Jackets 4, Stars 1

Jackets get a big two points on the road…Huselius with a big night…Mason getting his groove back. But the main talking point from this game is going to be the ugliness that unfolded in the second period. Might as well go to the video:

James Neal with an elbow to the head of Derek Dorsett, whose back was turned. It was really pretty scary to see Dorsett try to get up and then just go down like a sack of potatoes, out cold. He was up on his feet later, which was a good thing. Hopefully he ends up not too seriously hurt.

Neal received a game misconduct, and the Jackets made the Stars pay, scoring twice on the five minute PP. But there’s got to be some supplementary discipline for Neal here. Even those people who don’t want the league to outlaw shoulder checks to the head couldn’t see driving a guy’s head into the glass from behind with an elbow. No excuse for it. Just a dirty play, and hopefully a suspension will result.

A poll for your freeping pleasure

Columbus Business First is asking how important it is that Columbus retains the Blue Jackets. I didn’t like the phrasing of the question too well, because I would personally be devastated if the team left, but I suspect Columbus would survive without them. And I’m still pretty skeptical about public funding for the Jackets, so I don’t necessarily want to cast a vote suggesting that it is so important that of course public funds should be used.

But hey, it’s just an internet poll, which is not legally binding, unless Proposition 304 passes. And we all pray it will.

So I decided to stick a thumb in the eye of all the people who vote “who cares” on any Dispatch poll about hockey and voted “Very Important.” Which is the runaway leader, as of my typing of this post. So have at it…

Some more scattered thoughts on the Filatov debacle

Okay, it’s had some time to sink in, I’ve read all the fevered comments on Puck-Rakers and elsewhere. I guess I haven’t moved far off my position from this morning — this is not a good situation for the Blue Jackets, but I still think it’s not the end of the world. Mostly because I do believe that at some point between now and 2011, Filatov is going to want to try his luck at the NHL again, and one way or another, he will have to go through the Columbus organization to do it. Clearly, the longer he stays in Russia, the more his trade value is diminished, so it’s in the best interest of the Jackets that he either returns to play for Columbus or gets traded ASAP, probably by the beginning of next season either way. But I’m not ready to jump on the “first round pick just walked away for nothing” train just yet. I know people point to Svitov, who never came back from Russia, but I don’t see the comparison as all that valid. Svitov was older, had been in North America longer, and could probably recognize that NHL stardom was never going to be his (not to mention he’d had some family problems back home while he was over here that probably made him see being closer to home as a good thing). Filatov is just 19, and based on what we’ve seen of him and heard from him in the past couple of years, I just suspect a career in the KHL is not his long term goal.

I’d also like to see some people back off Filatov a bit, and chill with the anti-Russian stuff. Right now, this is an issue mostly with Russian players because they’re most likely to see the KHL as a good alternative to the NHL. Yes, some North Americans and other Europeans go there. But if you read Dave King’s book about coaching in the RSL (and you should, as it’s a very good book), it’s clear that there’s a lot that North Americans still find weird and isolating and unacceptable vis-a-vis the living standards in Russia. So there probably never will be a big wave of North American NHL players fleeing to the KHL. But past history shows that when there are viable North American sources of leverage, North American players use them. That’s how the WHA managed to keep going for seven years. And in the mid-90s, when the IHL tried for the big time, disgruntled NHLers (Curtis Joseph, for example), played in that league in order to try and force the hands of their NHL organization. Or more recently, until they changed the rules in the last CBA, a number of NCAA prospects jumped to major junior specifically because by doing so they could become NHL free agents. Players use the leverage that is available to them when they’re unhappy with their circumstances, and I don’t think that’s some uniquely Russian trait.

Is Filatov arrogant? Yeah, probably. I don’t know him, but it would hardly be earth-shattering news that a prized young athlete is arrogant about his abilities. It’s both an occupational hazard of and a requirement for the job. If I can digress briefly into my own experiences playing hockey, any time I found the puck on my stick, my reaction was the same — panic, and figure out how to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Because I fundamentally lacked the confidence in my ability to handle the puck well enough to carry it any distance without turning it over. And I came to respect those players who did have that confidence. And that’s at pretty low levels of hockey. A finesse player like Filatov, to be able to play the style he does well enough to become a high draft pick of an NHL team — it takes a shitload of confidence in his ability. Obviously, some pro players lose that confidence as they move up the ladder and aren’t as effective against better players. But I think they all have to have it to get to the professional level in the first place. And when you have a lot of confidence, yeah, it can turn into arrogance. Especially when you’re young and feeling invincible. So I’m not ready to throw Filatov under the bus as an irredeemable jerk just yet. I still hope that as he matures he will find the balance between the confidence he needs to do his job and the humility he needs to be a team player.

