Columbus Wired - Central Ohio's Premier Online Magazine

2003-2004 Columns and articles

	Veterans spark 3-1 win over Anaheim by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired David Vyborny and Tyler Wright, two veterans on what has become a very young Jackets team, led the way to a 3-1 win over last year’s Western Conference Champion, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The young Russian Connection, Nikolai Zherdev and Alexander Svitov made significant contributions as each player recorded two points in the victory. The win extended Columbus’ winning streak to 3 games after a dismal eight game losing streak...more
	Jackets Odd Men Out In 4-2 Loss To Red Wings By Steve Sirk Thursday’s game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings was a stark contrast to the Jackets’ lackluster home efforts against Vancouver and Carolina. For starters, it was watchable. And it was interesting. Dare I say it, it was even exciting. Of course, none of these things translated to victory. The Jackets learned the hard way that giving the potent Motor City Millionaires a succession of odd-man rushes is like spotting Michael Jordan a trampoline in a slam dunk contest. Bad idea. And so it went in a 4-3 loss to the Red Wings before a sellout crowd at Nationwide Arena...more
	15th Time’s The Charm: Jackets Top Avs, 5-4, In Overtime Thriller By Steve Sirk Unlike Davey Crockett and Sam Houston, the Columbus Blue Jackets have been given repeat chances to defeat their invincible nemesis. After compiling a record of 0-13-1 (including a 61-16 goal differential) against the star-studded Colorado Avalanche, the Jackets were (over)due for a win. And like Susan Lucci finally conquering the Emmy voters, the Jackets defeated the Avs 5-4 on an overtime power play blast by defenseman Jaroslav Spacek......more
	Columbus defeats and deflates Nashville 4-2 By Dave Weissman Manny Malhotra scored two first period goals, the Jackets got into three fights within five seconds of official time, Jaraslov Spacek was awarded a Nashville ‘own goal’ and this was just in the first period. Columbus would hold off Nashville 4-2 to finally get a victory in the last seven tries against the Predators.....more
	Valentine’s Day brings 2-1 loss to Sharks By Giles Kennedy In recent games Columbus has won four victories and claimed four ties in the overtime period since January 8th.The victories came against San Jose (Jan.8th), Los Angeles (Jan.10), Minnesota ( Jan 31st), and last Wednesday against Los Angeles again (Feb.11). It was a matter of who was going to wear down whom. .....more
	OT Pays Well: Jackets Depose Kings, 3-2, On Cechmanek Blunder By Steve Sirk The Blue Jackets have been leading a charmed life of late in overtime. Under Gerard Gallant, the Jackets are now 4-0-4 in the extra session, with the last two home games bordering on the bizarre. Against Minnesota, the Jackets were dominated in the extra session before getting a rare goal out of Anders Eriksson, whose shot deflected in off of a defenseman’s shin. Some might call it a fluke, but tonight the Jackets opted for flukier....more
	Anything But Wild: Jackets Bounce Minnesota in OT, 2-1 By Steve Sirk On the excitement scale, the Columbus Blue Jackets would be hard-pressed to top Thursday’s 6-4 loss to Nashville. The game had everything…an abundance of good goals, brutal fights, and swirling controversy. But there are more important things than excitement. Take winning, for instance. With that in mind, the Jackets toned down their game and grinded out a 2-1 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild in a contest that was largely dull, although it compensated with a fantastic finish, courtesy of Anders Eriksson’s golden goal...more
	Rough Way To Lose: Jackets Drop Gloves, Game To Predators By Steve Sirk In four years, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators have conspired to produce bland, yet spirited hockey whenever they have shared the ice. Lots of 2-1 games with plenty of edge, but little action. Contact chess. But before a crowd of 16, 335 at Nationwide Arena, the two teams tripled the action and the animus in game that taxed the both the scoreboard and penalty box doors. Nashville edged Columbus, 6-4, continuing their recent domination in the series, but the fans certainly got their money’s worth...more
	New Jersey breaks Jackets hearts with 4-3 loss By Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist Breaking up is hard to do and it showed early in the Jackets 4-3 loss to the Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils. Earlier in the day, defenseman Darryl Sydor was traded to Tampa Bay for Alexander Svitov, a young Russian star. New Jersey came out and attacked the weakened defense, scoring three goals within 3:23 of the first period to earn the win...more
