Blue Jackets Game 4 Notes: 3 Empty-Net Misses and 3:33 Bring a Game 5
Is a 3-0 lead the new “most dangerous lead in hockey”? For the second straight night, a team lost a three-goal lead, then lost the game in OT. This time…
Pete Bauer
Blue Jackets Game 3 Notes: Great Comeback, Not So Great Special Teams
Shades of last year’s Game 1 vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning! Last night the Columbus Blue Jackets were down 3-0 (to the Toronto Maple Leafs this time) and finished with four…
Blue Jackets Game 2 Notes: No Offense & Wave After Wave of Maple Leafs
Game 2 between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Toronto Maple Leafs was another shutout with an empty-net goal, although this time the winning goalie was Toronto’s Frederik Anderson rather…
Blue Jackets Game 1 Notes: Defense, Offense and a Lot of Matthews
Sunday evening the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 to take the first game of their best-of-five Qualifying Round series. As predicted (by many, including me), it was a…
NHL “Flat Salary Cap” Will Lead to Bumpy Road
Reduced hockey-related revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic will result in a “flat” NHL salary cap for the 2020-21 season. With no increase from the previous year’s upper limit of…
2 NHL Draft-Eligible Prospects Join Notre Dame Hockey
Among the four freshman joining the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team for the 2020-21 season are two draft prospects. In the NHL Central Scouting Bureau’s final list for the 2020 NHL…
High-Scoring Maple Leafs Now Learning About Defense
Reports out of Toronto say that Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe is preaching defense as he gets his players ready for the Qualifying Round. Say what? Isn’t that why former coach…
Blue Jackets Must Shut Down Maple Leafs’ Big Guns
The Columbus Blue Jackets face the Toronto Maple Leafs in a best-of-five Qualification Round Series starting Aug. 2 to determine which team advances to the NHL’s 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. (The loser…
Blue Jackets 2019 Playoffs Bode Well for 2020 Postseason
Let’s start by addressing the big difference between the 2019 NHL Playoff Columbus Blue Jackets and the 2020 postseason Blue Jackets: Lots of talent left coach John Tortorella’s team as…
2020 NHL Draft Lottery Round 2 Explained
The first-overall pick in the NHL’s 2020 Entry Draft will be determined in a second draft lottery. Much to the disappointment of the teams with the worst records in the…
NHL Draft 2020: To Tank or Not to Tank?
Prior to the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Playoffs, we’ll see the so-called Qualification Round. Each winner of the eight best-of-five series (four in each conference) goes on to the actual playoffs.…
Korpisalo or Merzlikins: Which Blue Jackets Goalie Starts?
As the Columbus Blue Jackets prepare to meet the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2019-20 qualifying round, head coach John Tortorella faces what could be a very tough decision: which…