him into the boards, which was the first incident of #HartnellDown I noticed in the game. The third period itself was pretty wide open, with lots of end-to-end hockey and very few whistles. Eventually, Hoffman (who else) spun straw out of gold, picking up a deflected Neil dump-in attempt, and deking through both Jackets defenders, beating Bobrovsky high on the backhand. It was a goal on which both Jackets' defenders should have got the puck, but Hoffman's speed and desire somehow turned it into a goal.

The goal would stand up as the game-winner, despite a late Jackets push. Incredibly, Paul MacLean decided to put the Neil line out for the last minute with the game on the line, even though Chris Neil lacks the ability to control the puck or clear the zone. Lehner stood tall enough, and the scrambly defense was scrappy enough to keep the puck out of the net. Final score: Ottawa 3, Columbus 2.

Sens Hero: Mike Hoffman

This was Hoffman's game. He was given a chance to prove his worth, replacing the scratched Erik Condra. He more than delivered, with a goal, an assist, and a drawn penalty shot. His speed was on full display, despite the fact that he was put with arguably the slowest forwards on the team in Legwand and Neil. He also had the highest CF% Relative on the team. I picked him to be the biggest surprise of the season, and though it's only one game, I'm gonna toot my own horn as loud as it'll toot. I can't wait to see what happens when he gets put with real linemates.

Sens Hero: Robin Lehner

His rebound control was off tonight. But he made several spectacular saves to keep his team in it, played a chunk of the game without a neck protector after it broke, and finished with a .950 save percentage. That's amazing, and the only negative is that this team still seems to be playing a style that depends on the goalies to be spectacular.

Honourable Mention: Chris Neil

I think he was entirely a passenger on his line, but a multi-point game for anybody deserves a mention. He seemed to keep his aggression in check, even refusing to drop the gloves after Jared Boll had dropped his. I'm not a fan of what Neil brings to the team, but he played about as good a game as we can expect.

Sens and Jackets Killer: Nick Foligno

Actual former Senator Foligno knocked his own goalie out of the game, but then put up a goal and an assist as well. Nobody can say they did more harm to both teams this game.

Full Highlights:

Once available.

Game Flow:

Source: naturalstattrick.com

B_T's Shot Chart:

The Blue Jackets looked to start their 4 game road trip on a positive note, but insult and injuries piled up in a 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators - and more than a few were self-inflicted.

After last night's win against the Calgary Flames, the Blue Jackets packed their bags and made their way up to Ottawa, looking to take that momentum into their first major road trip of the 2014-15 season.

Making the decision to forgo a morning skate, the team got as much rest as possible through Saturday evening, then hit the ice behind Curtis McElhinney, who would start his first game this season.

They came out firing against Robin Lehner and the Senators, but early attempts failed to penetrate the Swedish netminder's guard (one Alexander Wennberg chance, in particular, was only stopped by an insane behind the back stick save), and though the Senators struggled in their own end, they received a break of luck when Mike Hoffman broke out of the zone and charged down the ice, drawing a penalty shot as he was hauled down on his way to the net.

McElhinney stayed cool as Hoffman came in slow, and easily turned the attempt aside, but the Jackets could not convert that energy into an advantage. Instead, after a few more back and forth exchanges between the two teams, it would be the Senators opening the scoring, and Hoffman came back to play a big part.

Breaking past Fedor Tyutin as he entered the Columbus zone, Hoffman got Dalton Prout to break off his assignment and chase him across the ice, opening up the entire right side of the zone. Passing off to the now wide open David Legwand, the former Predator crashed the net and stuffed the puck past C-Mac for his second goal of the season.

1-0 Senators: David Legwand (2nd) @ 15:57 from Hoffman (1) and Neil (1)

That goal seemed to knock the Jackets off their game. Rattled, they struggled to get the puck moving back towards the Ottawa net, and when they finally gained the zone, they failed to get the puck on the net.

Things got worse when Mark Stone attempted to carry the puck out of his own zone and past Jack Johnson, and the big defenseman's attempt to step into him with a hard shoulder check ended up in a knee-on-knee hit due to bad positioning. Stone would leave the ice with assistance from a trainer (though he would return to the game late in the second period), while Johnson was sent to the penalty box along with Ryan Johansen and Kyle Turris, who had started to drop the gloves in the ensuing scrum.

The Columbus PK was doing a decent job of keeping the Senators under control, but when Mika Zibanejad burst past James Wisniewski, he would take another penalty for interference as he attempted to slow down the young forward.

Remarkably (and in no small part due to a bit of puck luck when shots from Bobby Ryan and Erik Karlsson hit the crossbar), the Jackets managed to make it to the intermission only down 1-0, though they still had almost a minute and a half shorthanded to open the second.

Fortunately, things got a little better for Columbus when Kyle Turris would take an offsetting penalty in the opening seconds of the middle frame, and the Jackets PK continued their strong play, though the brief power play was unable to come up with an equalizer.

Unfortunately, not long afterward, things got worse.

Clarke MacArthur broke past the Jackets' defense and into the neutral zone amid a Columbus line change, quickly turning it into an odd man rush with his captain.

Nick Foligno attempted to throw himself in front of the pass, but unfortunately his momentum not only carried him past the puck, but sent him into the net just after McElhinney attempted to freeze Karlsson's shot, wiping him out and carrying the puck into the net for what (after video review) would be called a good goal.

2-0 Senators: Erik Karlsson (2nd) @ 07:02 from MacArthur (2)

Injury was added to insult when it became clear that McElhinney was not able to shake off the impact, and team trainer Mike Vogt was quickly called to the crease.

After several minutes, McElhinney would be helped off the ice and down the tunnel, and Sergei Bobrovsky would come into the game, taking over for the rest of the evening.

Perhaps appropriately, after Foligno played a big part in Ottawa scoring their second goal, he'd finally help get Columbus on the board.

The top line was buzzing all night, but after Bob came into the game they got particularly aggressive. After several furious exchanges, Foligno and Johansen broke into the Senators zone. Foligno came across the middle of the ice, lost the puck, got it back, and fired from a from a sharp angle, where the puck hit Lehner, then got kicked back into the net by Patrick Wiercioch as he attempted to block Ryan Johansen away from the rebound.

2-1 Senators: Nick Foligno (2nd) @ 13:57 from Hartnell (4) and Erixon (1)

Fans in Columbus started to perk up after that, and the Jackets took on an extra spring in their step as well after the goal, and it wasn't long before the top line ended up driving the play into the Ottawa zone again.

This time, Johansen would steal the puck away in the neutral zone, then passed off to Foligno. Unable to get a good shot, Foligno curled back to the boards, and saw David Savard charging in with a clear shooting lane. Throwing the puck back to the blue line, Savard stepped into a booming shot that would blast through traffic and past Lehner before he knew it was there.

2-2 TIE: David Savard (1st) @ 14:38 from Foligno (5th) and Johansen (4th)

Things got a little scrambly over the final five minutes of the period, but neither team found an edge before the next intermission, giving both sides a chance to catch their breath and work on adjustments for the final frame.

Columbus once again hit the ice firing, but Robin Lehner was on top of the initial shots, and the Jackets couldn't take advantage of the frequent rebounds thanks to a combination of good defense and bad puck luck (including two occasions where Cam Atkinson seemed to have a goal on his stick, but hit iron or went wide.)

Finally, someone got a bounce...but it wasn't a Blue Jacket.

Chris Neil sent a clearing attempt out from behind the Ottawa net that bounced up the ice and into the neutral zone past Hoffman, who gave chase. The puck took a bounce off the boards and around Jack Johnson, and Hoffman was able to get behind the defender (with a little help from the linesman, who blocked Johnson's path to the puck). David Savard attempted to cut off his path to the net, but Hoffman took a chip shot at the top of the crease that bounced over Sergei Bobrovsky's shoulder, and put the Senators back in the lead.

3-2 Senators: Mike Hoffman (1) @ 09:38 from Neil (2nd)

After that, the Blue Jackets tried their damndest to find a tying goal, including shuffling the line combinations and pulling Bob for the extra attacker with two minutes left in regulation, but it didn't come together. (Though Cam Atkinson had a heartstopping near miss that he's probably going to see in his dreams tonight.)

Time ran down, and on a night where the team just never really seemed to get on the same page, they skated off the ice and into the tunnel, knowing that this was a game that slipped out of their hands.

Final Score: Senators 3, Blue Jackets 2

Standard Bearers:

• Ryan Johansen - The Johan continues his points streak, and his line (in a few different configurations) was one of Columbus' driving forces all night.
• Nick Foligno - His goal had a certain amount of puck luck, but he spent the whole game working to make things happen, no matter who he was on the ice with, and that paid off in both his goal and in setting up Savard.
• Sergei Bobrovsky - This was a tough situation, and Bob did his damndest to salvage it.