Is Hitchcock biased against young skilled players and has he never given Filatov a fair chance? I think there’s some truth here — there’s a definite “Hitch type” player, and Filatov doesn’t particularly fit that mold right now. But I don’t think it’s necessarily true that young skilled players can’t get a fair chance from Hitchcock. Brassard and Voracek haven’t always been on a long leash, but they’ve both gotten fairly significant levels of responsibility from the coach. As has Kris Russell. Rick Nash was far from a paradigmatic Hitch type player when Hitchcock took over, but he’s grown a great deal into a more rounded player under Hitchcock’s coaching. I don’t agree with everything Hitchcock does as a coach — for the life of me, I’ve never figured out his infatuation with Andrew Murray — but the team has moved forward since he’s been in Columbus. There may be a time when it’s obvious he’s not the right coach for the job anymore, but I don’t think we can make that call on the basis of one unhappy 19-year-old.

For better or for worse, it does seem like the team has been built since Howson took over largely around Hitchcock. Management clearly believed enough in him to take that into account while trading and signing players. It is, then, a matter of some concern when the Dispatch suggests that Filatov has become a sticking point between Hitchcock and Howson. While I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to always agree on everything, if there is in fact a rift between the coach and the GM, that’s something I’m worried about. Because that can wreck a team. We saw enough of it in the MacLean years.

And now, I’m done thinking about Filatov for the night. What’s done is done.

Filatov to CSKA

Per Portzline’s Twitter. One year loan deal.

Edited to add: Puck Daddy talks to Filatov about his decision

Edited again to add: Puck-Rakers has a more fleshed out piece with some quotes from Filatov.

Filatov on his way out?

Alarming, if not completely unanticipated, news overnight in the Dispatch: Nikita Filatov may be leaving the team for the KHL as early as this week. The Filatov issue has been brewing all season (and part of last as well), even drawing national attention. And we’ve known at least since the summer that if Filatov wasn’t getting ice time in Columbus, he had the KHL as a backup plan.

This is one of those situations where I can see all sides, and I’m not entirely sure which one is correct. Filatov is absolutely a talented offensive player. We’ve seen enough of him to know that. But he’s equally got some deficits on the defensive and physical sides of the game that he needs to figure out before he gets top line minutes in the NHL, especially on a Ken Hitchcock-coached team.

It’s clear that being a healthy scratch most nights, and playing limited fourth-line minutes alongside such offensive luminaries as Jared Boll and Mike Blunden is not the optimal use of a talent like Filatov’s. But this year’s Jackets team isn’t struggling to score goals, and with some ups and downs, is generally playing pretty well. So how do you justify demoting a player from one of the top lines to make room for Filatov? I know some would have said Huselius in the past few weeks, but he’s been better of late. Voracek is having a breakout season. Brassard has struggled a bit but still has done more than Filatov. With the injuries right now, maybe Filatov could slot into the third line more easily, but Torres and Pahlsson will be healthy at some point, and maybe even Modin. Filatov just hasn’t shown in the chances he’s had that he should be displacing an experienced NHL forward from one of the top lines.

In the past, when the team could hardly buy a goal, the team could live with the growing pains of a Nash or Zherdev or Brule in the hopes that they would pitch in some offense. But that didn’t ultimately lead to much success, and two of those three players are no longer with the team, so do we want to emulate that now?

It does pain me a little bit to say that, as I’ve long felt that the changes in the game since the early 1990s that stress defensively responsibility, often to the detriment of offensive flair and skill, make hockey less fun to watch. So there’s a part of me that wants to say to hell with defense! Let Filatov be Filatov and let the blueline sort out the consequences. But then there’s the part of me that really wants this team to make the playoffs this year, and even if that takes 80 games like last night’s tight-checking affair, so be it.

