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Columbus Blue Jackets (Official Thread)

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DISPATCH

2/3/06

BLUE JACKETS 2 | OILERS 1, SO

Shootout success again for Jackets
Team sets franchise record by posting fifth straight win
Friday, February 03, 2006

Aaron Portzline
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>
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</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>JOHN ULAN | ASSOCIATED PRESS </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Ben Simon (41) of the Blue Jackets takes a tumble in front of Oilers goalie Jussi Markkanen and defenseman Matt Greene. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


EDMONTON, Alberta — After 60 minutes of rather ugly hockey, the Blue Jackets had the Edmonton Oilers right where they wanted them.

It took heroics from Nikolai Zherdev, who scored a tying goal with three minutes left in regulation, but the Blue Jackets forced the Oilers into overtime and, eventually, a shootout.

And that’s where the Jackets are at their best.

They won 2-1 after an eight-round shootout, with Jason Chimera scoring the winning goal and goaltender Marc Denis stuffing Edmonton’s Shawn Horcoff to clinch it.

The Jackets are 10-0-2 in overtime games and have won five of seven shootouts.

But the most important number is this: The Jackets have won five straight games for the first time in franchise history.

"We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now," coach Gerard Gallant said. "The guys believe that something good is going to happen.

"We weren’t very good for the first part of the game. I thought we were sluggish. We played hard, but it just wasn’t there for us.

"And we ended up winning anyway, which is big for this hockey team."

If that sounds familiar, you’re not hallucinating. The Jackets won by the same score — almost in the same fashion — Wednesday in Calgary.

Last night, the last five minutes of regula- tion were rather entertaining.

The overtime was a blast. And the shootout, well, let’s just say very few of the 16,839 in Rexall Place were seated.

Jaroslav Balastik, Zherdev, Trevor Letowski and Chimera scored shootout goals for the Blue Jackets.

Denis was beaten in the shootout by Ales Hemsky, Fernando Pisani and Jarrett Stoll, but he made three game-clinching saves, including a less-thantextbook stop on Horcoff to finish the game.

"I call that the helmet pokecheck," Denis said with a smile.

The one-liners were flying around the Jackets’ dressing room likes pucks in practice.

Chimera, who waited Markkanen to the ice before beating him under the crossbar, took great delight in beating his former team.

"It makes it more special, absolutely," Chimera said. "Plus, I’m from (Edmonton), so that adds to it."

And he took great delight in his winning move.

"It’s the only move I’ve got," Chimera said. "I’m glad it worked.

"The book’s out on me now. That’s my move. I don’t have a bag of tricks."

It was a raucous finish to a mostly quiet game.

The Oilers broke through first when Steve Staios scored on a slap shot from the right faceoff circle with 5:08 left in regulation.

The Jackets might have seemed dead in the water at that point, but Zherdev came to the rescue with his 17 th goal of the season.

With 3:06 left, he came into a crowd of Oilers and put one of them, defenseman Dick Tarnstrom, on the floor with a nifty little toe drag before beating Markkanen with a wrister.

Denis, making his third straight start, was fantastic again, finishing with 27 saves.

For the second straight night, the Jackets engaged themselves in another highly physical game, with the grind liners — Jody Shelley, Ben Simon and Steven Goertzen — setting the tone early with hits all over the ice.

On one particular shift, with the Oilers carrying the puck at 6:12 of the third period, Zherdev and Balastik dived to the ice to block slap shots with their bodies.

Eventually, the Jackets as a whole were rewarded.

[email protected]
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jackets have signed 2002 second round pick joakim lindstrom to an entry level contract.
zherdev has 35 points in 52 games this year, he had 34 in 57 games last year.

word is starting to fly around canada that this is a team that could be the real deal next year.

i saw the prototype for the new reebok jerseys today...ewww
 
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heres ana article about the "style"
http://www.tsn.ca/columnists/bob_mckenzie.asp
GMs to discuss a new look uniform

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TSN.ca Staff


When NHL GMs get together in Las Vegas next week, they will be discussing and debating all the weighty issues of the day, from reviewing the new rules to goalie inteference to video replay and, no doubt, a lot of trade talk, too.