Bottom of the Barrel:

• Nick Foligno - I realize that the injury to C-Mac was 20% bad luck, 80% freak accident, but damn, man. And it's notable that his attempt to block MacArthur's pass made things worse, not better - even before he laid himself out, it probably would have been better to let C-Mac square off and face down the shot.
• Defensive Choices - Everyone made some serious defensive hiccups tonight, but Dalton Prout and Jack Johnson both stood out for some bizarre decisions that lead to painful consequences. Nobody really seemed to know what to do with themselves tonight in their own zone, and it lead to a lot of chaos for both teams.
• Passing, Not Shooting - There were four different times, at least, where a Blue Jacket had the puck, had a clear shooting lane, and the man advantage (either due to PP / empty net or simply an odd man rush), and chose to drop a pass back or dump the puck rather than putting it on the net. Even during the final two minutes, where this team NEEDED a goal, guys were putting the puck on the perimeter or cycling down, rather than trying to get it to the net where Lehner had been repeatedly coughing up rebounds. Perfect has ALWAYS been the enemy of good enough, and this team doesn't have the skill to dance their way around all five skaters. Shoot the puck and hit the net, dammit.

If this game had gone to OT and the same kind of GWG happened for the Senators, I'd have said it was a good comeback and a solid effort despite some head scratching moments. As it is, it was still a good effort, but it felt like a lot of guys played not only against type, but without paying attention to the things that made this team successful in the past few years. I'm not sure if this is a case of overconfidence, of poor preparation, or just a crazy night where they clearly put a lot of energy into what they were doing, but didn't quite do the right things.

Regardless, it's a bit of an odd duck, and the news that McElhinney suffered a head injury (and it sounded awfully like a possible concussion, though head coach Todd Richards refused to be drawn into saying that during his post game presser) means that the Jackets are probably going to have to make a move, either calling up Anton Forsberg from Springfield, or possibly looking at the few remaining free agents out there should this be a long term injury. (Can you imagine the reactions if Jarmo gave Ilya Bryzgalov a call?)

One way or the other, the team will make their way out West for the next three games, beginning with San Jose on Thursday night. They're stepping into a crucible, and while three games won't make or break the season this early, it may tell us quite a bit about what kind of team we really have.

Yeah, that was a tough way to lose, and losing that way to that team and the awful group of human beings that root for them adds an extra sting. The goals allowed were not great, "Pekka would've stopped those", etc. But here we are, new coach, tons of new players...3-0-2. Points in every game. First place in the Central. I bet we would've all taken that start a couple of weeks ago. We've got a 3-game home stand coming up this week, with another crack at Chicago on Thursday. Everything's gonna be ok...I promise.

Around the Wide Wide World of Hockey

Postgame: More on Hornqvist, special teams | Chipped Ice

He's on pace for 50-something goals. Good for him, but I'm still very happy with the trade. VERY.

Martin Havlat sits for Devils as face recovers from gruesome lacerations (Photo) | Puck Daddy

DO NOT look at this picture.

Lucic apologizes for making obscene gesture in Montreal - The Globe and Mail

This is the ultimate copy+paste headline of the decade. Probably reuse a few times a year.

Searching for first power-play goal, Yeo divides units into young vs. veterans | ProHockeyTalk

Next he'll break the alphabet into groups and sort the power play that way.

Gallagher: Grounding of Canucks by Lightning shows there’s real issues team must deal with-The Province

More problems for all the Western Conference teams, please.

Tomas Hertl models his game after Jaromir Jagr for an unlikely reason | Puck Drunk Love

Very thoughtful answer here.

The Avalanche aren’t bound for the basement even after slow start | Post-to-Post

We can still hope, right?

That Weird Moment When the Devils Forgot How to Hockey-RMNB.com

Hahahahahahahaha! Dummies.

Don Cherry: Newer NHL nets are dangerous - Sportsnet.ca

Ok.

The other Crosby: Taylor Crosby's path from Sid's kid sister to Northeastern University goaltender - SBNation.com

If only she played center. Bad career choice, IMO.

The legend of 'Dancing Kevin,' the shirtless, gyrating Blue Jackets fan - SBNation.com

Why anyone would do this is beyond me. Free country and all that, I guess.

Ups and Downs is a weekly feature on this site that rates the performances of the Ottawa Senators players during the past week.

Over the past week, Ottawa went 3-0, with wins over the Panthers, Avalanche, and Blue Jackets, despite getting outshot in all three games.

Biggest Gains: Curtis Lazar. This was a tough call, since both he and Mike Hoffman performed well after being scratched this week. Lazar gets the nod because he played in two games, and because he has more to lose, since rather than being a healthy scratch, he'd be returned to junior. After being scratched against the Panthers, he put up a 75.0% Corsi For (!!) against the Avalanche, easily the best margin on either team, and was inches away from getting his first NHL goal, settling for his first NHL point. His possession numbers against Columbus weren't great, but he went 2/2 on the faceoffs, had 2 shots, and had 4 hits. If he keeps playing like he did this past week, he's with the team for the season.

Biggest Losses: Colin Greening. He got his chance against Florida, and showed nothing. Lazar and and Hoffman in their first games back from being scratched showed why they deserve to be in the lineup. It seems at this point that even if one of the above falters, Condra is next in line. Greening looks to be a healthy scratch for the foreseeable future.

Goaltenders	Trend	Notes
Craig Anderson		Shutout vs. Florida, and put up a solid game against Colorado after a shaky first period.
Robin Lehner		Tied last week's save percentage, again stopping 38 of 40 shots this week.
Defensemen
Mark Borowiecki		Not a good week, possession-wise. To be fair to Borocop, the defense as a whole looks pretty terrible.
Cody Ceci		Had an assist against Colorado, a game in which he also played 19:06, but is still putting up pretty terrible possession numbers even after being separated from Phillips.
Jared Cowen		Scratched all week. Looks like he doesn't have his coach's trust anymore.
Eric Gryba		Who knew Gryba was the only positive possession defenseman against Florida? Not really standing out as good or bad, which is good for a Sens defender this week.
Erik Karlsson		Had 3 points, though the goal against Columbus was pretty fluky. Putting up poor possession numbers, though that may be due to lack of a suitable partner. This may be the harshest neutral of the week.
Marc Methot		Injured. Please get well soon!
Chris Phillips		The answer to being bad last week was not to put him on the top pairing. His TOI this season is the highest of his career, which does not bode well at 36 years of age. Committed several egregious giveaways.
Patrick Wiercioch		No points for Patty W, but he did put up better possession numbers than most of the defensemen. Best news is that he's earned the trust of his coach enough to not get scratched for Cowen anytime soon.
Forwards
Alex Chiasson		Bad week on the Corsi charts to go along with 0 points and 1 shot. He may want to have a word with his coach about his deployment, though: he didn't have a single even-strength offensive zone draw against Colorado.
Erik Condra		Played two games, and looked his usual self doing it, but doesn't look to beat out Hoffman or Lazar for the last spot anytime soon.
Colin Greening		See biggest losses.
Mike Hoffman		Played one game, and easily made the most of it, with 1 G, 1 A, and one drawn penalty shot. Also the best possession player that game for either team.
Curtis Lazar		See biggest gains.
David Legwand		Scored his first two goals as a Senator by waiting on the doorstep, but looks like the odd centre out, playing with Neil and whichever winger has the most to prove.
Clarke MacArthur		Point-per-game this week. That's about the most we can ask of him.
Milan Michalek		Any guesses who's the best possession forward so far on the team? This guy! Responded to what looked like a demotion to the fourth line by finding instant chemistry with Lazar and Smith.
Chris Neil		Point-per-game this week. Yes, you read that right. Also has no minor penalties yet this season. Exceeding very low expectations.
Bobby Ryan		Looked like he was on a mission. Had 1 G against Colorado, and should've had 2. Hindered by the same zone deployment issues as Chiasson and Zibanejad.
Z. Smith		Stole Lazar's first NHL goal. Looks to have got his off-season wish to play with better linemates.
Mark Stone		Slick hands vs. Colorado set up the game-winner. Looks good on the top line with Turris and MacArthur.
Kyle Turris		Two points, but not great in the #fancystats. Has also seen his ice time drop each game this season.
Mika Zibanejad		Same issues as Chiasson and Ryan: used as a d-zone specialist, and the numbers say he can't quite handle it. Still searching for his first point of the season.

Special thanks to our friend winterion at Japers' Rink for our icons!

Zero points in five games is certainly not a "good" thing, but I don't believe it's a cause for worry yet. Recently, the Citizen wrote a column on Paul Maclean's post-practice conversation where he was asked about the Ryan - Zibanejad - Chiasson line, and I highly recommend you read one (or both) of the links above before continuing, though I will highlight the main argument below.

