Can You Say "Stay Out Of The Box"?

By: Jeff Little • February 18th, 2009

Been a busy, busy day today, so my Blues preview will be necessarily abbreviated.

Stay Out Of The Box — Simple enough, right? St. Louis gets a huge percentage of their points from the power play, so we can’t allow them to take advantage of that. Play smart!

Simplicity — As Hitch would say — North to South game, not East West. Let’s not play Harlem Globetrotters hockey here. Traffic in front, shoot the puck. First person attempting a drop pass in the slot I will personally ship to Elmira.

60 Minutes of Hitch Hockey — Let’s jump on them early, check hard, get the puck deep, forecheck all over the ice, and bury our chances.

Top Line Dominance — Let’s get our top guys back on track with points across the line.

We are 0 – 2 against this team, and need to assert ourselves now. Last loss was Mason’s last mono-ridden game, so we have a fresh goaltender tonight and things should be different. We are in a race, and need to play loose, fast and hard.

Go Jackets!!

About

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A native of the SF Bay Area, my first exposure to hockey was the SF/Oakland/California Golden Seals, including Charlie Finley and the white skates. Fast forward to the late 1980's when Gretzky and the Kings came up to the Bay Area for an exhibition game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, for which we had glass seats. I was at the first San Jose Sharks game in the Cow Palace, and followed them for their first few pathetic years, before moving to Columbus in 1994. I attended the first pro-NHL rally downtown, and have been a season ticket holder since Day 1, wife & I are active in the Jacket Backers, and son is an avid fan as well. I cover the Jackets for Inside Hockey, and contribute regularly to a variety of hockey sites. I maintain contact with the Jackets organization, and like to dig into stories, bringing a fresh, and sometimes irreverent perspective to hockey.

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There Are 2 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by soultrain on 19 February 2009:

    For 40 minutes they followed the game plan and played hard, foot on the throat and it looked like they were ready to claim dominace to an inferior team. Then they stopped in the third period and almost let this one slip away from them. This is what Hitch has been talking about, and fortunately gives him more talking points and film evidence to show the team to keep them working. Glad we got the win, but sure felt like they were trying to give 2 points away at the end. The heat is getting turned up in the West and the Jackets have a team built for a solid playoff run, need to always do the little things to ensure a victory.

  2. Comment by BZArcher on 19 February 2009:

    That almost got REALLY ugly, but at least they got the 2 points…and I’ll bet a very loud discussion on the plane ride up to YYZ

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