Chicago victory drops Columbus to the basement
By Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired
Photos by Tom Theodore

Accountability has been the general theme of Ken Hitchcock ever since he arrived in Columbus on Thanksgiving Day.

Roughly two months later, Hitchcock said changes have to be made to make the Blue Jackets a successful franchise coming on the heels of a 5-4 loss to Chicago in front of 17,054 at Nationwide Arena Sunday and a regionally televised audience.

“We started poorly again and there are some obvious competitive issues that we have to deal with,” he said. “It’s obvious that we have people who are not competing. I don’t think we can hide it anymore. We had players who gave us great effort today and others who gave us nothing.”

While Hitchcock said that it was obvious who was not playing competitively, he would not disclose whom he was talking about. With the trade deadline two weeks away, it’s assumed that Jackets general manager Doug MacLean will make a trade to deal with this matter.

With the win, Chicago leapfroged the Blue Jackets out of the Central Division cellar.

Like the Calgary game on Tuesday, the team came out with no fire and allowed Chicago to take a 3-0 lead some 12 minutes into the game. Goaltender Fredrik Norrena, who received a two-year contract extension earlier in the day, was yanked in favor of Pascal Leclaire, who came off the injured reserved list on Friday after missing 21 games.

The Jackets battled back behind the play of Anson Carter, David Vyborny and Ron Hainsey to make it a game. After mustering three shots in the first period, Columbus outshot Chicago 25-13 in the final 40 minutes of play. Both teams ended the game with 28 shots on goal.

Carter, Hainsey and Vyborny each had a goal and assist to lead the Blue Jackets. Alexander Svitov added a goal, while Rick Nash and Bryan Berard each had two assists. Columbus scored two power play goals on four attempts.

Martin Havlat had a goal and two assists to lead the Blackhawks. Bryan Smolinski had a goal and an assist, while Patrick Sharp and Peter Bondra each scored for Chicago. Nikolai Khabibulin had 24 saves.

“We have a young team and we made a few mistakes,” Chicago coach Denis Savard said of his team allowing Columbus to get back into the game. “It is good because when you make mistakes, you can fix them. I’m proud of our guys, they played a decent game.”

The Blackhawks created the first stoppage of the game at the nine-minute mark with a goal by Sharp.

On the ensuing faceoff, Ron Hainsey took an interference penalty and Chicago took advantage. Tuomo Ruuto centered a pass to Smolinski, who beat Norrena at 10:02.

Two minutes later, Havlat scored on a beautiful breakaway where he went forehand to backhand past an extended Norrena. The third goal on 11 Blackhawk shots was enough for Hitchcock, who promptly yanked Norrena in favor of Pascal Leclaire.

“I would have liked to have come back in a winning situation, but it’s good for me to get back in a game” Leclaire said. “Today, (the team) was like night and day between the first half and second half. In order to win, you have to play 60 minutes.”

Hainsey got the Jackets on the board early in the second period with the team’ on a two-man advantage. He took a pass from Carter and hit a slap shot from the blue line past Khabibulin at 3:23.

Chicago’s Lapointe answered the goal less than a minute later when he beat Leclaire with a wrist shot from the left point.

Carter put the puck between the legs of Khabibulin at 18:23 of the second with the Jackets on the power play to bring the home team to within 4-2.

Bondra got the goal back for Chicago at 3:14 of the third on a rebound.

Svitov completed a check and came away with the puck midway through the third and hit a snap shot past Khabibulin at 9:18.

Vyborny tapped in a Bryan Berard rebound at 16:02 to bring the Jackets to with 5-4. Columbus had several opportunities in the final two minutes, but simply ran out of time.

“We were not able to overcome the terrible start that we had,” Carter said. “They were alert and ready to play early. We’re usually ready to compete right off the get-go. Tonight, that just wasn’t the case.”

Norrena left the game making eight saves on 11 shots. Leclaire allowed a goal on 11 shots.

The Jackets host St. Louis on Wednesday. Who shows up to play in the Columbus sweater is anyone’s guess.