We feel that right now after five games they haven't produced all the offence but it's five games. Over the course of a season they're going to take turns, people producing more offence than the other group is. Defensively, putting them on the ice, putting them in situations on the power play, eventually they're going to produce offence. At this point in time we're not upset, we think they're playing fine. They have to work together. Having Mika's speed through the middle is going to be very important for anyone. The Turris group doesn't play well if Turris isn't through the middle, same with the Smith group. If no one is going through the middle of the rink nobody is going to have any success. The big thing for them is somebody has to be going through the middle of the rink, it's not always going to be Mika. It's going to be Bobby sometimes and it may have to be Alex sometimes and that's just the thing of getting to know one another and sorting out who's going to go in do that.

The bolded emphasis is mine and it's there for two reasons. Zibanejad has certainly put on a lot of muscle this season (~215 lbs) and though his top speed as stayed the same, I've found that he's a little bit slower to get moving when transitioning from defensive zone to the neutral zone, and eventually to the offensive zone. This, combined with the fact that none of the players on this line are "passers" AND that most passes will be received on their backhand because they're all right-handed shots, can be a bit of an issue for them. Eden over at the Storied Sens has a great post this week that I think you should read, and it touches on the context of this issue. Ryan is a weird fit because he's generally not a neutral zone carrier, and instead, focuses on getting open in the offensive zone. However, as Eden points out, if the line is starting most of their shifts in the defensive zone, Ryan can't do that. Manny has been tracking the Sens zone entry and exit stats for the first five games of the seasons, and he goes more into detail on the backhand passing issue. The final result? The Senators are only controlling 39.3% of the entries with Zibanejad on the ice this season, compared to 48.6% last season. Again, only five games, but I think that with more favourable zone starts OR mixing up the line combinations such that someone like Mike Hoffman (left-hand shot) plays with Zibanejad and Ryan could help in order for the line to play with the speed MacLean wants them to play at.

Of course, this moves Alex Chiasson down the lineup even though he's fared well so far, but here's why I don't think that's much of an issue.

From Ken Warren's Five Takes:

According to MacLean, the pre-game plan allots 15 minutes to each player and their play dictates whether more or less is deserved. It’s hard to keep everyone happy, but it’s also hard to complain when you’re winning. "You’ve got a couple of guys down in the nines and 10 (minutes), but for the most part you’re at 15 minutes across the board," said Bobby Ryan, who checked in at 15:14 Thursday. "That’s helping us win games right now. I think versatility is a good word. I think resilience is a good word. A lot of guys who are used to playing 12-13 (minutes) are coming up, a lot of guys who are used to playing 18-19 (minutes) are coming down."

I've been pretty happy with ice-time distribution so far this season, and if everyone is going to roughly get 15 minutes anyways, moving Chiasson down won't really have a big impact on the overall play of the team. Now, I don't know if the top minute guys are very happy with this as I know that I would much rather have Kyle Turris and co. playing an extra three minutes instead of Zack Smith and David Legwand, but maybe this is the reason for the whole "we have to find ways to win by committee" this year. It wasn't about Jason Spezza, it was about ice-time distribution. This also touches on my next and final point.

My issue with MacLean's "finding a way to win" statement that he commonly says is that I think a lot of it just has to do with luck and goaltender save percentages, although he's obviously not going to come out and say "yeah this win was great but it's going to go downhill soon!". However, there's no way Anderson and Lehner can keep up their numbers (.939, .950 sv% respectively) if they're asked to face 35+ shots a night, even if they both "like it", and though limiting shots to the outside sounds good, the Senators have still been outchanced on most nights. As we've seen with numerous case examples over the past 3-4 years, if you're not winning the possession battle, the goal against and then wins numbers are going to follow suit, especially with the Senators in a plethora of one-goal games so far. However, it HAS only been five games, which is why I'm not worried about this, nor the play of the Zibanejad line yet, and MacLean has made some strong lineup decisions and handled ice-time well. Let's just hope that the shots against total comes around. It's a good sign that the team is more aware of it this year, despite their winning.

From MacLean:

I think we're still teaching and we're carrying over training camp and identifying parts of our game we need to work on. Today was another example of it and the forechecking aspect of our game, we feel that we could do a better job. If we do a better job there we don't have to work as much at our end. We look at our first five games — 40 shots twice, 38 shots once, 37 shots another game, one game is 30 shots. We haven't been under 30 shots in one of the five games. We can analyze the games and we can say they're easy shots or they're not scoring chances but their scoring chances are a higher number than we want them to be so those, moving forward, concern us and we have to work at our game and not just say we're 4-1, everything is going to be good. We understand there's still lots of things in our game we need to work at and become more consistent at.

--

Sens Links

• ICYMI, the Senators beat the #Lumbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. [Silver Seven, Rank the Performances, MacLean's thoughts, Ottawa Citizen, SensChirp, SenShot, 6th Sens, SenStats]
• A nice story by Ken Warren on the hero from Game 5, Mike Hoffman. [Ottawa Citizen]
• If you were wondering who the Senators are playing this week, B_T has you covered! [Silver Seven - Week Ahead]
• SensChirp has a look ahead to the next two practice days, and the Leafs game on Wednesday. [SensChirp]
• A column on the Senators fast start to the season, as they have definitely taken advantage of a weaker schedule to begin the year - especially in comparison to last year - and it has the players optimistic. Lots of notes and tidbits in here. [Ottawa Citizen]
• Some more Methot contract conversation. This is inevitable since he's the last major UFA left to be re-signed (Erik Condra weeps somewhere), and supposedly Methot has set his price around $5M, whereas the Sens have offered $4.7M but feel that they've conceded on the term of the deal. [6th Sens]
• Our weekly question for this week is generating some great discussion - would you trade for Jeff Petry? [Weekly Question]
• George and Matty continue Bonk's Mullet new feature, where they go through teams and argue: "it could be worse". This time, the Oilers edition. [Bonk's Mullet]
• I touched on this last week with a Detroit Free Press article, but Sheer_Craziness goes into more detail on what would happen if Alfie retires. [Silver Seven]
• Here's Eden's piece on chemistry and the Ryan - Zibanejad - Chiasson line. [The Storied Sens]
• Some fantastic analysis from Manny, who has been tracking every Sens game so far, and has his thoughts after five games. Occasionally, I'll be adding in Manny's stats into this feature, so look out for it soon! [SenStats]
• Here are your prospect updates! The Senators have started to release their Monday updates. [Ottawa Senators]
• Ian looks into the BSens games played this past week and has his thoughts on certain BSens players! [Silver Seven]
• Now here's Jeff with his great BSens coverage, who keys in on the fact that even though the BSens lead the AHL in shots for (~42), they also lead the league in shots against (~41). [SenShot (Syracuse), SenShot (Portland)]
• Mike Wheeler + Capital_Gains65, who was featured on a Sportsnet broadcast, look at name pronunciations. [Bonk's Mullet]
• Those in Ottawa will know more (be more excited?) about this, but as of right now I'm pretty skeptical. Supposedly, the Senators have submitted an arena proposal for the LeBreton Flats area. [6th Sens]
• Here's week two of a beloved Silver Seven feature - Ups and Downs! Sheer_Craziness takes us through it. [Silver Seven]
• I knew that Bryan Murray was battling cancer, but didn't know that it was keeping Assistant Coach Mark Reeds out as well. Wishing them the best, as the NHL's "Hockey Fights Cancer" month definitely has a local focus this time around. [Ottawa Citizen]
• Lastly, go listen to the thing I'm listening to right now! Episode 12 of the Chet Sellers & Luke Peristy podcast. [Silver Seven]

The first sustained road trip of the season begins tonight in Ottawa. It's time to build on the early success with a sixty minute performance.

Columbus Blue Jacketsat Ottawa Senators

The Blue Jackets and Ottawa Senators share a number of common traits coming into this early season matchup.  They boast identical 3-1 records, sit 2nd in their respective divisions, and are likely considered as somewhat of a surprise in the early going.  Columbus is not know for its fast starts, and the loss of Boone Jenner and Brandon Dubinsky for the early part of the season was not a good omen.  Ottawa is still stinging from the loss of Jason Spezza in the off-season, and is without former Blue Jacket Marc Methot, who is rehabbing a nagging back ailment.

Both clubs also have proven to be tenacious in the early going.  Columbus dominated the games against Buffalo and the Rangers, made a strong comeback bid against Dallas, and came out of the gates strong against Calgary, storming to a 3 - 0 lead after two periods, and holding on for the 3 - 2 victory.  Ottawa played three one-goal games in victories over Tampa Bay and Florida, and a loss to Nashville, before overcoming an early three goal deficit against Colorado.

