While it can hardly be said that the Blue Jackets have hit their stride as they near completion of the first quarter of the 2009-10 NHL season, they are racking up some points. The last nine games saw the Jackets pick up 12 points as they fought through an overtime win, four shootouts, and two 1-goal wins in regulation. They also lost two in regulation -- both ugly, one uglier than ever before. After being labeled the 50-minute men for blowing multiple goal leads multiple times on the roadie that ended before game 11, they have begun to finish games -- or, at least, to hang on and fight for a chance get on top at the end of the night. A serious gut check three games ago appears to be well behind the NHL's youngest team as they continue to grit out wins in tight situations. The Jackets -- when they bring their A game -- can hang with anyone in the league. When they forget what it means to play Columbus hockey (read: Hitchcock hockey) they can easily get steam rolled.

Let's look at the some of the coverage of these nine games.

Game 11 - PHO 4 @ CBJ 1

The Jackets finished that tough, long western roadie 1-4-0, each winning team netting six goals. Then they came home for game 11 against the Phoenix Coyotes and continued their lackluster play.

Stink. Stank. Stunk. That's how Dr. Seuss would have described the effort and the performance put forth by the Blue Jackets tonight. Stink for the penalty kill. Stank for their play with the puck. And stunk -- a recurring theme here -- for their play in the defensive zone.

Final score: Phoenix 4, Blue Jackets 1. And if the Coyotes had more artists and fewer plumbers it could have been 7-1.

-Aaron Portzline and Tom Reed, Puck-Rakers

Game 12 - PIT 4 @ CBJ 3 (SO)

Game 12 saw the Jackets put forth a far more solid effort. The Penguins were in town, and the two"I thought he saved it. It was a kind of a fluke. The puck kept going. I don’t know if he lost it or didn’t know where it was or whatever. Shot a quick shot and I thought he had the save there and it just trickled in."-Sidney Crosby (photo credit to Empty Netters) teams served up a helping of the same brand of hockey they put on the CMH ice last March -- Jackets up early, Pens score a bevy of goals to tie it late, scoreless overtime, welcome to the shootout.

Wow. What a game. This was a near duplicate of last season's game between these two teams with one minor difference; The Penguins won. Either way, this was a spectacular contest that had the feel of a late-season playoff push.

-Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Empty Netters.

The CBJ were the last team in the NHL to play in overtime this season, and while they lost the extra point in the shootout, they played "their most sound game in two weeks." (Reed, Puck-Rakers) The visiting media was... let's say impressed with Captain Columbus.

Rick Nash is a beast. He's simply the best power forward in the game. And he plays defense.

(Pittsburgh Captian) Sidney Crosby on Rick Nash: "He’s a great player. All over the ice. He’s got tons of speed. He’s smart. He’s big. He’s hard to knock off the puck."

both quotes from Seth Rorabaugh's Empty Netters post.

Game 13 - CBJ 5 @ WAS 4 (OT)

Game 13 was another overtime contest, this time a Jackets win on the road in Washington. Along with it came the realization that the CBJ needed to get shutdown defenseman Jan Hejda back from injury.

“It’s not that we aren’t (closing out games), we can’t,” Hitchcock said. “With the way we are roster-wise, we can’t. Until we get the big guy back there, and it starts to spread the minutes . . . It’s the fourth game in a row when we ran out of gas back there.”

-Puck-Rakers

How about this gem of a quote from overtime/winning goal scorer R.J. Umberger:

"Nasher told me before the faceoff that if he got the puck that I should put my stick in the crease, I swear to God, and he put it there."

-from Tom Reed's article in the Columbus Dispatch

Game 14 - SJS 3 @ CBJ 2 (SO)

Identity was the theme in the coverage of game 14, another home shootout loss, this time at the hand of defending President's Trophy winners, the San Jose Sharks.

One week ago, the Blue Jackets were flubbing the puck in their zone and searching high and low for their misplaced identity. They were enduring 45-minute film sessions of in-house bloopers. They'll awaken Thursday with a keen sense of who they are, as well as a growing sense of confidence, despite a growing list of injured players.

-Aaron Portzline, Columbus Dispatch

...Mason had his third strong outing in a row, and so did his mates in front of him. The Jackets have two shootout losses, to Pittsburgh and San Jose, and one overtime victory, against Washington, in their last three games. With four points garnered against three top teams, its fair to say that the Jackets are coming out of their funk. The point they squandered against the Penguins is mildly upsetting, but at least they are rediscovering their identity. They're not giving up six goals a game anymore, and the sloppiness that was evident a week ago is being squeezed out of their being.

