After Further Review, Jackets Lose to Predators
By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Columnist

Sure, the terms “Nashville Predators” and “six-game winning streak” seem as incompatible as “Columbus Blue Jackets” and “road victory”, but tonight at Nationwide Arena, the Predators used the two V’s -- Vokoun and voodoo-- to defeat their perpetually flummoxed Ohio rivals by a score of 4-2, extending their franchise-record winning streak to six games. Vokoun, as expected, was superb, saving 37 of the 39 shots rifled his way. The voodoo came in the form of several choice bounces and a gift from the man upstairs (Hint: Not God), who denied newcomer Nikolai Zherdev of The Greatest Goal in Blue Jackets History™.

The game got off to a sluggish start, but the Jackets clearly controlled the action. Whenever a Nashville player unexpectedly found that black rubber thing on the end of the wooden thing he held in his hands, it was time to regroup behind the net and convene for the world’s slowest breakout. (These instances were greeted by a chorus of boos from the fans, before they even knew what REAL booing was about.) Meanwhile, at the mid-point of the period, Columbus was creating myriad opportunities and outshooting Nashville by a 4:1 ratio. Okay, the shots were literally 4-1 Columbus, but the ratio sounded more impressive. The game was pretty much Nyquil-On-Ice at that point, mostly due to Nashville’s dull tactics.

But then it happened. Oh did it happen!

With seven and a half minutes to play in the period, Zherdev corralled the puck directly behind the Nashville goal on the back boards. Zherdev was facing toward the right. Predators defenseman Marek Zidlicky attempted to hammer Zherdev through the wall, but the 19-year-old Russian twirled 180 degrees to avoid most of the contact. Zherdev fought through the check and started peeling out front on the left side of the zone, to Vokoun’s right. As he fought toward the front of the net, Zidlicky took his stick and pulled the skates right out from under the Columbus winger. Nevertheless, Zherdev’s momentum carried him across to the shooting side of the goal line. Then, while airborne, completely parallel to the ground, Zherdev kept control of his stick and still attempted to wrap the puck around Vokoun, who handled the play perfectly by coming off of his line to take away every conceivable angle. Yet Zherdev, who was (I cannot emphasize this enough) airborne and parallel to the ice, managed to push the puck out a little further and wrap it inside the far post. The inconceivable angle had been conceived in one almost-mythic moment of brilliance. The arena erupted in the manner of Krakatoa.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. All I could do, in total astonishment, was silently mouth three words that started with H, F, and S, respectively. (Hint: First word was “Holy.”)

“I just kind of stood there and dropped my jaw,” said Rick Nash, suddenly finding himself the jaw-dropper instead of the jaw-droppee. “That’s skill. The only other player who could make a play that amazing is maybe Kovalchuk.” (Ilya Kovalchuk is the young Atlanta Thrashers star who leads the NHL in goals.)

Amidst the jubilation, it was temporarily overlooked that the referees were talking on the telephone. The league had called from the Toronto office, saying they were reviewing the goal to determine if it was valid. Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes felt like hours. Then, six or seven hours (err, minutes) later, the referees waved off the goal. Toronto had ruled that the net had come off its pegs. Nevermind the fact that the net was tilted slightly upward by Zidlicky as he was in the act of hooking Zherdev, and nevermind that the net fell right back on its pegs and was in place when the puck went in. The league had spoken.

The Greatest Goal in Blue Jackets History™ had been reduced to The Greatest Disallowed Goal in Blue Jackets History™. In Cleveland, they pelt referees with beer bottles for this sort of injustice, but in Columbus, the referees were “let off” with a merciless booing at every whistle for the rest of the period. And when the replay was shown at intermission. And periodically throughout the rest of the game. It’s bad enough that the home team’s momentum had dissipated in the delay, but everyone in the building had been witness to what is surely one of the most magical first goals in NHL history, and it was wiped away on an inconsequential technicality from 425 miles away as if it were an insignificant crumb on a worthless countertop.

“They go to Toronto on everything,” groused Jackets coach Doug MacLean. “Everything has to be done out of Toronto. I don’t want to comment on it. It’s crazy.”

“I thought it was a good goal,” said Zherdev. (He’s either 100% correct or 1000% too modest, depending on which definition of “good goal” he had in mind.)

But the game finally went on. And in the early part of the second period, Nashville’s voodoo struck again. Twice. In the span of 21 seconds. At 2:58, Jason York unleashed a slapshot from the right point that nicked teammate Rem Murray and deflected past Jackets goalie Marc Denis to make it 1-0 Preds. At 3:19, some strange deflections in front eventually nudged the puck past Denis to make it 2-0. There was mass confusion on the goal. It was originally credited to Adam Hall, who bulldozed Darryl Sydor into the crease as the puck trickled in. But the scoresheet was later amended to give Scott Hartnell the goal. Mass confusion, I tell you.