Clarke MacArthur has carried much of the early offensive mail for the Senators, who have also gotten some stellar play in goal from Robin Lehner and Craig Anderson.  With Bobby Ryan and Kyle Turris lurking, the Sens are a potentially dangerous offensive team, as their third period rally against the Avalanche demonstrated.

The Blue Jackets have seemed dominating at times, but have also taken periods off.  They were emotionally flat in the first period against the Stars, and allowed Calgary back into the game in the third.  With Curtis McElhinney slated to make his season debut in net, a sixty minute effort is essential.  Speed and an aggressive forecheck can force Ottawa into taking penalties, enabling Columbus to potentially take advantage of the Senators' spotty penalty killing unit.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets

(3-1-0, 6 Points; 2nd division, 3rd conference)

Season Series

10/18/14 - Columbus at Ottawa

10/28/14 - Ottawa at Columbus

2/7/15 - Columbus at Ottawa

Head to Head Stats

Corey Perry scored two goals in the last three minutes to complete his hat trick, but before that the Sabres were very much in the game.

Final Score: Anaheim Ducks 4, Buffalo Sabres 1

chart courtesy WAR-on-ice.com

First Period:

The night began with a moment of silence for the events that transpired in Ottawa earlier today, a gesture that was followed by the national anthem and then a ceremonial puck drop by Maria Montero from the Loma Linda University Cancer Center.

Less than a minute into the game, Rasmus Ristolainen leveled Andrew Cogliano with a big hit in the Ducks' zone. A couple minutes later, Tim Jackman got into a short-lived quasi-fight with Cody McCormick, and Jackman came out of it with an extra two minutes for cross checking. During the ensuing Buffalo power play, Cam Fowler blew a clearing attempt, which allowed Tyler Ennis to set up Matt Moulson for a tap-in, but Frederik Andersen got a toe on the redirect and sent it to the corner. Shortly thereafter, Cogliano made a nice play to Devante Smith-Pelly, who rang one off the shortside post shorthanded. After a couple more shorthanded attempts, Mark Fistric turned the puck over to Drew Stafford, who forced Andersen to come up big again.

As the halfway mark of the period approached, Fowler found himself with the puck behind his own net, and eight seconds later it was in the back of the other net, courtesy of Corey Perry. The obvious takeaways from this goal are that Ryan Getzlaf whips up a mean touch pass and Perry has a wicked wrist shot, but what will really please Bruce Boudreau is how well the Ducks moved the puck up the ice. All five players not only touched the puck but advanced it on this play, beginning with Fowler's outlet to Francois Beauchemin, continuing with smart plays by Beauchemin, Smith-Pelly, and Getzlaf, and ending with Perry's snipe.

On the next shift, Hampus Lindholm led the rush into Buffalo's zone and drew an interference call, but the Ducks didn't do a whole lot on their power play. Perhaps the most notable play was Tyler Myers stripping the puck from Perry, getting it stripped back, and then taking it back one last time.

In the two or three minutes following the Ducks' power play, the ice tilted toward Andersen's net. Cody Hodgson, Marcus Foligno, and in particular Ennis made some good plays and the Ducks' goaltender had to be sharp.

After that, the good guys took over. Between 5:25 remaining in the period and 3:40 remaining, the puck never left the Sabres zone, and Matt Beleskey, William Karlsson, and Rickard Rakell all had grade A scoring opportunities that were either turned away by Michal Neuvirth or missed the net. The Ducks continued to carry play throughout the rest of the period, and Neuvirth had to make a good save on Lindholm on a 3-on-2 with under 30 seconds left. Despite heading to the locker room with a 1-0 lead, the Ducks really didn't look any better than the Sabres until the last six minutes.

Second Period:

On the first shift of the middle frame, Stafford threw the puck on net and the rebound found its way onto the stick of Zemgus Girgensons, who would have tied it but for another toe save by Andersen, this one even more spectacular than the last. Not long after that, Fowler rushed up the ice and handed it off to Jakob Silfverberg, who put a slapshot on net that Neuvirth booted right out to Fowler, and Neuvirth had to make a good second save.

About four minutes into the period, Fowler was under pressure in his own zone, and he made a quick pass to the only "soft" area on the ice — his own crease, where Ben Lovejoy was waiting. Lovejoy was then free to make an easy play up the ice. I remark on this only because it vividly reminded me of a guy named Scott Niedermayer.

A few seconds after that, William Karlsson went for the puck at the Buffalo blue line and was tripped up by Mike Weber. Getzlaf, Perry, and Sami Vatanen all did some good things on the power play, but ultimately came up empty. Two and a half minutes after the penalty expired, Perry showed off some incredible stickhandling, but again Neuvirth stopped him.

On the following shift, the second line found themselves 3-on-2 against the Sabres' defense, and Cogliano passed it to Kesler in the middle, who shot quickly and reaped the benefits of a deflection off Weber. 2-0 Ducks. Less than a minute later, Vatanen lost a battle in his own zone to McCormick, who sent the puck to Andrej Meszaros at the point. Meszaros' ensuing slapshot hit the iron.

With under seven minutes to go, Vatanen dangled through a good chunk of the Sabres' defense and managed to draw a penalty, but both Perry and Getzlaf passed away their two best scoring chances on the power play. In the remaining few minutes, Lindholm and Perry made some nice plays, but the team as a whole was not dominant.

Third Period:

The Ducks saved their worst hockey for the first half of the third period. Take a look at that fancy chart up there, and pay attention to the area between 40 and 50 minutes. The eye test confirmed every bit of that. One of those scoring chances came off a beautiful pass by Getzlaf right onto the tape of . . . Chris Stewart. Another flurry in front resulted in Vatanen taking a penalty, and while the Sabres failed to convert on the power play, they looked plenty dangerous. It was actually after the penalty expired when they got their best chance. Perry turned it over and the puck ended up on Foligno's stick, who moved it to Stewart. The Toronto native was in alone on Andersen, but he missed with a backhand shot, and Andersen covered up his second attempt.

Getzlaf and Etem both had decent chances later on, but nothing extremely dangerous.

With about eight minutes to go, Myers held up Vatanen, and the replay makes it pretty clear that Sami sold the call as best he could. A belligerent Myers then went after the little Finn and earned himself a game misconduct on top of the initial holding call. Perry had a decent opportunity early on in the power play, but after that they could not produce any quality scoring chances.

A minute or so after the penalty expired, Nate Thompson turned the puck over to Moulson, who immediately put it on net, and Ennis was there to score on the rebound, making it a one-goal game with five minutes to go.

It wasn't until under three minutes were left on the clock that Perry sealed it. Getzlaf beat Girgensons to a loose puck (cause by a strange bounce off the glass) in the Sabres' zone and tapped it over to his twin, who blasted a long range one-timer that found its way under Neuvirth's left arm. 3-1 Ducks.

In the final few minutes, Buffalo put on some good pressure, but it wasn't nearly enough to overcome a two-goal deficit, and that deficit only increased when Perry hit the empty net for his second hat trick of the season.

********************

The Good: Superstar talent. The Ducks found themselves playing down to the level of their competition at times, but it only took a couple of opportunities for Getzlaf and Perry to create some goals. And while Andersen has a long way to go before he can be considered a superstar, he has been putting on a quite the show this season, and tonight was no exception.

The Bad: Having to rely on superstar talent against an objectively bad hockey team. Don't let the final score fool you; this game was nothing like the last one between these teams. For 57 minutes, it was a close game that could have gone either way, partly because the Ducks seemed content to sit on their two-goal lead, especially in the first half of the third period.

The Ugly: Egregious defensive zone turnovers. I can remember four really bad ones off the top of my head: Fistric in the first, and Getzlaf, Perry, and Thompson in the third. Only one of these (Thompson's) resulted in a goal, but any of the other three could have, and probably would have, against a good team.

********************

2nd MVD: Frederik Andersen — Not much needs to be said here. The Great Dane, now 6-0, continues to impress with sound play and the occasional ten-bell save, as Hazie calls them. None were more spectacular than his second period stoning of Girgensons.

1st MVD: Corey Perry — Just another game, just another hat trick. I was actually prepared to give Perry the 1st MVD before he scored his second goal, just on the basis of how much offense he was creating throughout the game. Even if Stewart had scored on Perry's turnover in the third, his contribution in the rest of the game would have far outweighed that one gaffe (which makes him not Nate Thompson).

Next Game: Friday, October 24th, 7:00 PM, vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

The Jackets have had a nice layoff after Saturday's loss in Ottawa. Can they rebound as they kick off their California swing?

Columbus Blue Jackets at San Jose Sharks

October 23, 2014 - 10:30 pm EDT
SAP Center - San Jose, California
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Fear The Fin

First and foremost, I got out of bed around 8:45 this morning. This is after getting into my bed at 7:30 PM. On Tuesday night. In other words, I've been sick with some kind of monster energy-sucking virus. At times over the past couple of days, I've felt like this guy. So, if this preview is crap, well, there you go. Briefcase tacos.

