Blue Jackets Cure Their Shootout Woes
November 21st, 2009 | by sweetbob |
After not being able to win via shootout early this season, it looked like they were doomed to many Shootout loses this year. After two shootout wins, the Blue Jackets appear to have solved their troubles.
Winning close games are a sign of a good team, it didn’t look like Columbus had that ability early this season with close losses to Pittsburgh and San Jose. One reason why this team is on a roll is because of Rick Nash, he has carried this team early on and with Raffi Torres still hurting, he will still need to carry the burden into this upcoming road trip when they play Dallas, Nashville, New York Rangers, Montreal, and Ottawa. A few of those teams they don’t play too often, but they need to win the conference games to stay in this. It would help if they win these games in regulation and not give the competition any points in these games. It’s nice to pull out the shootout victories and getting the extra point, but the Western Conference appears to be pretty tight and Columbus needs to win these games and get a 2 point advantage on these teams.
The Blue Jackets have struggled on the road, especially Steve Mason. His home/away numbers are really night and day, if you take out the 9-1 loss at home to Detroit. He needs to get out of this slump and help Columbus out. They are giving up too many goals right now and the offense has to scrap for extra goals late in the game. Mason’s 3rd period effort must improve if Columbus wants to get into the playoffs this season.
Tags: raffi torres, rick nash, steve mason