-Michael Arace, Puck-Rakers

Game 15 - CBJ 4 @ ATL 3

Game 15 saw the Atlanta Thrashers force the Jackets out of their newly re-discovered identity, however, has they held on to win a sloppy track meet on the ATL ice.

ATLANTA: Not sure what stat was more inaccurate last night in Phillips Arena: combined giveaways (11) for the teams or attendance (10,878). Turnovers seemed more abundant, the crowd appeared smaller.

The Blue Jackets don’t care either way. They escaped Atlanta with a 4-3 win. The Thrashers’ high-risk style and the Jackets’ fatigue combined for a wild last 40 minutes. The Jackets won despite being outshot, 29-10, over the final two periods and committing the game’s last seven penalties.

The sparse crowd certainly saw entertaining albeit sloppy hockey. The Jackets seemed to get caught up in Atlanta’s relentless pressure and pace. Every chance seemed to come off an odd-man rush or from a player left wide open in the slot.

-Tom Reed, Puck-Rakers

Game 16 - CAR  2 @ CBJ 3

Game 16 was another nail-biter.

The Blue Jackets faced a classic “trap” game tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes. And sure enough, the Jackets wandered into a danger zone and spent the first two periods trying to yank their pant leg out of the Hurricanes’ clench.

When they finally got loose, the Blue Jackets were off and running, much to the delight and relief of the 14,850 in Nationwide Arena.

Rookie winger Nikita Filatov broke the ice and a three-goal third period led the Jackets to a 3-2 win over the lowly Hurricanes, who have dropped 12 in a row.

-Aaron Portzline, Puck-Rakers

Jared Boll scored that night what many considered to be the goal of the week in the NHL.

Game 17 - DET 9 @ CBJ 1

Game 16 left the CBJ in first place in the Central Division. Then came the nightmare. This was, perhaps, the worst game of hockey I have ever seen. Many in the stands checked out early. Some bloggers did as well:

Stinker!

Okay, all teams, no matter how talented have their bad nights. All teams have a stinker once in a while. I remember when the Hartford Whalers once beat the Gretzky/Messier/Kurri/Coffey-led Oilers 11-0....

As I type this, the Blue jackets are getting crushed by the Red Wings. It was 6-1 last I checked.

-Tea With Ms. McGill

At that point, the Wings had only scored 2/3 of their goals for the night.

Blue Jackets blogger Light the Lamp breaks down Jackets games with his "patented" stop light review (green lights are good, yellow=okay/kinda good, red is just plain bad. From the Yellow:

Somehow there were 3 Jackets players without a minus.  MacKenzie, Pahlsson and Klesla.

And the Red:

The Jackets collectively were a -30 with Hejda and Commodore each leading the way with a -4.

-both quotes from "Tag It and Bag It" on Light the Lamp

Michael Arace (one of my favorite sports writers in or out of Columbus) put it this way:

...the Red Wings tagged the Jackets with the worst home loss in the history of the franchise. And that is saying something. The Jackets haven’t been around for very long, but they have some horrific losses on their ledger.

-from Puck-Rakers

Blue Jackets defenseman Mike Commodore on the aberration:

"I guess I shouldn't say a loss is a loss," Blue Jackets defenseman Mike Commodore said. "That's a loss with an asterisk next to it when you lose by more than a touchdown."

-Columbus Dispatch

Perhaps my favorite post on the debacle that was game 17 came from Rick Gethin of The Hockey Writers. Rick always writes well. I wish I read more of his Jackets and NHL coverage. This night, however, it wasn't his words that caught my attention. He chose three pictures, one to sum up each period of the Winged Wheels' drubbing of the Union Blue. (Click on any of the pics to see Rick's piece on The Hockey Writers).

The Columbus Blue Jackets 1st period of play in one picture (Photo by Cornell University Library) The Blue Jackets after 2 periods of play (Photo by Cornell University Library/Flickr) This sums up the loss to Detroit, 9-1 (Photo by Gregory Palmer/Flickr)

The aftermath wasn't pretty either. Winger Raffie Torres took a puck in the face, breaking bones, losing teeth, and putting him out of the line-up for 1-2 weeks. Practice the next day was, shall we say, unique:

I’ve seen my share of hockey practices over the last 10 seasons or so, but I’ve never seen this.