At any rate, the Jackets have been in California all week preparing for three games in four days through the Golden State. For the life of me, I never understand why the NHL schedule-makers see fit to make the Jackets play a back-to-back WITH travel, when they could much more easily play the back-to-back in LA with no travel. They do this to us every time. Sucks.

Anyway, the Jackets have had some time to work through their loss on Saturday (the Sharks actually had less time between games and longer travel, oddly enough), and spent some time on Tuesday doing some team-building. They have also made some tweaks to their lineup, at least in practice. It looks like Scott Hartnell will stay up on the top line with Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno, and Cam Atkinson will drop to the third line with Matt Calvert and Alexander Wennberg. This makes sense, as Wennberg just plays more like a natural center and should fit in with the speed and hustle of the Atkinverts. The second line is completely jumbled, with Mark Letestu moving up and Jack Skille staying up. Hopefully this can help Letestu get going.

The Sharks started off super hot, getting nine points in their first five games (4-0-1). They have, however, lost two in a row as they finished a crazy road trip. They lost in New York and in Boston, though after that much travel it certainly makes some sense. They've only played one home game thus far, but imagine they will be happy to be back at home.

That said, Columbus has played the Sharks well over the past few seasons, as for some reason the Jackets' physicality seems to take San Jose out of their game. These teams have been remarkably similar in terms of their overall stats, with the difference being special teams. The Sharks' Power Play has been--as usual--very good whereas the Jackets' has been middle of the road. Conversely, the Sharks' PK has been pretty atrocious thus far, whereas Columbus is yet to allow a PPG. Whether those things will cancel each other out could go a long way toward deciding this game.

As of now, nothing official has been announced for the Sharks in goal. They've been alternating between Niemi and Stalock every game. By that rationale, it would be Stalock's turn to start. Both have been solid, but Stalock's numbers have been slightly better. We shall see.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(3-2-0, 6 Points; 6th division, 12th conference)

San Jose Sharks
(4-2-1, 9 Points; 3rd Division, 5th Conference)

Season Series

10/23/14 - Columbus at San Jose
11/15/14 - San Jose at Columbus

Head to Head Stats

The Jackets have had a nice layoff after Saturday's loss in Ottawa. Can they rebound as they kick off their California swing?

Columbus Blue Jackets at San Jose Sharks

October 23, 2014 - 10:30 pm EDT
SAP Center - San Jose, California
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Fear The Fin

First and foremost, I got out of bed around 8:45 this morning. This is after getting into my bed at 7:30 PM. On Tuesday night. In other words, I've been sick with some kind of monster energy-sucking virus. At times over the past couple of days, I've felt like this guy. So, if this preview is crap, well, there you go. Briefcase tacos.

At any rate, the Jackets have been in California all week preparing for three games in four days through the Golden State. For the life of me, I never understand why the NHL schedule-makers see fit to make the Jackets play a back-to-back WITH travel, when they could much more easily play the back-to-back in LA with no travel. They do this to us every time. Sucks.

Anyway, the Jackets have had some time to work through their loss on Saturday (the Sharks actually had less time between games and longer travel, oddly enough), and spent some time on Tuesday doing some team-building. They have also made some tweaks to their lineup, at least in practice. It looks like Scott Hartnell will stay up on the top line with Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno, and Cam Atkinson will drop to the third line with Matt Calvert and Alexander Wennberg. This makes sense, as Wennberg just plays more like a natural center and should fit in with the speed and hustle of the Atkinverts. The second line is completely jumbled, with Mark Letestu moving up and Jack Skille staying up. Hopefully this can help Letestu get going.

The Sharks started off super hot, getting nine points in their first five games (4-0-1). They have, however, lost two in a row as they finished a crazy road trip. They lost in New York and in Boston, though after that much travel it certainly makes some sense. They've only played one home game thus far, but imagine they will be happy to be back at home.

That said, Columbus has played the Sharks well over the past few seasons, as for some reason the Jackets' physicality seems to take San Jose out of their game. These teams have been remarkably similar in terms of their overall stats, with the difference being special teams. The Sharks' Power Play has been--as usual--very good whereas the Jackets' has been middle of the road. Conversely, the Sharks' PK has been pretty atrocious thus far, whereas Columbus is yet to allow a PPG. Whether those things will cancel each other out could go a long way toward deciding this game.

As of now, nothing official has been announced for the Sharks in goal. They've been alternating between Niemi and Stalock every game. By that rationale, it would be Stalock's turn to start. Both have been solid, but Stalock's numbers have been slightly better. We shall see.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(3-2-0, 6 Points; 6th division, 12th conference)

San Jose Sharks
(4-2-1, 9 Points; 3rd Division, 5th Conference)

Season Series

10/23/14 - Columbus at San Jose
11/15/14 - San Jose at Columbus

Head to Head Stats

The Gophers face Bemidji State Friday (8:00 p.m. CT) and Saturday (7:00 p.m CT) at Mariucci Arena.

Minnesota returns to action for the first time in two weeks Friday when the Gophers play Bemidji State in a two-game series at Mariucci Arena (Friday at 8:00 p.m. on BTN/Saturday at 7:00 p.m. on FSN+). It's a building where the home team is coming off a year with a 15-1-3 record. Having time off so early has benefits for a sport where the first exhibition game sometimes comes the evening of the first official practice. Extra practice can help a team gel together.

That's not the way Justin Kloos prefers.

"I'd maybe prefer not to have it because you want to jump into things," Kloos said. "We've had 100 practices since we ended our season last year so we're ready to go, ready to get some games under our belt and see what kind of team we have this year."

Competitive practices aside, the top-ranked Gophers (2-0-0, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) will get into game mode over the next four weeks with series against the Beavers, St. Cloud State, Notre Dame and Minnesota-Duluth. This first one matches Minnesota with a team which is also coming off of a bye week after splitting a home-and-home series against North Dakota.

While the Gophers swept Bemidji State (1-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) on the road last season in a breakout performance for Kloos (the now- sophomore forward had a goal and four assists in two games), there are differences between last year's version and the one coming into Mariucci Arena.

"(Bemidji is) a much better team. They have six defensemen who are mobile, two very good goaltenders," said Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. "They're deeper and quicker up front than a year ago. They went into Grand Forks and won 5-1 and it was 2-1 the next night. They're a good team and as good a team as we'll have seen this year."

The Beavers feature junior forward Cory Ward, who has had success against Minnesota in the past, scoring 4 goals in 6 games against the Gophers. New to BSU this year are the Fitzgerald triplets - Myles, Leo and Gerry. It's not often that Minnesota, with its three Reillys, is matched in the family quantity department.

The 2 trios, however, have actually played against one another before in the BCHL. The three Reillys (twins Ryan and Connor and younger brother Mike)  were members of the Penticton Vees in 2011-12 facing the three Fitzgeralds' Victoria Grizzlies.

According to Mike Reilly, that was the only time he's ever played against that many siblings.

"Never before that. I think they're all the same size too, triplets," he said. "I think they're in the movie ‘Baby Genius' too. They actually told us that." (Ed. note - that's true. The Fitzgeralds were also in Baby Genuises 2 aka one of the worst movies ever made.)

As far as personnel goes, this weekend marks the collegiate debut of Swedish freshman Leon Bristedt. Lucia isn't sure where he will play other than the fact that he will get time. Everyone is healthy, but the Gopher head coach is trying to find a balance among his forward corps. Lines have been moved around frequently in practice and won't be settled until Thursday.

The top three lines are somewhat set with two players apiece and figuring out who the third player to join them will be is something the coaching staff "don't know yet." It's only something that will be discovered through repetition in games.

Just another reason for getting back into games.

"It's great to practice, but you have to play games in order for guys to get an idea of what they are capable of doing," Lucia said.

There's also a good chance all eight defensemen play again this weekend.

"It's as much (associate head coach Mike Guentzel's) decision as anything else, what he wants to do back there," added Lucia. "We can get to a point where we go 11 (forwards) and 7 (defensemen) some nights 12 (forwards) and 6 (defensemen). We have a lot of flexibility back there.

"We're trying to win some games, but at the same time bring the young guys along."

Other notes:

- Both weekend games have special ceremonies. Friday's will honor the 2013-14 Big Ten regular season championship - Minnesota's third straight time doing that - and national runner-up team. Saturday's game will honor Mike Reilly after the junior defenseman was named a first team All-American last year. The Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick is the first Gopher to earn that honor since Ryan Stoa in 2009 and will have his grandparents in attendance.

"It's going to great for them to come and see that and a lot of other relatives and cousins so I'm sure there will be a lot of people watching," he said. "It just reflects the guys on the team. It's about the guys so we just have to get the win. It's more important."

