Jackets Can’t Beat Beasts Of East, Tie Flyers 1-1
By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Columnist

Historically, there are many groups of people you do not want rampaging into your town after sundown. Among these are the Huns, the Mongols and the Philadelphia Flyers, a hulking horde of stick-carrying brutes bordering on the invincible. The Flyers went undefeated in the entire month of November. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they came to Nationwide Arena in a relative slump, staggering to sluggish 3-1-1 record thus far in December.

Behind the superb goaltending of Fred Brathwaite and a heroic display of grit and guts by every skater on the ice, the Columbus Blue Jackets slugged out a 1-1 tie against the beastly Flyers, coming within 68 seconds of victory before Sami Kapanen salvaged the draw for the visitors.

“It was a really good tie,” said Jackets coach Doug MacLean. “Some ties are not good, but this was a good tie against a really good hockey team.”

Philadelphia set out to physically dominate from the initial face off, and they succeeded to a degree in the early going. The Jackets, however, refused to back down. In a comical first period episode, Scott Lachance checked a Flyer into the wall at the Columbus bench and tried three different times to push him over the wall. The Flyer hardly budged, but you had to admire the optimistic effort.

The Jackets took an early lead at 6:47 of the opening period, on Manny Malhotra’s third goal of the campaign. Nikolai Zherdev, International Man of Mystery™, hopped on a puck down low. He played out front to David Vyborny, who picked out Malhotra as he circled to the far post. Malhotra roofed Vyborny’s pass.

“It was a good effort with Nicky down low,” said Malhotra, “and then Veebs made an incredible play, not only putting a perfect pass on my tape, but he also waited long enough to draw the goalie and the defender toward him, giving me a lot of time at the back door. He gave me a nice big net to shoot at.”

That may have been the last net to shoot at all night, as the game became a tight-checking, physical affair. The refs seemed content to let the two clubs battle, and battle they did. As you might expect, the Flyers did their fair share of damage. As a club that averages 6’2” and 207 pounds, they are like the one youth team in every league that has the unusually enormous players that wear stubble and smoke cigarettes.

Sure, there are a few Flyer players who aren’t big enough to play for the Eagles as well, but even their little guys are tenacious. Mark Recchi plays like a pint-sized wrecking ball and star Jeremy Roenick is an agitator extraordinaire. But it’s the big guys you notice. Take John LeClair for example. Watch him send Todd Rohloff flying as if he were bodychecking an inflatable doll. Watch Todd Marchant bounce off of him as if he had skated full speed into the Zamboni. Watch him set up camp in the goal area in the same manner that an oak tree sets up camp in the woods.

But the Jackets kept at it. For all of LeClair’s physically imposing play, it speaks volumes about the Jackets that on one of the few occasions that LeClair found a loose puck in front of the net, which is how he has scored most of his 365 career goals, it was Andrew Cassels, outweighed by some 40 pounds, who found the strength to force LeClair’s stick off the ice to deprive him of the scoring chance. It was the tiny heroic battles, such as this one, that kept the Jackets in position to win.

Donald Brashear is another Philly brute, and he was out to cause some damage. Trying to fire his teammates up late in the second period, he was itching to fight, but could find no takers. Big hits, little shoves and everything in between, and no Jacket would bite. Flyers winger Sami Kapanen probably won’t be able to bite either, but that’s because Brashear knocked out two of his teammate’s teeth (also chipping a few others) while missing on check and catching the wrong man with his stick. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Trevor Letowski leveled Brashear with an enormous check a minute later, just before the second intermission. Again, the Jackets proved their mettle.

Bt 7:43 of the third, Brashear was boiling and thought he had his man in Jody Shelley. As the puck dropped on a neutral zone faceoff, Brashear clobbered Shelley, picking up a silly tripping penalty. Shelley kept his cool and set the team up for a crucial power play. Shelley’s sudden bout of pacifism almost paid big dividends late in the ensuing power play, but Zherdev, calm as a man can be in the high slot, rang a shot off the far post.