	Jackets Best Blackhawks, 4-3, In Battle For 4th (and 14th) Place By Steve Sirk The Jackets dominated early and held on for a 4-3 victory, getting two more goals from Nash, in addition to two-point nights from Wright and Manny Malhotra. The Jackets were also the beneficiaries of franchise record-tying 13 power plays, which this time proved more blessing than curse...more
	Blue Jackets finally shake the Blues 3-1 by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired Manny Malhotra scored two third period goals, including a Bobby Orr-like move for the game winner, as host Columbus defeated St. Louis 3-1 for their first win over the Blues in five tries this season. The past four contests games have been one-goal games, with the exception of an empty netter last week in the Blues 5-3 victory in St. Louis...more
	Jackets Crown Kings, 3-2 in Overtime By Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist After a seven game road trip extending two weeks, Columbus returned home to Nationwide Arena with a new head coach and a changed attitude. Gerard Gallant stepped up for his home debut as Blue Jackets interim head coach. Rick Nash continued to dominate as the NHL goal-scoring leader, potting two goals, including the game winner in OT to lead the Jackets over the Los Angeles Kings 3-2...more
	San Jose rings in the New Year with 1-0 victory over Columbus By Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist The San Jose Sharks added to the current woes for the Columbus Blue Jackets, defeating them 1-0 at the annual New Year’s Eve game at Nationwide Arena. San Jose center Alyn McCauley scored the only goal and game winner with only 4:58 remaining in the third period to extend the Blue Jackets home losing streak to 8 games. It was Columbus’ 15th one goal loss this season. Things don’t get easier as the Jackets hit the road for a seven game trip to Florida, Colorado and California earning only one road victory this season...more
	Tkachuked Up: Jackets Lose To Blues For Third Time This Month By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Ho Ho Hum! The Columbus Blue Jackets lost to the St. Louis Blues 3-2. Dreary Christmas! When it comes to the Blue Jackets’ dismal December, the redundancies are being rehashed over and over again repeatedly ad nauseum. You’ve probably already memorized the predictable plot points: a one-goal loss to St. Louis; a goal by Blues LW Keith Tkachuk; a soft goal allowed by a Columbus goaltender; etc. The only things missing were a Rick Nash goal and 4:50+ of overtime. Oh well. At least the power play scored...more
	Star-Gazing Jackets Lose 4-3 To Dallas By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired The much-anticipated Era Of Good Tidings And Reversed Fortunes lasted for all of eight seconds. Just one day after the Columbus Blue Jackets finally – and mercifully- ended their season-opening 14-game road winless drought, it took just eight ticks on the scoreboard clock for the Jackets to unexpectedly fall behind for good in a 4-3 home loss to the stingy Dallas Stars...more
	Unlucky 13: Power Play Futility Costs Jackets In 2-1 Loss to Flames By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired It is said that one should not look a gift horse in the mouth. Never mind the dental exam; the Columbus Blue Jackets sent their gift horse straight to the glue factory. Despite a team record 13 power plays, including over four minutes of 5-on-3 advantage, the Jackets failed to score a power play goal in an appalling 2-1 loss to the resurgent Calgary Flames...more
	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. 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...more
	Columbus roasts Anaheim with 2-1 victory By Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist A Nova Scotican and a Russian gives the Jackets the edge over the reigning Western Conference champs, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Supporting the likes of Rick Nash, David Vyborny, and the boys in blue; Aaron Johnson and Nikolai Zherdav were happy to see the 2-1 win over the dreaded fowl from California...more
	Capital punishment on home ice, Washington shuts down Blue Jackets 5-3. By Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist The Blue Jackets have not lost their last four games at home. Unfortunately, Peter Bondura, Jaromir Jagr and the Washington Capitals ended the winning ways of our hometown heroes 5-3. One has to ask this question. Why, our heroes, why did they lose against the worst team in the Eastern Conference?...more
	Long Island Express Ticketed Home With 2-1 Columbus Victory By Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist Mark Denis sick with the flu, enter Fred Braithwaite. Tyler Wright out on injuries, claim former Dallas left winger Manny Malhotra. Rick Nash and Todd Marchant continue their offensive and defensive work. What does this sound like? A great solution for a solid victory over the New York Islanders Saturday night 2-1...more