-Minnesota players received Big Ten championship rings last week. For Reilly they were bigger than expected.

-Lucia on what he learned about the Gophers from the opening Ice Breaker series:

"I think we learned that there's a certain way we have to play. The more we move the puck and share the puck and get the puck down to the offensive goal line we're a better team. I thought at times in Friday's game we held onto it too much and tried to do a little too much one on one. That's not going to fly."

-Kloos on growing from freshman to sophomore season:

"I'm not too comfortable, which I don't think anyone is just because there are so many good players on our roster. I think I feel more comfortable in the games - maybe a little more confident to start the year than last year - so hopefully we'll put together a good year.

-The Beavers spent part of the week practicing in Grand Rapids to prepare for the Olympic-sized ice sheet.

-According to Jack Hittinger of the Bemidji Pioneer, BSU is planning to once again split the goalie workload. Freshman Michael Bitzer will start Friday's game. Senior Andrew Walsh will be in net Saturday.

-------------------

Nathan Wells is a college hockey columnist for SB Nation. You can also follow him on Twitter -- Follow @gopherstate

In what can only be called one of the more remarkable efforts in the annals of Blue Jackets hockey, Columbus edged the Sharks 5-4. We'll be talking about this one for a while.

After what seemed like an eternity without a game on the ice, the Blue Jackets ventured into the Shark Tank to battle an old nemesis.  To aid in the cause, Todd Richards rolled out the new line of Calvert -- Wennberg -- Atkinson, designed to capitalize on speed and skill, and hopefully create some mismatches.  Also debuting for Columbus were Adam Cracknell and Cody Goloubef, while Scott Hartnell moved to the top line.

Period 1:  WD-40 Anyone?

Rolling out new pieces is a fine idea, except perhaps when your club is coming off an extended rest period.  While the Blue Jackets came out with energy, their execution was . . . well . . . we'll go with "ragged."  The first shift for the top line provided a solid opportunity, but San Jose soon leveraged their experience to put on a passing clinic, rendering the Blue Jackets forecheck impotent, and causing the forwards to chase the play back to their own zone.  That's not a recipe for success.

At the 5:11 mark, San Jose made the Blue Jackets pay.  Adam Burish played bull to Cracknell's matador, and simply skated past him down the left wing.  The Sharks filled the center of the ice, as Burish angled toward the circle.  His head said "pass", but his wrists said "shot", and he buried a perfect wrister in the far corner.  Jason Demers drew the assist, and the Sharks had first blood.

The Blue Jackets continued to largely chase the play, but successfully killed Letestu's holding penalty at the 10:44 mark. However, shortly thereafter, Matt Calvert was called for a borderline high sticking penalty, and the Sharks cashed in.  Joe Pavelski set up his shop right in front of Bobrovsky, and deftly deflected Couture's shot from up high, caroming off Bobrovsky's glove and trickling into the net.  2 - 0 San Jose, with Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau garnering the helpers.

As the period wound down, the Blue Jackets gained some momentum, and put a modicum of pressure on the Sharks, with Michael Chaput having the best opportunity.  Still, the numbers told the story.  San Jose held a 2 - 0 score advantage, led in shots 16-5, and dominated possession, as their 67% Corsi figure attests.  Not the start Columbus wanted.

Period 2:  Identity Theft

The Blue Jackets came out of the gate with better cohesiveness in the second, but appeared to surrender the advantage when James Wisniewski took a holding penalty.  Ironically, however, that may have provided the spark that ignited the most memorable period of the young season.

While San Jose pressed the play early with the extra man, the Blue Jackets stopped reacting and started defending. They got in passing lanes and deflected pucks.  They cleared the puck, and they skated.  Artem Anisimov had a significant short handed chance, and the Blue Jackets actually dominated the puck possession for the last 45 seconds of the PK session.  A power play at the 4:08 mark did not bear fruit, but it provided some more chances and further established the possession game, instilling a bit more confidence in the troops.

That confidence bore results 8:22 into the period.  Ryan Johansen came down the left wing, appeared to slow, then kicked it into high gear, executing a power drive toward Antti Niemi's right post.  En route, Johansen delivered a crafty little backhand that gracefully found its way over the net minder's right shoulder, off the crossbar, and into the net.  As Bill Davidge would say -- "a goal scorer's goal."  Scott Hartnell and Nick Foligno earned the assists, and the lead was cut in half.

Fortune seemed to take another evil turn when Jack Skille went off for interference with 9:00 left in the frame.  Again, however, the Blue Jackets found a way to turn adversity into opportunity.  With about 50 seconds left in the power play, Fedor Tyutin got the puck deep in his zone, and launched a perfect outlet pass to Anisimov high in the neutral zone.  Anisimov created some room to the right, while Mark Letestu drove the middle against two defenders.   Anisimov found the seam, putting the puck squarely on Letestu's stick.  A quick forehand-backhand deke, and it was a tie game.  Tyutin and Anismov had the well earned assists.

Before the assembled crowd could get comfortable in their seats, the Blue Jackets struck again.  Ryan Johansen took a feed down the left, and appeared to overstate the puck, creating a turnover opportunity for San Jose.  Not so fast, however.  Hartnell contested the play, and Johansen corralled it with his long stick.  Now unmarked, Johansen spun and fired a laser past Niemi for an unassisted tally, providing a 3 - 2 lead.  The Shark Tank was as quiet as I've ever heard it.  It was a stunning reversal of fortune, and made you wonder who those impostors in Columbus sweaters were during the first period.

The Blue Jackets had another golden opportunity when Brent Burns was whistled for a 4:00 high sticking penalty at the 15:04 mark.  Although the Blue Jackets couldn't convert, they had some prime chances, and it allowed them to dominate the remainder of the period.  Shots were 12-9 for the period in favor of the Blue Jackets, but the level of domination appeared much greater to the eye.  It left you asking -- "Who are these guys?"

Period 3 -- So You Thought You'd Seen Everything?

With one awful period, and one amazing period, Jackets fans could be forgiven if they approached the third with some trepidation.  However, I'm not sure that anyone was prepared for the 20 minute roller coaster ride that was about to begin.

Columbus came out with energy, skating hard, but San Jose is a very, very good hockey club, who was likely a bit embarrassed in the 2nd period.  Just 2:05 in, the Sharks showed they don't take kindly to being shown up on its home ice.  While Matt Nieto and Jack Johnson battled in front of Sergei Bobrovsy, Joe Pavelski calmly collected the puck, took advantage of the double screen, and fired the puck into the back of the net.  Bobrovsky never had a chance to see it, and the game was tied.  Jumbo Joe Thornton notched the only assist on the play.

Fate seemed to take another adverse twist six minutes later.  Cody Goloubef -- who generally played a very solid game -- gathered the puck along the boards to Bobrovsky's right, checked his right shoulder, saw Fedor Tyutin, and sent a backhand across to avoid pressure.  Unfortunately, he didn't see Logan Couture, who was cruising down the slot toward the crease.  The puck found his stick at point blank range, and again Bobrovsky had no chance.  4 - 3 after the unassisted tally, and the steam seemed to have escaped from the engine.  Perhaps prophetically, however, Ryan Johansen quickly consoled Goloubef, seemingly saying "We'll get it back."

As anyone who watched last year's playoff series vs. the Penguins will attest, this Blue Jackets team simply does not know when to quit.  They may not click on all cylinders all the time, but there is no lack of effort, and no hanging of heads. That admirable quality came to the fore during the final ten minutes of this one.

Undaunted by the deficit, the Blue Jackets continued to exert pressure in the offensive zone.  That pressure forced Brent Burns to take another penalty -- this one for hooking -- at the 11:04 mark of the  3rd.  The ensuing power play was a picture of possession.  Sharp passing, good movement, presence in front.  Ultimately, James Wisniewski crept in a bit from the right point and let a shot fly.  Nick Foligno and Scott Hartnell were pressing the play in the blue paint, and Hartnell channeled his inner Maradona, nudging the puck with his skate across the crease to Foligno, who calmly deposited in the back of the net for the equalizer.  It was a goal produced by equal measures of skill and hard work, and the Silicon Valley crowd was left to once again silently contemplate their situation.

The clubs traded opportunities for the remainder of the period.  An apparent 2-on-1 offensive opportunity was negated when Nick Foligno was called for a retaliatory high stick away from the play.  The Blue Jackets responded with an aggressive penalty kill, and did not lose a step in pressing the play in the offensive zone.  However, the game seemed destined for OT or a shootout.  And then . . .

With just under a minute to play, Ryan Johansen came low to Niemi's left, and fired a laser that found the far side of the net, for what everyone assumed was his first NHL hat trick and the game winner.  But no.  The referee immediately waved the goal off, claiming "incidental contact in the crease" by Foligno.   The only problem was that Foligno was on the other side of the crease, being pinned to the right post by Marc-Edouard Vlasic.  Niemi was on the other side of the crease,hugging the left post, as the puck flew past his right shoulder. A simply horrible call.