But five will get you 10 the most interesting and potentially explosive dialogue will be saved for whether a shirt should be tucked or untucked. Actually, make that a sweater, a hockey sweater.

Here's the scoop.
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RBK, the hockey company -- you know, Sidney Crosby's other employer -- has spent millions of dollars testing and re-designing the performance and look of the traditional hockey uniform and has come up with a sleek new design that many traditionalists will view as radical. Most GMs have a prototype in hand, some have even had one of their players privately model and test them.

RBK, and the league head office, will maintain these new uniforms are a revolutionary step forward, that the integrated equipment and fabric will enhance safety and performance, that players will be more agile, better protected and their equipment will be much lighter and drier.

But here's the rub. Hockey traditionalists, and that would be most of the GMs, don't like the look of them. Not a bit.

One anonymous GM said: "Terrible. Just terrible. If we're forced to use them, well, we've got no choice, but if there's a choice, no way."

The most striking difference between the old uniform and the new prototype is the form-fitting sweater is tucked into a new-look hockey pant that has extended kidney pads and rides much higher on the torso. We can't show you a picture of what this looks like because the league is keeping the look under wraps for now, although the Las Vegas team in the ECHL will be modeling them for the GMs during an on-ice session next week.

The tuck, apparently, is what drives some GMs crazy. For a team like Chicago or Carolina, which have unique markings or striping along the bottom of the sweater that is an intrinsic part of the their look, the tuck issue is huge. Because the fabric is tight, tucked and made of a new space-age material, there is some concern whether the traditon and integrity of the Montreal Canadien bleu, blanc et rouge, for example, will be upheld.

Suffice to say, the apprehension level from the GMs on this issue is off the scale. Oh, this is going to be an interesting story, alright, for everyone, from the fans to the players and beyond. Stay tuned, this could get interesting.
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also this is very interesting

Since Christmas:
Dallas 20 GP 14-5-1 29 Points
Columbus 18 GP 12-5-1 25 Points
Colorado 17 GP 11-4-2 24 Points
Detroit 17 GP 11-4-2 24 Points
Calgary 18 GP 10-5-3 23 Points
Anaheim 15 GP 8-3-4 20 Points
Minnesota 18 GP 10-8-0 20 Points
Vancouver 18 GP 10-8-0 20 Points
Los Angeles 18 GP 8-7-3 19 Points
Nashville 19 GP 8-8-3 19 Points
San Jose 15 GP 8-5-2 18 Points
Phoenix 18 GP 8-9-1 17 Points
Edmonton 15 GP 6-7-2 14 Points
St. Louis 19 GP 4-11-4 12 Points
Chicago 17 GP 4-10-3 11 Points
 
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dispatch

2/4/06

Denis does his best to put new trade rumors to rest

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Aaron Portzline
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>JOHN ULAN | ASSOCIATED PRESS </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Blue Jackets goaltender Marc Denis is congratulated by Manny Malhotra after a shootout victory over the Oilers on Thursday night. </TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It’s was a strange but successful couple of days for Blue Jackets goaltender Marc Denis. On Wednesday, Denis stopped 36 shots in a 2-1 shootout win in Calgary. After the game, team president and general manager Doug MacLean pulled him aside to tell Denis that, despite swirling rumors in Canada in recent weeks, he would not be traded.
"It’s nice to hear that from the general manager," Denis said. "Doug’s the one who’s got his finger on the trigger."
And then, eight hours later, after the Blue Jackets had flown to Edmonton and Denis was sleeping in his hotel room, the phone rang.
It was 6:30 a.m. mountain time, and a Montreal radio station was in hot pursuit of a rumor.
A report in a Montreal newspaper, citing an Internet message board, reported that the Blue Jackets were close to a three-way deal with Colorado and Montreal that would send Denis to the Canadiens.
Denis, a native of Montreal, didn’t take the rumor seriously.
"I called the front desk, had them put a ‘do not disturb’ on the line, and I was able to get some sleep," he said.
Before the Jackets played Edmonton on Thursday, MacLean was emphatic: "I will not trade Marc Denis. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: He’s not going anywhere."
Denis went out and made 27 saves in a 2-1 shootout win over the Oilers, improving to 10-2 in his past 12 starts and giving him a 3-0 mark in shootouts.
"I’m a Blue Jacket now," Denis said, smiling, after the game. "And I hope I’ll be a Blue Jacket for a long time." Then he took a deep breath. "It’s been a crazy couple of days."
A different team

