Huh – Let’s see that again
Initially I suspected it was Halloween and some other team was masquerading as the Blue Jackets. Usually with Mason in net, the opposing players take up residence in the blue ice and just stay there all nite. Not so tonite, Sure, players came in and Mason even went down with an apparent injury amid a scramble of players, but the Jackets did a good job of moving any homeless Canadians along before they took residence. Then there were the lines. With Pahlsson out due to sickness A Johnson played a winger. But during the game, I honestly couldn’t tell if line changes were so broken that the lines were mixed or if Scott Arniel was mixing lines. [Johansen was looking slow and unsure]
Then the shootout.
Not long ago, the Dispatch would refer to it as the skills competition and everyone woud sigh and the Jackets would lose. Tonite it was 3 for 3 with SO goals. Tonite is was 3 SOs in a row with a W attached. Tonite it was a different cast of characters as out came the Wiz. [If you watched the coaches after Wiz scored and we won, they were congratulating themselves on their selections] Tonite Rick Nash got his goal, making it 4 out of his last 6 SO attempts. He has improved greatly since he stopped leading off. Maybe he’s getting a goalie read, but he certainly looks like a different Nash.
