Nashville gives Columbus a lump of coal for Christmas
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired

On the eve of Christmas Eve, the Jackets needed Nashville to spread joy and peace for the 15,481 at Nationwide Arena. Instead, the Predators’ J.P. Dumont scored the go ahead goal with just 35 seconds remaining in the game to put Nashville up 2-1 and with an empty netter by Jed Ortmeyer, a 3-1 loss for the Jackets.

It was the 11th straight victory over their Central Division rival. Columbus has not defeated the Predators since April 3, 2006. Nashville is now 16-16-2.

Chris Mason (9-12-2), starting in goal for Nashville played an incredible game in his end He stopped 30 of 31 shots, including a Jason Chimera breakaway in the second period.

Columbus goaltender Fredrick Norrena got his second start in a row after stopping 33 of 34 shots against the Kings on Friday, Hitchcock went with Norrena in goal for his second start in a row. As usual, he did not get much offensive support tonight.

The Blue Jackets are in the middle of a load of games at home in December. They play 11 of 13 at home, but have only earned 10 points. Columbus is now 15-14-6.
"We're not generating enough (offense) to give ourselves a chance to win," is how Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock summed it up.
Nashville was playing the second night of back to backs after defeating the Kings 4-3 in Tennesee last night. This was an early start of the game 5 pm.

Columbus started out well, pretty much owning the 1st period. But in the second period, they seemed to have a tough time getting their legs moving and seemed to have a huge gap between the defense and forward lines.
“We got through the first period, which was real key for us. We knew they were going to come out hard and they did,” Nashville head coach Barry Trotz commented. “ I thought (goaltender Chris) Mason was real good for us, he did a real good job, then we got our feet under us and we got stronger as the game went on."
At 13:10, Jackets defenseman Adam Foote was called for a holding penalty. Just over a minute later, on the power play, Nashville defenseman Ville Koistinen hit a hard shot from the left top of the circle. Norrena made the initial save with his stick, but the rebound to the right circle was immediately picked up by Nashville’s all time scoring leader, David Legwand. He wasted no time in shooting a 17 foot snap shot for his 8th goal of the campaign.

Columbus would tie the game 1-1 in the third period when Dan Fritsche scored his 5th goal of the season and the 50th point of his NHL career. Juri Novotny’s shot came off the half wall where Curtis Glencross picked up the puck. He beat his defender and flicked the puck into the slot. Fritsche was waiting there to put in the goal off the glove side post.
And just as it looked as the Jackets would earn at least a point with the game tied and the clock winding down, things went sour. J.P Dumont took a hard shot from 22 feet out. The puck went in and out so quickly that play continued, yet Dumont looked back at the ref as if to say ‘hey, it went in’. As time elapsed and the players were readying for the overtime, a video review showed the goal did go in and Nashville lead 2-1.

“In the third period we just turned it up a little more and finally got one to tie it up,” Fritsche said. “We made one little mental mistake and they beat us back on a rush and got a good shot off. It's just disappointing because we had a chance to at least get a point, if not two points out of that game.”

That sent the Nationwide faithful home with coal in their Christmas stocking and left a very sour taste in the organizations mouth.

"We can't keep living on 2-1 wins and 2-1 losses and say we're close," Hitchcock said.