The recent hot streak by the Blue Jackets — 13-5-1 since Dec. 23 — is changing how they’re perceived throughout the NHL, especially in Canada.
In the past, a loss to the Blue Jackets on home ice was cause for concern, even embarrassment. At least that’s how it was portrayed in the morning papers.
After the game Thursday, the Oilers’ words indicated that’s no longer the case.
"They’re at the point now where they’re definitely going to do some damage on the road," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said of the Jackets. "Whereas, in the past, it was less likely they were going to win a couple of games going through Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver."
The Jackets hadn’t beaten Edmonton since Nov. 2, 2001, going 0-8-3-1.
"The balance of power always swings," MacTavish said. "They’re starting to get healthy now and they have a collection of great young players, so it’s going to be more difficult to have that level of success."
Slap shots
Center Sergei Fedorov won 7 of 9 faceoffs in the third period and overtime Thursday. . . . The Jackets’ past eight wins have all been by one goal. They’re 11-0-1 in such games since Dec. 26 and 18-7 on the season. . . . Rick Nash has but one shot on goal the past two games. . . . The Blue Jackets have made nine swings through Alberta since joining the NHL in 2000-01. The wins over Calgary and Edmonton are the first time they’ve left with two wins.
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article on gilbert brule

http://dispatch.com/bluejackets/bluejackets.php?story=dispatch/2006/02/05/20060205-E1-04.html

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=153659&hubname=nhl
<embed style="width: 617px; height: 31px;" class="sIFR-flash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" sifr="true" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" wmode="" flashvars="txt=NHLPA considering escrow changes&textalign=left&offsetLeft=2&sWmode=transparent&textcolor=#000000&linkcolor=#660000&hovercolor=#CCCCCC&w=617&h=31" quality="best" src="http://www.tsn.ca/flash/fonts/helveticanueblacext.swf" height="31" width="617">NHLPA considering escrow changes

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Ted Saskin

Canadian Press
2/4/2006 8:57:31 PM
TORONTO (CP) - Players are contemplating possible changes to the method in which the salary cap is determined in order to pay less in escrow in future years.
The NHL Players' Association posted a document on its players-only website this past week asking players to determine whether or not they want to change the current way the salary cap is set up under the collective bargaining agreement. The NHL would be open to the change.
According to current revenue projections, the team-by-team salary cap for next season is slated to be $46 million US, a jump from the current $39 million. But the proposed changes would see the cap rise to a minimum of $42 million instead, and cut the percentage in escrow players would pay out of their paycheques next season anywhere from 2.5 per cent to five per cent.
Currently, the salary cap is calculated by finding the average among the league's 30 payrolls and making the upper limit $8 million higher than the average and the lower limit $8 million lower than the average payroll. So next year's minimum payroll is currently slated to be around $30 million, up from this season's $21.5 million. But the proposed changes would see the method changed so that the upper limit is only $5 million higher than the average payroll, and the lower limit $11 million below the average payroll. That would set the lower limit at around $27 million next season.
No decision is expected before the end of the month. Players have been asked to discuss the changes with their player reps. The executive board, made up of the league's 30 player reps and executive committee, will then make the final decision. <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr height="8"><td>
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</td></tr><tr><td> </td></tr> </tbody></table> Players began the season paying 12 per cent in escrow but the figure was later dropped to four per cent. Players are expected to get all of it back at the end of this season because of higher than expected revenues. The purpose of the reserve fund is to ensure player compensation doesn't eat up more than 54 per cent of league revenues at year's end.
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http://spectorshockey.tripod.com/default.html
<center>[SIZE=+1]THE LATEST BLUE JACKETS NEWS.[/SIZE]</center> [SIZE=-1]THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]: Aaron Portzline reported yesterday that Blue Jackets goalie Marc Denis was recently pulled aside by GM Doug MacLean and told he wouldn't be traded. The following day, however, he received a phone call from a Montreal radio station inquiring if there were any truth to a rumour he was headed to the Canadiens. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]COLUMBUS DISPATCH[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]: Michael Arace reports Jackets GM Doug MacLean has flexibility regarding potential roster decisions. Arace notes only five Jackets (defensemen Bryan Berard, Adam Foote and Duvie Westcott, and forwards Rick Nash and Sergei Fedorov) are under contract for next season. Among MacLean's seven UFA players, "defenseman Radoslav Suchy, center Manny Malhotra and right wingers David Vyborny and Trevor Letowski" are those he wants to keep, whilst "defensemen Luke Richardson and Cale Hulse, and center Jan Hrdina" provide MacLean with potential bargaining chips leading up to the March trade deadline.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Spector's Note: The Jackets have been frequently mentioned as a potential trade target for playoff-bound teams seeking depth or for struggling clubs looking to bolster their postseason hopes. Given how well they've played since Rick Nash returned to the roster, that could have an impact on which players the Jackets trade or cut loose at season's end.[/SIZE]
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Dispatch