The obvious solution would seem to be for Filatov to go to Syracuse, play top line minutes, score a lot of points, and work on his defense and physical play. Jason Spezza was even more highly touted than Filatov when he was drafted by the Senators; he went back to junior and then into the AHL, largely because of weaknesses in his defensive play. And he’s gone on to a pretty successful NHL career. Why not the same path for Filatov?

But of course the KHL is the rub. And it’s just a fact we have to live with in the contemporary NHL. Players have options. And particularly in the case of Russian players, it’s an attractive option to be able to live closer to family and friends, speak their own language, not deal with culture shock, and still be well compensated to play a reasonably high level of hockey. It’s not surprising they would opt for that when the AHL is the other option and they don’t feel like they’ll be getting to the NHL soon. Some fans have called for the Jackets to never draft another Russian because of this, but that is an unduly harsh position. Would we really pass up the talent of an Ovechkin or a Malkin because there’s some chance they might bolt for the KHL? Of course not. And it’s not even just Russian players who are willing to go there, in any event — look at Jiri Hudler leaving Detroit in the off-season.

So is the solution then to just play Filatov in the NHL as much as he wants, on the line he wants, lest he decide he wants out? Again, there’s a certain attraction to just letting him sink or swim, and on a 14th place team, maybe. But on a team that’s most likely going to be dueling it out for those 6-8 positions…it’s hard to go against Hitchcock on this one.

In the end, it might not be the worst thing for Filatov to go back to the KHL for a spell, if the AHL is just not an option he is willing to accept. Columbus still owns his rights for several years, so when he wants another kick at the NHL can (and I predict he will; these guys are competitive and want to test themselves against the best players), it will have to be with the Blue Jackets, or he will have to be traded. But the Jackets will still control his NHL future. So maybe let him go back, do some maturing, work on his play, and then see where we are next fall. Obviously, he wouldn’t be developing in the Columbus system and under the watchful eye of the coaches and management, but it’s not necessarily the end of the world.

The other option is a trade, and I’m warming up to that. I hate to let young players go, especially when they have the sort of talent Filatov does. He is the sort of player I could see looking back in ten years and saying, “Can you believe we drafted him and let him go?” But if he’s just not going to fit in the system in Columbus, and it’s going to be a continual distraction, and at some point his value gets diminished by the drama, maybe you trade him now, while his potential is still seen as very high. Columbus still lacks a legitimate #1 defenseman. If Filatov could be moved for a player who could fit that role, I would strongly consider it.

There’s no real simple way out of this mess. Every option has its down sides for the team, for Filatov, for the fans. I just hope it gets dealt with relatively quickly, and doesn’t become a distraction that drags the whole season into a morass. That would be the worst possible outcome.

Jackets 3, Oilers 2 (SO)

Jackets took a measure of revenge on Edmonton for the collapse last month, coming out with the win in the shootout.

This was a chippy, tight-checking affair in which neither team really got a lot of good even strength chances. And in fact every goal was scored on the power play. There were two fights within the first three minutes, Blunden and then call-up Sestito dropping the gloves. First period was pretty even. Columbus dominated shots in the second, but each team let in a goal. Edmonton dominated the third pretty well, but the Jackets managed to get it into OT and then to the shootout. Three in the past week….ugh. Even when my team wins, still not a fan.

Mathieu Garon was pretty solid in net again tonight. Countdown to the official “goalie controversy” in Columbus: 10…9…8…

I should also make note that Anton Stralman had a goal and an assist tonight. He’s a player of whom I am not overly fond, given some of his lapses on the defensive side of things. But he has managed to contribute decently on offense, something Jackets blueliners have not done much of in the past couple of seasons. Now, if he can just turn around that terrible +/-, I might find room in my heart for the Swedish power play specialist.

Jackets, currently sitting in sixth in the West, leave on a long and meandering road trip that takes them from Texas to Quebec, and various points in-between. All of the teams they play in the next week have fewer points on the season, with the exception of the Rangers. Which gives some hope for a decent record on this road trip.