Rather than have a film session in the dressing room and then head out for an on-ice practice, the Blue Jackets are mixing the two this morning in the wake of a 9-1 drubbing by the Red Wings on Wednesday.

A large TV was wheeled out to where the tunnel comes into the bench. After skating for 20 minutes or so, the players were brought over to watch highlights (lowlights?) from the Red Wings game.

It was an attentive audience.

-from Aaron Portzline's "Did the Wings Just Score Again?" on Puck-Rakers

Game 18 - ANA 2 @ CBJ 3 (SO)

It took the Jackets only 10 or so minutes of their next game to seemingly put the Detroit train wreck behind them. The top line lead the way, and the Jackets played Columbus hockey once again.

Tonight’s short summary: The three stars (not officially, but without any argument among the Dispatch fraternity) were Kristian Huselius and the goaltenders, Mathieu Garon and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Put them in any order. Rick Nash was also quite large. He and the first line – with Antoine Vermette in the middle and Huselius on the other wing – drew duty on Ryan Getzlaf’s meaty line all night. Nash tied the game 1-1 with 1:34 remaining in the first period. He iced the game with a goal in the shootout. He might have added a few assists, as well, if not for Giguere.

Huselius, after sitting out the previous four games with a shoulder drama, assisted on the Jackets’ first goal, scored the game-tying goal on a power play early in the third period and scored the shootout winner.

-Michael Arace, Puck-Rakers

Two nights after getting blown out of their own rink, the Blue Jackets played the Anaheim Ducks last night seeking redemption -- from their fans, their coaches and the hockey gods.

The sloppy, halfhearted play that has pockmarked the early part of the season -- it's burned them twice already -- was mostly eliminated in a 3-2 shootout win before 15,577.

-Aaron Portzline, Columbus Dispatch

Game 19 - EDM 2 @ CBJ 3 (SO)

Points from the Columbus blue line kept the Jackets in this one long enough to get to yet another shootout. Fedor Tyutin picked up a pair of assists as well as a shootout goal -- his second in two career attempts, both against goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. Anton Stralman added an assist and a power play goal -- a beauty of a one-timer from a beauty of a pass from winger Kristian Huselius.

The biggest hero of this game, however, was back-up goalie Mathieu Garon. He is now 18-4 in shootouts in the NHL -- good enough for second on the list of active goalies with 10 or more attempts.

Two schools of thought on why Garon is so successful in the format:

-- He believes it's because of his "attack" approach, heading all the way out to the hashmarks between the two faceoff circles, which immediately puts some shooters off-balance.

"Love that," said Blue Jackets center Antoine Vermette. "We get pretty fired up on the bench watching him come so far out like that."

-- The other thought is that Garon is made of rubber at least that's what it seems.

-Aaron Portzline, Columbus Dispatch

So there you go. Nine games. 12 points. Four shootouts (two wins, two losses therein). One overtime win. Two one-goal wins in regulation. Two blowout losses.

The first game was a continuation of the five preceding contests. A solid run against some top-notch opponents, and some close escapes resulted in eight points in 5 games.  Perhaps those points let the heads in the room get a little larger than the helmets they were to fit inside as the Wings taught the CBJ a valuable lesson. Two more nervy shootout wins, and we find our Jackets ready for game 20.

So what's next? The next ten games will take the Jackets on their longest road trip of the season. Five games in eight days will take the CBJ through Dallas, Nashville, New York (Rangers), Montreal, and Ottawa.

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Follow that with two home games against the Flames and Blues, a quick trip to Chicago, and back home to host the Leafs and Avalanche.

Some thoughts on this 10-game set:

•Five-game road trips will test the mettle of any team.

•The Jackets have played well this season and last against Eastern Conference opponents (four of the next 10 games are against Eastern squads, 3 on that long roadie, one at home).

•Nashville (AKA Vader) has always been a thorn in the side of the Blue Jackets.

•St. Louis had Columbus's number all last year.

•Dallas always seems to present a hard-to-solve puzzle for the CBJ.

•Will the Avalanche still be hot when they come to town on December 5th? They've played extremely well this season (their 29 points have them sitting atop the Northwest Division and 2nd only to the Sharks in the Western Conference). The game could also finally be Adam Foote's return to action in Nationwide Arena. He can expect some jeers from the local fans after the way he left the Captain's C and his union blue sweater behind in Columbus two seasons ago.