	Wily Columbus Steals A Point From Coyotes By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Fresh off Friday’s turkey against the Bruins, the Jackets knew they needed to get off to a hot start against the Phoenix Coyotes. Imagine their disappointment when the puck refused to cooperate, repeatedly bouncing in Phoenix’s favor to give the Coyotes a 2-0 lead. But rather than rolling over, the Jackets fought to the bitter end, eventually tying the game on a dramatic Andrew Cassels goal with 41.9 seconds to play. There may be no such thing as a “must tie” game in November, but the Jackets just tied one...more
	First Period Flop Dooms Flat Jackets in 4-0 Loss to Bruins By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Once or twice a year, without fail, the Jackets seem to eschew their deserved reputation as a solid home team and instead opt to play the part of Tokyo bus to the opposition’s Godzilla. The 7-1 losses to the Kings in each of the first two seasons, the 8-0 loss to the Bruins in year two and the 5-1 loss to the Avalanche late last year leap immediately to mind. The first twenty minutes in this year’s 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins is certainly worthy of inclusion on that lamentable list. By the time the first-period horn had sounded, the Bruins put more shots IN the net (4) than the Jackets put ON the net (3)...more
	Outlaw Stars shut down Jackets 3-2 By Giles Kennedy, Columbus Wired Contributing Columnist Imagine an old spaghetti western showing a Canadian-born marshal named MacLean shaking his head after all his best deputies are either in jail or dead. Then, a young man named Modano with an ivory handled pistol walks up to him. He appears to start to gun him down. MacLean stands there; standing his ground…gets grazed by a bullet on the cheek. Modano goes, “See ya next time.” That is the nightmare probably faced by Blue Jackets head coach and loyal Jackets fans after the 3-2 loss to Dallas Saturday night...more
	Lightning Strikes In Third; Jackets Lose 1-0 By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Entering tonight, the Blue Jackets had been perfect at home. The undefeated Tampa Bay Lightning had been perfect, well, everywhere. So one has to wonder how perfection and perfection begat something as imperfect as Tampa Bay’s 1-0 victory at Nationwide Arena. A workmanlike performance from the Blue Jackets enabled them to hang tough with the NHL’s hottest team, but a crucial defensive gaffe inside of four minutes to play allowed Vincent Lecavalier to earn the Lightning the first road win at Nationwide this season...more
	Jackets Edge Blackhawks, 2-1 By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired Losing their fourth player in the span of a week, the undermanned Blue Jackets grinded their way to a 2-1 win over the youthful Chicago Blackhawks. It wasn’t a work of art, because the artists are going down in a heap, but what remained was a bench full of workers to chisel out a crude “W”...more
	Third Jersey, First-Rate Effort: Jackets Dump Canucks, 3-2 By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired It was billed as a historic day for the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the much-anticipated unveiling of the team’s new third jersey. With the excitement surrounding a new landmark off the ice, it was important for the team to respond with something “new and improved” on the ice as well. Two days after slapping the millionaire slackers from the Big Apple, the Blue Jackets dispatched of the skillful behemoths from British Columbia, defeating the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on the strength of a three-point night from newcomer Todd Marchant...more
	Jackets Shut Out Rangers 5-0 Home Opener an exciting one to start season By Noel Giles Kennedy, Contributing Columnist After the season opened in Atlanta with a loss Thursday, the Jackets came home Saturday night with a 5-0 thumping of the famed New York Rangers. The home opener filled Nationwide Arena with 18, 136 stick thumping fans to delight the victory. It was a battle between David and Goliath, star filled N.Y. and Little Ole Columbus, $80 million vs. $20 million. ...more
	This Side of the Story by N.G. Kennedy, Contributing Columnist (September 2003) Columbus embraced the Chill, Ohio has embraced the Blue Jackets. They have become Ohio’s team. With a statewide radio network, two farm teams located in-state, (Dayton Bombers and the new Columbus Stars) and more than enough cross-promotion to choke a NHL sized horse, the Blue Jackets have become Ohio’s hockey passion...more
	MacLean Continues To Tinker Blue Jackets trade Mike Sillinger to Dallas for Darryl Sydor by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired (7/22/03) The Blue Jackets added more depth to the defensive corps by acquiring two-time all star Darryl Sydor from the Dallas Stars for center Mike Sillinger along with Columbus’ 2004 second-round draft pick. Dallas then dealt Sillinger and the draft pick to Phoenix for 15-year veteran Teppo Numminen....more

Highlights from the 2002-2003 season.