Odds & Ends before the Oilers game

Puck-rakers commenters react to the news that Steve Mason has back spasms with the calmness and reason for which they are known. Incidentally, I had some back spasms last night while cleaning the cat box, and during my career as a goalie in shinny/intramural hockey, was occasionally known to give an angry glare when someone shot at my head. I am truly history’s greatest monster, or maybe number two to Steve Mason. In any event, we already knew Garon was starting tonight.

Tom Sestito has been recalled by the CBJs. We’ll see if he gets some ice time during the call-up.

I finally made it down to the Schott on Saturday for an OSU game. I went to a lot of games during the NHL lockout, but haven’t had a lot of success in keeping my friends interested since then, and since many of their games do conflict with Jackets games or other events, I don’t make it down to see the hockey Bucks as often as I’d like to. And with many of Miami’s games on TV, I feel like I’m more in tune with what’s going on with the Redhawks than the Buckeyes most of the time. In any event, small crowd as usual (given that the game started about an hour after the end of that nail-biting football game, I’d guess most of Columbus was still paralytic drunk by the time of the hockey game). Buckeyes were outshot by Western Michigan and still seem to have a penchant for getting themselves in penalty trouble (based on the sample size of two games I’ve seen this year). But Cal Heeter played very well in goal and held off WMU, and the Buckeyes managed to skate away with the 4-2 win. And with that, the Buckeyes, who started the season slow, are now third in the CCHA behind Michigan State and Miami (who were quite surprisingly swept at home by Ferris State this weekend). The game reminded me that I really should make more of an effort to make more OSU games. They’re out of town the rest of this month, but have a couple mouth-watering home tilts coming up in December — a series against Michigan, and a game against Miami (first half of a home-and-home).

One final note: this coming weekend the St. Lawrence women pay a visit to the Buckeyes women’s team. I’ll be at both, natch, rooting for the scarlet & brown.

Jackets 3, Ducks 2 (SO)

After the awful game on Wednesday, the Jackets were looking for some redemption last night. Anaheim has been struggling badly this season, so they would seem to be the tonic the CBJ needed. And ultimately they were, although the Jackets didn’t exactly make it look easy.

In what’s become an all-too-familiar pattern this year, the Jackets got behind early and had to play catch up. I suppose as long as they can manage to come back, it doesn’t matter who scores first (see the 2008 Columbus Crew for an example of a team that frequently went behind early yet didn’t suffer unduly for it), but it’s not a trait that inspires a lot of confidence in this team. It would be nice to see them take a lead early and hold it all game.

In this case, the Jackets had to crawl out of the hole twice — in the first period after the early goal, and again in the second after Doug Maclean’s bete noire, Todd Marchant, made it 2-1 Ducks. I thought the Jackets picked up their play after the Marchant goal, and they did come back to tie it. Mathieu Garon, getting his first start as a Jacket on home ice, came up with some big saves late in the second to preserve the tie. The third period + OT solved nothing, so it went to the shootout. Rick Nash iced the extra point for the CBJs with a weird goal. I thought he just lost his balance a little and was trying not to fall as he shot the puck. But it was notable enough to make Deadspin (some day I only hope the Jackets figure into a Wonkette post…)

Straight to the video:

Jackets now sitting in sixth in the West. They play at home Monday against Edmonton, and then head out on the road.

Jackets 1, Red Wings 9

There’s really nothing to say about the Jackets’ performance in this game. They stunk up the ice pretty much to a man, were dominated by the Wings for 60 minutes. And they know it.

Last night was only the second NHL game I ever left before it ended (the first was a lifeless affair against Colorado about three years ago, when I had to get up very early the next day and drive to Syracuse). Had it not been for the women next to me talking non-stop about their banal lives and banal friends, I might have stuck it out to the end of the terrible game. Then again, had it not been for the terrible play on the ice, it might have been worth my while to just find a different seat away from them. But the conjunction of an unwatchable game and unbearable people sent me fleeing for home near the end of the second period. I did at least watch the third period on TV…not that it was worth my while either.

As the game was starting, I was fretting about how bad the attendance was. And it was in fact a record low for a Columbus-Detroit game. But honestly, I’m retroactively somewhat glad more people weren’t there. 3,000 more people could have been turned off CBJ hockey for life.

All we can do is move on and put this game behind us. Hopefully the team has taken whatever lessons they needed to take from this. Anaheim tomorrow.

Wow, players become UFAs so quickly these days