Three minutes later, Letowski clanged a shot off the post as well. Two golden chances to put the game away, both denied by inches. This is what is called an “omen.”

The Flyers tied it up with 1:08 to play on Kapanen’s fifth goal of the season. Kapanen, sans teeth, pounced on a loose puck behind the Jackets goal. He rushed to the post on Brathwaite’s left and tried to jam in a wrap around. The puck got stuck under Brathwaite, but Kapanen dislodged it with a second whack that provided the puck with barely enough impetus to cross the line.

“He came to wrap it around and I came off my post a bit,” said Brathwaite. “I didn’t see exactly where it went in, but I needed to stick to my post and let the puck hit me instead of worrying about what else is going on in front me. It’s disappointing because we had those two points tonight.”

“It was a good shift,” said Kapanen. “I got the loose puck and tried to take it to the net. I don’t know if it went five-hole, but it slowly trickled over the goal line.”

Kapanen’s goal forced overtime, and what an overtime it was. Rick Nash, who was questionable due to a groin injury, showed no ill affects on his first shift in OT. Nash had a full head of steam when Cassels found him for a breakaway. In all alone, with a chance to win the game and extend his personal goal and point streaks, Nash whistled a low shot inches wide of the left post. The arena was rocking.

Well, it rocked for a few seconds anyway. The Jackets were hit with a two-minute penalty for too many men on the ice. Seconds after the Jackets killed off that penalty, they were hit with a second penalty, a dubious boarding call on Scott Lachance. Basically, overtime turned into a 4-on-3 firing range in front of Brathwaite’s goal. The Flyers racked up 8 shots in the extra session, but Brathwaite came up huge. Cassels and Marchant also came up with the clutch clears. The horn eventually (mercifully) sounded and the Jackets skated off with a point.

“Freddy’s the main reason we got a point,” said Malhotra. “He stood on his head in the third and overtime when they were really peppering us. On the front end, we hit a few posts that could have made the difference, so that’s disappointing. But we have a lot of positives to take from this game.”

The Jackets went toe-to-toe with the beasts of the east, and they stood tall.

“By far the most physical game of the year,” said an exhausted Tyler Wright. “There will be a lot of ice bags tonight. This is the way we’ll have to play from here on out.”

Postscript: Kapanen and his teeth

After the game, it was awhile before Kapanen was available to talk to the media due to the aforementioned dental issues. The Philly reporters kept asking when “Kappy” would be available, and team officials enjoyed offering smart-alecky responses, such as “as soon as he’s done flossing.”

Eventually Kapanen came out to speak, and it was interesting to say the least.

When asked how his teeth got knocked out, Kapanen said, “It was Brash. (Brashear.) He went for a hit and his stick came up high and knocked my teeth out.”

How bad did it hurt?

“There wasn’t a whole lot of pain in my mouth. Maybe it was shock. It felt like I had a mouth full of sand. So no pain there, but I did have a headache. Not a big deal.”

So which teeth are gone?

“I lost two in the middle (on the bottom) and a few others got chipped.” (Pulls his lip down to show everyone his mangled mouth.)

Had you ever lost any teeth before?

“I lost my top ones five years ago. One was on the ice and the other one went up my nose and they had to pull it down.”

Up your nose?

“I’m a small guy. It’s not easy out there.”


Sirk’s Three Stars

1- Fred Brathwaite (CBJ)- 40 saves, including eight in overtime. “He’s a great pinch-hitter,” said MacLean. “He’s one of the best in the business and he’s been waiting for his chance. He came in and got us a big point with some outstanding saves. It was a really sound performance.”

2- Manny Malhotra (CBJ)- Scored the goal, but was buzzing around the ice all night. His speed and physical play were just what the Jackets needed against the enormous Flyers.

3- Sami Kapanen (PHI)- The tying goal was obviously huge. Plus I’ve got to give Kappy props for the quote “It felt like I had a mouth full of sand” and the story about his tooth getting stuck up his nose. Classic stuff.