In other times and places, this would have been the death knell for the club, an omen signifying a vast, malevolent NHL conspiracy against the Blue Jackets.  Heads would have been hung, and -- more often than not -- the vanquishing goal would have followed shortly.  Not here.  Not now.  Though Todd Richards appeared to visibly mock the call, the players went back to work.  They won the face-off outside the zone, and immediately reasserted possession. With 21 seconds left, David Savard let a point shot fly, directly on net.  The puck ticked ever so slightly off Scott Hartnell's stick, deflecting to the blade of Mark Letestu, stationed by the left post.  Niemi never had a chance, as the puck was directed squarely behind him.  Game, set and match to the Blue Jackets.  Somehow calling it a "thriller" just doesn't do it justice.

Highs & Lows

While the efforts of Johansen, Letestu and Foligno are obvious, the guy you have to really tip your hat to tonight is Scott Hartnell.  All night long, he was in the middle of the play, doing all of the little things that make him so respected around the league.  He was instrumental in the tying goal, and when the dust had settled at the end of the evening, Hartnell had three assists, giving him eight for the season in six games.  Not a bad pace for someone the Flyers put to pasture.  Only Johansen and Foligno  -- with 9 points each -- have more points on the club.

The biggest positive was the tenacity the club showed in overcoming their own poor start, coming back from two deficits, and not getting rattled by a really bad call.  When the Blue Jackets play with speed and without hesitation, they are beautiful to watch.  Throughout the second, and for most of the third, they maintained their spacing, played as a unit, and looked like a very dangerous club.

Todd Richards apparently abandoned the Atkinson--Wennberg--Calvert experiment in the middle of the game.  Calvert was a warrior, as usual, and Atkinson showed speed, but no finish.   As noted above, this may not have been the night to debut that combination, but it has potential as time progresses.

On the negative side, the Blue Jackets still need to turn possession into shots more effectively.  Although the Corsi numbers improved to 47% for the game in all situations, they put themselves behind the eight ball, and you can't rely on comebacks every night.  However, the Sharks are an experienced, talented and cohesive club, so I have to give a bit of a break on this score.

Of slightly greater concern is some of the defensive play.  Jack Johnson is the prime offender here, and I find it amazing that he can have such a poor start to the season after being stellar in the playoffs and having a solid pre-season.  He appears slow, indifferent and uncertain out there, and the trickle down effect is significant.   The Blue Jackets also allowed far too much traffic in front, and too much time and space across the middle.  Bobrovsky made some unbelievable saves through traffic, and the Anaheim Ducks squad they will face tomorrow night will present an even more formidable challenge out front.

However, in the final analysis, this one is one for the scrapbook.  Demonstrating the ability to shake off the cobwebs, find their game, and be resilient enough to come back against a really good hockey club on its home turf is just flat out impressive.  It provides the perfect start for the trip, and guarantees that they will come home no worse than .500 for the season.   That's a good spot to be in after what is just about the toughest road trip of the season.   Nice work.

Before tonight's Blue Jackets @ Ducks game, let's take a look at the world of hockey and graphic novels. Another serious post!

We've talked about comics here on Battle of California before, and maybe we've brought up hockey once or twice. Now lets put these two things together.

You may recall a couple months ago I posted some information about a retro-style hockey video game tournament which you could win some cash by participating in. The video game and the tournament, as I explained at the time, were setup to help promote a new graphic novel written by Howard Shapiro (illustrated by Marcia Inoue, colored by Andres Mossa) titled The Hockey Saint.

While the tournament has been postponed (new date to be announced), Shapiro's graphic novel is out now, and I'd like to take some time to talk about it now. I read an advanced copy back in August, and I've had the pleasure of some brief back-and-forth correspondence with Shapiro, an incredibly nice guy. Here's my review of his book, and I will point out that this post is not a paid sponsorship or advertisement.

Here's the official synopsis from the back of the book:

Twenty-one year old Jeremiah Jacobson is the world's best hockey player, but he wasn't prepared for the frenzy and scrutiny that came with that title. Tom Leonard is an average college sophomore... just a guy trying to find his place in the world as he sorts through issues that are both very real and seemingly insurmountable.

Through a chance meeting, these two strike up an unlikely friendship. Their bond is tested when Tom discovers that his idol isn't as perfect up close as he seems from afar. With Jeremiah living a little too much in the moment and with his past catching up to him, will Tom be able to help him before it's too late?

First off, I should point out that what I perceive as the target audience for this novel is quite a bit younger than who typically visits this site. It definitely has a "Young Adult" fiction vibe. That's not particularly uncommon with many graphic novels however (nor is it a bad thing), and Shapiro's work was enjoyable and worth the read (but don't expect the type of crass, adult humor you find on Battle of California).

The Hockey Saint is part two of what will be a trilogy, but I had no trouble following along having never read the first in the series The Stereotypical Freaks. The novel stands on its own, not requiring the background from it's predecessor.

The novel touches on a number of themes; failures of traditional media, substance abuse, hero-worship (and, alternately, vilifying those about whom we don't know the full story), morality, and friendship. The novel is an attempt to reveal the individuals behind celebrity, who are of course just as real as the rest of us. The Hockey Saint does a good job of showing how athletes and celebrities have lives just as nuanced as our own.

When I started reading it, I was uncertain if the "young adult" targeted novel would keep my interest, but it certainly ending up keeping me engaged (and it didn't hurt that it was a quick read, at 150 pages).

If you wanted to check out Shapiro's work but also save yourself some money, the Kindle edition of The Hockey Saint is on sale for $2.99, though that pricing is for a limited time. A paperback version is also available, either through the publisher's website (Animal Media Group) or any other online outlets you would typically buy your books through.

Oh, and even though the tournament is being pushed back a bit, you can still go play The Hockey Saint Video Game over here.

Gameday

Oh yeah, that Anaheim Ducks game today...

Blue Jackets @ Ducks

Friday, Oct 24, 2014, 7:00 PM PDT

Honda Center

To get you in the mood, here's a clip of West-Coasters being fed some disgusting slop that Ohioans somehow call food.

Prediction

Jeremiah Jacobson gets called up to play for Columbus, and the Ducks just can't compete. Anaheim falls 2-1.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are back in town, but don't underestimate them just because they're riddled with injuries... plus a BOGcast Extra interview with Matt Wagner of CBJ blog The Cannon.

[Ed. Note:  Due to some scheduling issues, there won't be a full episode off the BOGcast this week, but Eric was able to catch up with Matt Wagner of SBN's Blue Jackets blog The Cannon.  Check that interview out here, and stay tuned to AC for another mini-BOGcast chat between Eric and Calvin Hobbes of Die by the Blade (and Royal Blue Mersey) -CK]

The  Columbus Blue Jackets have a tough test ahead of them as they head toward the Bermuda Triangle of the NHL...California. First stop, San Jose (a 5-4 comeback win last night). Second stop, Anaheim. And lastly the gates of hell (aka off the 110 freeway).

Game Notes:

The Blue Jackets will be a team that we will all continue to keep an eye because of their inconsistencies. What exactly are they? Well right now, they are pitiful and injury-bitten rag-tag bunch of young players that are eager to prove themselves in the big boys league. Here is a brief low-down of losses on the Columbus team:

Our best wishes are with Right Wing Nathan Horton since a couple of days ago, news broke reporting his career in jeopardy after being recently diagnosed with a degenerative spinal condition (hear more about it from the great Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch on yesterday's episode of Marek vs. Wyshynski).

In addition to Horton who is out indefinitely, Center Brandon Dubinsky has been out with an abdomen issue. Boone Jenner is out with a broken hand. Ryan Murray is listed as day-to-day with a knee injury. And Anton Forsberg was recently called up to back up Sergei Bobrovsky after back-up goaltender Curtis McElhinney was put on IR.

With that being said, the Blue Jackets are far from the Buffalo Sabres of the Metro Division. Despite their injury-depleted line-up, they have a 3-2 record thus far, having beaten the Buffalo Sabres, New York Rangers, and the Calgary Flames. They are known to be big and hard-hitting players with a relentless grinding style of play. The addition of Scott Hartnell during the off-season only added to the beefiness of this team.

Nick Foligno (2G and 5A) and Ryan Johansen (3G and 4A) both lead the Jackets tallying seven points each, and each earning at least one point in each of the Jackets' first five games.  Cam Atkinson has also began the season with a solid start, on a points-per-game pace thus far.