•The Maple Leafs always bring a touch of hockey spectacle to any arena. Throw in Toronto's obsession with -- and frustration with not being able to sign -- Rick Nash, and you've got yourself the potential for quite a show on December 3rd.

•Rangers/Jackets games often seem to surface an element of the hockey bizarre -- often in the form of fireworks on the ice. What will come to pass on November 23rd in Madison Square Garden? Will there be another vicious brawl?

•Calgary and Columbus always seem to play games that insipre new entries to the Hitchionary.

In the last edition of the 10-at-a-time series I hoped for 12 points out of these nine games. Guess I got my wish!

In their first 10 games they picked up a surprising 12 points. With a friendly schedule and some solid play, they could pick up another 12 easily in this stretch -- that would be 6-3 or 5-1-2.

Not bad, eh? So hows about predicting the points in the next 10? I say the Union Blue needs to figure out how to pick up another 12 points. That might be tough, but I believe it's doable. It may well require some more shootouts, be they wins or losses. Getting a point on a night when the team fails to dominate can be a beautiful compensation. Whether I like the skills contest as game decider or not, it's nice to think that every now and then the boys can get 2 points out by kissing their sister (lest that sound more incestuous than intended, it has often been said that ending any contest in a tie is like kissing your sister -- so, yah, it's kinda intended to sound at least a bit incestuous).

Make no mistake. This is the beginning of the real grind of the season. Most teams have settled into their identities at the point in the year. The CBJ seem to have found at least a part of their own. Can they battle a lengthy road trip and some some regional rivalries along with games in both conferences? Check back in after the next 10 games, and we'll see how the local boys have fared. It begins tonight in Dallas.

-Red Dog

I don't often write about football. I just don't tend to speak with much authority on the subject. That seems okay when I'm at the bar, ordering another soda and striking up a conversation with someone catching up on highlights through a silenced edition of Sportscenter. That doesn't seem okay when I'm putting something down on virtual paper hoping someone will read it and maybe think a little about what I've taken the time and effort to say.

The current trainwreck that is Cleveland Browns football, actually begs for some sort of commentary from a life-long fan such as myself, but I just don't have it in me.

Instead, I thought I'd take a look backwards -- to a time when there was hope on the lakefront. And, really, I don't have that much to say. A couple of Cleveland blogs have posted a terrific NFL FIlms/Steve Sabol/Bernie Kosar interview. I wish I could remember which blogs they were; I like to link to those who turn me onto something worthwhile. 

I do find it interesting that Kosar keeps coming up in the conversation about how to change the current trend. Is he GM material? I doubt it, though I understand he had a fine one-year stint in arena football. Is he a consultant. Sure. But maybe more? Bernie was one of my Orange and Brown heroes when I was busy growing up in northeast Ohio. I still say he is one of the most underrated quarterbacks the game has known.
What I remember -- and what stands out when you hear him recount those games, or comment on the game today -- is that no one knows Xs and Os quite like Kosar. If I have a rant, it is just that. Doesn't he sound like a coach? Maybe on offensive coach? Maybe a quarterbacks coach or an offensive coordinator? Like I said. I don't know enough about football to say much. So I'm just sayin'.

Anyhow, the interview is a beauty, and it's full of highlights from his days in Cleveland and beyond. The opening line is one of the most amusing truths I've ever heard in sports: "Bernie Kosar came out of the University of Miami with a sidearm motion, feet of stone, and a body that looked like it was drawn by Dr. Seuss. But Kosar knew how to win, and he did so everywhere he played." Priceless.

A few other gems from the piece:

"Athleticism was not his [pause] long suit." -Marty Schottenheimer

"He was like 6'6", 225 lbs. He looked like a praying mantis out there -- I mean he was like all over the place." -Boomer Esiason

"I always thought the guy was gonna fall down, in his back-pedal, as he came away from center. He always looked like he was one step away from losing it and falling on his [pause] tush, basically." -Don Banks (SI.com)

"If the NFL awarded style points, Bernie Kosar wouldn't have gotten any." -Steve Sabol

"Kosar doesn't throw the ball, he just lets go of it like a guy losing a bar of soap in the shower." -Jim Murray (LA Times)

And those are all inside of the first two minutes of the piece.

Shortly after, Sabol points out that Kosar once threw 308 consecutive passes without an interception. Quite a feat.

I'll let you enjoy the rest for yourself.

I think I'll watch this over and over again tonight. While crying into my soda. Feel free to join me.

-Red Dog