2/6/06

Playoffs no part of Jackets’ thinking

But strong finish could be used as a building block

Monday, February 06, 2006

Aaron Portzline
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The best stretch of hockey in Blue Jackets history has created an unprecedented sense of confidence and cohesiveness in the dressing room.
Yet the Jackets know better than to do the math.
Despite a 10-3-0 run in the past four weeks, the club would need a minor miracle — roughly 50 points in their last 28 games — to gain a playoff spot.
So the focus set not on pipe dreams of the postseason but on establishing a winning atmosphere.
"It’s growing and growing," defenseman Luke Richardson said. "You can feel it in practice. You can feel it during games and in the dressing room. This is when hockey is fun.
"Subconciously, we know where we’re at. We know (the playoffs are) a long way, but we’re standing by the moment, trying to build and build."
The Blue Jackets go for their sixth straight win tonight when they play the Vancouver Canucks in General Motors Place.
The Jackets have had three days to catch their breath after back-to-back road victories on Wednesday (in Calgary) and Thursday (in Edmonton), both by 2-1 shootout wins.
Goaltender Marc Denis called them "our best back-to-back road wins in history."
The mood in the dressing room after the second win had a different sort of buzz to it.
"We’re getting a win and we’re putting it in our pocket and moving on to the next one," left winger Jody Shelley said. "It’s like we’re on a mission right now, and it’s scary when you get this kind of feeling in the room.
"Just keep winning and then we’ll take a look at the standings. That’s where we’re at right now."
The Jackets won’t want to read the next two paragraphs, but here goes . . .
As of today, they trail Colorado, the eighth team in the Western Conference, by 18 points.
If the Avalanche maintains its current pace, it’ll finish with 95 points — meaning the Jackets would need 49 points out of their final 28 games, or a record in the realm of 23-2-3, just to tie the Avs.
Not that the players are thinking that way.
"We’re just starting to feel good as a team, starting to get to know each other," captain Adam Foote said. "When you believe in yourself and your teammates, and you get that in your head, that’s when you’re a good hockey club.
"We’re playing simple hockey right now. Basic hockey. Road hockey. And we’re starting to believe that we’re a good enough team to win games in a lot of different ways."
During the weekend, Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean was asked what was more important to him and the future of the franchise, a high-end draft pick this summer or a strong finish to the season.
He answered immediately.
"It’s more important that we change the culture to a winning atmosphere," MacLean said. "It’d be nice to have a high draft pick, but the winning culture is more important.
"And, honestly? I don’t think it’s even close."
[email protected]
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