All this great and all, now what can the Ducks do against these foes? While the Blue Jackets have mustered surprisingly impressive numbers offensively (11th in the NHL in scoring), defensive breakdowns is what will eventually lead to their demise. The Ducks have greater speed and forecheck skill through all four lines. Against a goaltender like Bobrovsky, who is known for being extremely stingy in giving up goals, the Ducks will have to create traffic in front of the net, run cycles, and tire out the defense corps. While the Jackets have had a 100% success rate on the PK, they tend to show defensive holes on the 5-on-5 play.

The Jackets will be playing back-to-back, heading to Anaheim after having played the San Jose Sharks Thursday night. The Ducks should look forward to jumping on the team early on.

What Can We Learn From this Game:

The Ducks will have to find a balance between speed and grinding-style of play. Last season, there were games in which the Ducks would be held back by attempting to imitate that same style of play. Instead of doing so, the Ducks should take advantage of their greater speed and skill and expose the inexperienced youth of the Jackets.

The Ducks are riding a six-game winning streak and grabbing another two points will be important as they head into the last home game in this 3-home-game series against Pacific rival, San Jose Sharks. The Ducks will want to enter Sunday's game with momentum, so that they can head back on the road with confidence.

Lastly, it should also be interesting what Bruce Boudreau decides to do in net. Frederik Andersen is indeed due a night off, and John Gibson was called back up earlier this week after a brief stint in Norfolk. It is obvious that Andersen will begin this season as the Ducks' number one goaltender, but as seen last season, that can change in an moment. Keep an eye on net performance.

Fearless Prediction:

John Gibson reminds everyone why he is an American Hero and posts a shutout on his night back starting on Honda Center ice.

Stay tuned here for updates throughout the day (lineup news, etc.) and start commenting. We'll have a quick stats pack shortly before puck drop for the in-game comments to flow.

Pit your knowledge of David Hasselhoff and Mike Hoffman against other Sens fans!

Mike Hoffman has been on the radar of Sens fans for some time now. However, his strong performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night (one goal, one assist, a penalty shot, general awesomeness) led to many David Hasselhoff jokes and headlines, Silver Seven included.  With so many Hoffman and Hasselhoff comparisons floating around, the real question is, can you tell them apart?

Take this quick quiz and find out!

1.       Which Hoff is named Mike and has great wheels?

2.       Which Hoff helped give birth to something in 1989?

3.       Which Hoff has a connection to something or someone named Hobie?

4.       Which Hoff had a beach corsi (all rescue attempts) of 67?

5.       Which Hoff broke his collarbone, jeopardizing his swimming and career?

Answers:

1.       Both! David Hasselhoff played Michael Knight on Knight Rider and drove around in K.I.T.T., a customized 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. Mike Hoffman is very fast at skating.

2.       David Hasselhoff had a hit single in West Germany with "Looking For Freedom" which he performed from atop the Berlin Wall, which had already started to come down, on New Year's Eve, 1989. Mike Hoffman, on the other hand, was simply born in 1989. That jacket. That scarf. To think, this footage was almost lost.

3.       David Hasselhoff's character on Baywatch, Mitch Buchannon had a son named Hobie. Mike Hoffman never won the Hobey Baker Award, nor did he ever play college hockey.

4.       David Hasselhoff played Mitch Buchannon on Baywatch. Beach corsi is entirely made up. But Mitch will try and rescue anything, even a paper bag.

5.       Mike Hoffman broke his collarbone before the AHL All-Star break in 2012-13 and re-injured it later in the season. Presumably it got in the way of his swimming.

Minnesota returns to action and the Michigan schools travel East.

This week's Pick Six is going to sneak in a seventh thought right off the bat. It will be hard for the 8 games this week to go as poorly as the 10 this past weekend.

No seriously it was bad. The 5 Big Ten teams playing went a combined 2-7-1. Every school besides idle Minnesota, who matched that win total by itself in the Ice Breaker, lost at least once. Last weekend was so bad SEC fans were chomping at the bit before realizing this wasn't Big Ten football.

This weekend continues the non-conference play which will go through the end of November along with the Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge. Michigan and Michigan State travel to Massachusetts to each play UMass-Lowell and Boston University once apiece for games that will count in the Challenge (Hockey East currently has a 10-9 lead). Penn State hosts Holy Cross at Pegula Arena. #1 Minnesota plays its first home game since March 1 when the Gophers host Bemidji State.

Games (all times local to team's home):

Friday October 24

Michigan @ UMass-Lowell - 7:00 p.m .ET
TV: NESN (Tom Caron play by play, Billy Jaffe color), Radio: IMG Sports Network, Stream: None

Holy Cross @ Penn State - 7:00 p.m. ET
TV: None, Radio: 103.1 WRSC FM, Stream: GoPSUsports.com ($$$)

Michigan State @Boston University - 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: None, Radio: WVFN 730 AM/Spartan Sports Network  Steam: GoTerriers.com ($$$)

Bemidji State @ Minnesota - 8:00 p.m. CT
TV: BTN, Radio: 1500 ESPN (Minneapolis), Stream: BTN2Go.com

Saturday October 25

Michigan @ Boston University - 7:00 p.m. ET
TV: None, Radio: IMG Sports Network, Stream: GoTerriers.com ($$$)

Michigan State @ UMass-Lowell - 7:00 p.m. ET
TV: None, Radio: WVFN 730 AM/Spartan Sports Network, Stream: None

Bemidji State @Minnesota - 7:00 p.m. CT
TV: Fox Sports North Plus, Radio: 1500 ESPN (Minneapolis), Stream: BTN2Go.com

Sunday October 26

Holy Cross @ Penn State - 12:00 p.m ET
TV: None, Radio: 103.1 WRSC FM, Stream: GoPSUsports.com ($$$)

Thoughts

1. Minnesota junior defenseman Mike Reilly (Columbus Blue Jackets) will be honored before Saturday's game for being named a 2013-14 First Team All-American. He hasn't had the same offensive success against Bemidji State, however. Reilly only has 1 goal in 5 career games against the Beavers. Fellow defenseman Ben Marshall (Detroit Red Wings) leads the Gophers with 4 goals in 8 games.

2. For more Gophers tidbits, read our Notebook.

3. Penn State went to Alaska  last weekend and came back the most disappointed out of a disappointing weekend. Twice Guy Gadowsky's squad had a third period lead and twice gave it up. Alaska-Anchorage came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie with two goals in the final 5:41. The next night Alaska's Austin Vieth scored twice in a 27 second span to give the Nanooks a 4-3 lead.

Gadowsky had an idea as to why.

Guy: "I believe it is a mental toughness issue" on giving up goals late.

— TDC Men's Hockey (@TDC_MHockey) October 21, 2014

The Nittany Lions aren't the only ones. Despite four goals from Matt Berry on the weekend, Michigan State split with Massachusetts after giving up the winning goal with 9.9 seconds remaining. The good news for Penn State for this weekend's series, besides being in position to win games and getting shots on net by players like Eric Scheid, is that sophomore defenseman David Thompson isn't seriously injured after a skate laceration in Friday's game.

4. While the Gophers are more than ready to get going and not have an early week off, having two in a row seems beneficial for Wisconsin. The Badgers are 0-4 on the year after getting swept by Northern Michigan and with only three goals is near the bottom of every offensive category. UW is 0-19 on the power play to start the year and only Northeastern has averaged less goals per game.

It's not a shock Mike Eaves was going to have a tough job replacing the vast bulk of his scoring. Nor is it a shock that the Badgers are struggling - there were moments when the bulk of scoring was around and struggles existed. With a schedule that includes top-10 North Dakota and Ferris State along with an undefeated Denver in the next month, the road doesn't get easier. Sounds like the Badgers are trying new line combinations for when Wisconsin returns to action November 7th.

5. Ohio State is also off this week after getting out-played and out-shot by Miami in a two-game sweep. Christian Frey made a career-high 60 saves Saturday in a 2-1 loss (the winning goal being a wraparound). Even more, the possession numbers are abysmally bad (or good if you're part of The Brotherhood). As Jashvina Shah of College Hockey News points out, the even strength Corsi numbers for the Buckeyes were under 20% for the first 40 minutes. The third period saw the RedHawks out-shoot Ohio State 23-6.

6. Michigan finally got a win on the year Saturday after dropping two games; the latter being a 5-1 defeat to new Hampshire. More importantly, Michigan gets a B1G crack at Jack Eichel. It's not often that two draft-year eligible players go against one another in college hockey, but this year sees it happen several times and kicks off with Eichel and Wolverines defenseman Zach Werenski.

Still, this weekend is one where Michigan needs to do well against UMass-Lowell and the Terriers. With 14 non-conference games, having a winning record is important towards the end of the year when the Pairwise determine the NCAA field. A 1-4 start against non-conference foes is a big hole for a team that began the year with aspirations to return to the final 16.

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Nathan Wells is a college hockey columnist for SB Nation. You can also follow him on Twitter -- Follow @gopherstate