Young Goalies Duel As Jackets Take On Kings

By: Jeff Little • December 29th, 2008

Take your No Doz, get that Triple Venti Cappuccino working and stay up to watch the CBJ tussle with the Los Angeles Kings again tonight, with the puck dropping at 10:30 pm EST. Both the Jackets and Steve Mason will be looking for some revenge, as both games to date have ended with LA on the plus side of 3 – 0 scores.

This shapes up as a battle of young goalies. Mason has been stellar for Columbus, leading the league with a 1.87 GAA, near the top with a .932 save percentage, a 10 – 7 – 1 record, and coming off a 3 – 0 shutout of the Philadelphia Flyers. Jonathan Quick has been equally impressive in his few games for the Kings, compiling a 2 – 2 record in 5 appearances, with a 1.88 GAA and a .933 save percentage. He, too, is coming off of a shutout, a 4 – 0 victory over Phoenix on the road.

In that Phoenix win, LA scored three goals in a span of 5:54 of the first period, two of them on the power play. Conversely, LA gave Phoenix 9 power play opportunities, but their PK shut the Coyotes down. Quick stopped 26 shots for his second shutout.

Clearly, the Jackets need to come out hard and prevent LA from blitzing us with energy. Lots of movement, lots of traffic, and lots of rubber on the net, just like we did against Philly. Again, we need to bury our chances!!

On defense, we need to likewise adopt the stingy, disruptive action that frustrated Philly for 60 minutes. We gave up 42 shots to LA in the last outing, and can’t afford that again. Pressure, pressure, pressure.

We are zero-for-Phoenix this year, and have been blanked by L.A. thus far. Need to turn the tables tonight and start the road trip off with 2 points.

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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  1. Comment by cbj1 on 29 December 2008:

    Another reason to stay up late and find a friend with Center Ice, Heidi is waaaaay easier on the eyes than Jim Day!!!

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