At 18:06 of the second period, more replay weirdness ensued. Nashville winger Scott Walker waltzed around Sydor in the right corner and rushed along the goal line to the near post, where he attempted to jam the puck past Denis. The puck popped into the air, where Denis, Walker and Jackets defenseman Tood Rohloff all converged. The puck caromed into the net. (It appeared it was knocked in by Rohloff’s hand.)

But Toronto called! After a ten (yes TEN) minute delay, it was finally ruled that the net had been slightly (imperceptibly?) off its pegs due to the three-way collision. The goal was nullified. Preposterous. Although it possessed one-millionth of the style of Zherdev’s goal, it was equally worthy of being counted on the scoreboard.

“Even the Nashville goal that was disallowed, it was the same thing,” said MacLean. “It’s a bad rule. I talked to (NHL VP of Operations) Colin Campbell between the first and second period. He called me. We talked…it’s a bad rule. It went both ways tonight and it’s not the reason we lost, so there’s no sense talking about it. That’s for the GM meetings.”

Given a reprieve from a 3-0 deficit, the Jackets came out firing in the third. “Coming back to the locker room after the second period was like a cold shower,” said Denis. “We went back out, and decided if we were going down, we were going down swinging.”

The Jackets didn’t come out swinging. Instead, they came out shooting. (19 in the period!) Vokoun, however, could not be beaten. Even when a puck managed to squeak through his pads, it would trickle wide or be cleared by the defense.

Nashville’s Greg Johnson seemed to put the game away when he scored at 13:29 to make it 3-0. Jackets rookie defenseman Aaron Johnson pinched into the offensive zone as the Jackets pressed for a necessary goal. Greg Johnson exploited the vacancy when he scooped up a loose puck and led a 2-on-1 break. Going coast to coast, Johnson never made the pass, instead opting to deke the defenseless Denis to light the lamp.

But the Amazing Zherdev, who had earlier defied the laws of gravity, then defied the laws of nature by creating a spark in a vacuum. Just 59 seconds after the air had been sucked out of the arena by Johnson’s goal, Zherdev responded with his first “official” NHL goal to make it 3-1. Andrew Cassels won a neutral zone face off, which was dropped to Anders Eriksson, who played it up the left side and into the zone to Aaron Johnson. Johnson then made deft little pass to Zherdev in the left circle. In half a blink, Zherdev whipped a waist-high shot past Vokoun’s stick and inside the far post. The crowd went nuts once more.

“It was a great pass from Aaron Johnson,”said Zherdev, through an interpreter. “It was almost like he was Russian! I was feeling sorry for myself since they didn’t count my first goal, so I tried to prove to everybody that I could score. I tried really hard and I finally scored my goal.”

And Zherdev wasn’t finished either. At 19:39, with the goalie pulled, he assisted on Rick Nash’s 17th goal of the season to make it 3-2. The goal tied Nash’s rookie total from last year. He now has 58 games to get that milestone 18th, although it’s unlikely he’ll need more than one or two. The goal extended Nash’s point streak to seven games. (7 goals, 2 assists in that span.)

But before a miracle finish could even be contemplated, the Preds won the ensuing faceoff and Scott Walker immediately fired the puck into the empty Blue Jackets goal to make it 4-2. Game over.

“I didn’t think it was a close game,” said MacLean. “I think we dominated the game. We had unbelievable scoring chances but Vokoun was good. I thought we played a great game. They scored two goals in 30 seconds off some deflections. We had 39 shots. I can’t ask for anything more. We were the better team tonight. We deserved a better fate.”

But maybe the voodoo goes both ways after all.

“Last year they came in here and dominated us and we won 2-1,” said MacLean, “so now this year it’s the opposite.”


Sirk’s Three Stars

First Star: Tomas Vokoun (NSH): Constantly under siege, Vokoun turned in a 37-save performance and flustered the Jackets all night long.

Second Star: Nikolai Zherdev (CBJ): A goal, an assist, and a legendary goal that was taken away. Not only that, but the little skillful moments are dazzling. At one point in the first period, Nashville defenseman Mark Eaton had Zherdev lined up along the right boards. Before he (or I for that matter) knew what happened, Zherdev was on the other side of him with the puck. Eaton was still looking at the wall.

Third Star: Colin Campbell (NHL Office in Toronto): The league’s Toronto office had as a big a role in this game as any player. “Total, both goal reviews were at least a 15 minute delay,” said Nash. “It’s tough for the players on both teams. Your legs get tired because you’re standing around or sitting on the bench. It’s a big momentum swing.” Not to mention the delays sucked the life out of the arena. And although abiding by the letter of the law, both rulings were, in common-sense practical terms, bogus. Gee, with unsolicited goal-robbing rulings like these, no wonder scoring is down.