Jackets Swarm Early In 5-1 Win Over Chicago
By Steve Sirk,  Columbus Wired (1/20/02)

To the untrained eye, the effect of the Blue Jackets coaching change seems to have been quite similar to that of a sugar buzz. When Dave King was replaced by Doug MacLean, the players were fed a big bowl of Fruity Pebbles with Jolt Cola for milk, and they rattled off three straight wins. Then the buzz apparently wore off, bringing about a three-game losing streak, culminating in Saturday’s insulin-fueled nap in Boston.

Stupid sugar analogies aside, maybe MacLean is right when he attributes his team’s recent struggles to the fact that within the span of eleven days, his team played five of six games on the road, traveling from sea to shining sea.

Given the chance to eat Pixie Sticks in the comfort of their own homes, the Jackets came out buzzing again tonight, dismantling the recently invincible Chicago Blackhawks 5-1. The game was for all intents and purposes over before the Zamboni made its first official appearance, as the Jackets jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead and never looked back. The defense was solid, the forecheck was menacing, and the points came from seemingly everyone on the roster.

It became apparent early in the game that the line of Jody Shelley, Sean Pronger and newly-recalled David Ling was intent on putting its stamp on the game. On their first shift, the fourth line managed to turn Phil Housley into oatmeal with a pair of booming checks by Pronger and Ling in the span of 15 seconds. This is the type of stuff you’d expect on the first shift by the Slugger, the Mucker and The New Guy.

Their second shift, however, would display a new wrinkle and send the Jackets on their way. In a series of sustained offensive pressure more befitting of lines one or two, the unflashy trio combined to pepper Blackhawks goalie Jocelyn Thibault with three shots in short order. The third shot of the sequence, off the stick of Pronger from close range, found the back of the net to give the Jackets a 1-0 lead.

“Sean Pronger and our fourth line got us a big goal and that got everybody going,” said goaltender Marc Denis.

“That line excites our team,” CBJ President/GM/Coach/Secretary/Cook/Surgeon Doug MacLean agreed. “The players were excited for them on the bench.”

When this group gets excited, it’s best to lock up the women and children and All-Star goaltenders. Jocelyn Thibault was beaten twice more in the opening period and then never saw the ice again.

The Jackets made it 2-0 at the 10:44 mark when David Vyborny slammed home a cross-ice pass from Geoff Sanderson on a 2-on-2 breakout. Andrew Cassels sprung the speedy Sanderson, who zipped up the left side before slotting a pass across the ice to a streaking Vyborny, who beat Steve Sullivan on a 100-foot race up the ice. Thibault had no chance.

The back-breaker came late in the third, when rookie Rick Nash notched a power play goal to put the home side up by a field goal. Nash worked the puck along the left boards and nudged the puck down low to Mike Sillinger who was at the goal line. After playing the puck, Nash lost his man by circling right back to the face-off dot from which he made the pass. Sillinger knocked it back to the kid, who whistled a shot through Thibault’s legs.

“That is how they’re supposed to come out every night,” MacLean said of his team’s opening period barrage.

Patiently and effectively playing the safety-first style preached by MacLean, the Blue Jackets eventually flustered the Blackhawks into submission. Not that there wasn’t more fun to be had.

With Thibault exiled to the bench, backup Michael Leighton held Columbus at bay in the second period, but it would take all of 57 seconds of the third period to make Leighton dejectedly glance behind himself. In a cringe-worthy moment that is surely keeping him awake as I type these words, Chicago’s Nathan Dempsey coughed up the puck in front of his own net. To make matters worse, the puck went right to All-Star Ray Whitney, who is going to the All-Star game for a reason. 4-0.

Before it could reach critical mass, the anticipation of a shutout was squashed when the Hawks benefited from some pinball in front of Denis’ net to finally get on the board with under eight minutes to play. Tyler Arnason was the beneficiary of a wickedly redirected rebound. Chris Simon’s shot hit the knee of teammate Mark Bell on the short side, then caromed across the crease to the stick of Arnason, who poached the goal to move back to within one point of Nash for the NHL’s rookie scoring lead.

On a night like this, one could almost feel that the Jackets weren’t going to let the evening end on even the slightest hint of a bummer, so Grant Marshall continued his recent scoring surge and made it 5-1. And then, in the game’s final minute, Ling obliterated Dempsey in the corner (for a boarding penalty), which brought about a rumble with Bell. Ling tossed the Bell to the ice and the fight was over before it had begun. The crowd roared their approval for the feisty fireplug in the #43 jersey.

“Linger makes a big hit there at the end, which I thought was a clean hit,” said MacLean, “and then Bell challenges him and Linger drops him too. The thing I like about David Ling is that he makes plays. Exciting plays.”

Ling certainly made an impression on everyone in his 2002-03 debut with the big club. But he was far from alone when it came to contributions. Denis saved 37 of the 38 shots he faced (seemingly all of which came off the stick of Sergei Berezin, who will shoot at the net anywhere, anytime. Seriously. His own goalies get nervous when he gets the puck in the defensive third.) The showy glove save Denis made to rob Steve Thomas in the third was Sportscenter material.

But it was more than just Denis. In his first NHL action of the season, well-traveled veteran Darren Van Impe logged more minutes than anyone on the team. Luke Richardson was always in the way when he needed to be. Jaroslav Spacek’s two assists gave him a six-game point-scoring streak, a club record for a defenseman. And every forward not named Tyler Wright or Matt Davidson ended up on the scoresheet. Think about that....TEN forwards tallied at least one goal or assist!


“We’re not good enough to survive if only four guys come to play,” said Denis, referencing MacLean’s remarks after the 7-2 loss to Boston on Saturday. “Guys 1-18 gave it their all tonight.”

*****

POSTSCRIPT

Tonight I witnessed the greatest mismatch in the history of the Shake For the Sofa promotion at Nationwide Arena. Shake For the Sofa basically pits two contestants against one another in a dance contest. The winner, determined by crowd applause, gets to watch the remainder of the game from the comforts of a sofa near center ice.

The contest is usually set up so that two dorky guys compete against each other, or two hot chicks, with the hottest chick automatically winning, even if she has the rhythm of Steve Urkel with an inner ear infection.

But tonight, some sadistic person at Nationwide Arena created a cruel mismatch between contestants named Lowell and Lynn. The rarely seen male vs. female dance-off never bodes well for the male, especially in a case like this.

Lowell was a bald white dude who tentatively danced like a bald white dude named Lowell.

Lynn, on the other hand, rhythmically gyrated her body in ways that left men weak and willing. The...ummm.... proportionality of her proportions were well proportioned, and she was dressed for maximum effect. There was skin where there needed to be skin, things were tight where they needed to be tight, and there was bouncability where there most certainly needed to be bouncability.

In terms of competitiveness, Lowell was the hamster being dropped into the python pit.

Nevertheless, the crowd took pity upon poor Lowell, or maybe there was some anti-hot-chick backlash amongst the females in the crowd, or maybe even some guys found a kindred spirit in one of their own playing the hapless fool in the presence of the mega-babe. Whatever the case may be, the judges had to measure the applause a second time before determining the winner.

Rest assured it wasn’t Lowell. A cruel but true microcosm of life....the tie always goes to the hot chick.