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Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets (9-5-2) welcome division rival Detroit Red Wings (7-5-3) to the confines of Nationwide Arena. This is the first meeting between the two clubs since the Jackets were swept three games to none in the opening round of the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Columbus, currently tied for the best record in the Central Division with Chicago, are 3-1 in the month of November, with the soul loss coming in a shootout against the San Jose Sharks. The 2008 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings haven’t quite managed to achieve success, with their most recent game resulting in a loss to the much maligned Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1.
Columbus has been riding the excellent play of returning Rookie of the Year goalie Steve Mason (.891 SV%) and captain Winger Rick Nash. Nash is currently tied for third place in the league for the most points with 22. The Red Wings are lead into town by Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and the Goaltending force of Chris Osgood.
Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock will be coaching in his 1000th career game tonight. Hitch, who started his career with the Dallas Stars, is in his third season with the Jackets and has a career record of 520-350-129. He has only missed the playoffs one time in his career, that being the 2007 season with Columbus.
The game starts at 7:00PM and will be broadcast on CD101, 1460 The Fan and Fox Sports Ohio. The Columbus Blue Jackets will honor Veterans prior to the game as the 338th U.S. Army Band will be performing on the concourse and members of the United States Armed Forces will present the colors for the National Anthem. Tickets still remain at the box office. Huntington Bank Green Seats go on sale at 5:00PM for $10.
Should be an awesome game. Columbus, get out and support the Blue Jackets!!
I’ll be there. Red Wings are going down.
First game I’m going to this year. I’m stoked!
It’s mini stick giveaway tonight too :)
I will be there too! LET’S GO JACKETS!!
F#@k, already down 4-0 in the 1st. I hate Detroit. Oh well, at least we don’t have to live there!
Pretty painful turning the game on 13 minutes into the first and seeing the good guys down 4-0.
Start of the third period score now 6-1. Ouch.
That…was bad.
9-1? Yikes.
Rd wings scored 1:05 into the game. Mason got yanked after giving up the first three goals. Came back to start the second and gave up five more. No one showed up on the ice for the home team tonight.
9-1….the CBJ’s really laid a stinky egg on the ice of Nationwide Arena. That was about as bad, if not worse than the Tennessee Titans-New England Patriots bloodbath in the snow last month.
Well, where to begin. Is it me or were the players in the locker room during the game playing NHL 2K10 and the city amateur league was on the ice. WTF? How does a team play with such dominance in the first 5 games of the season and then turn in a performance like this. The goaltending is becoming a serious issue…49 goals in the last 11 games……are you kidding me………63 goals on the season, one less than the worst team in the league in Carolina. I don’t understand how Mason can be so dominant in his first season and then so ridiculously shitty in his second. Better get it together boys, especially with all the bankruptcy talk of late. We don’t need anymore negative news.
I was at the game last night…it was painful. There was a stretch in the 2nd period that looked a lot better, and then we got the first goal to make it 4-1, and while I don’t think the average fan was banking on a comeback, you could see them playing better and the place started to get some energy back…and then we gave up 2 goals in about a minute and that was pretty much all she wrote. Once it was 6-1 we (fans and players) were in full “End this now, make it stop” mode. It was a bummer to watch the 3rd period in a stadium that had more Detroit than Columbus fans. At least I got a free t-shirt!
I was away from the tv during two of the scores. the crowd erupted and i thought the jackets had scored…..no,it was the red wings. that’s how many fans were there. it was the same with shittsburg. we went to frog bear after the game and i could have swore i was in pittsburg. it was eerie.
on a side note, pittsburg has the most loyal fans i’ve seen of any major league sports team. it’s beyond insane. it would be nice to have that kind of following.
After the game went to 6-1 you could feel the breeze as the home crowd left. In the third, Detroit fans took over about half of the building.
Before the game, we went to Barley’s. It was good to see most of the patrons in Blue Jackets gear. I’m sure it’s like that in most of the establishments by the arena.
The Penguins have seen a lot of ups and downs in the past 15-20 years. I’m glad Lemieux could keep the team in Pittsburgh. Fan loyalty for their teams is excellent. I include the Steelers in this, but not the Pirates – that franchise is the pits.
There are a lot of people living here from the Pittsburgh and Youngstown areas (myself included), that’s probably why you see so many fans (a Stanley Cup championship doesn’t hurt either, nor does Sidney Crosby). Although, I love the Steelers the most, the CBJ has become (for better or worse) my second favorite team followed by the Pens.
with the soul loss coming in a shootout against the San Jose Sharks.
Yeah I guess that wasn’t a typo. Where’s the heart and soul, eh Jackets?
I would assume that some of the Detroit & Pittsburgh fandom has to do with existing fans not making the switch to the Jackets when they were established.
I mean… we’ve got plenty of Cincinnati & Cleveland sports team fans in Columbus who have never lived in either city, and I doubt they would immediately drop their support in favor of a new major league franchise of any type setting up in Columbus.
Now that we have an NHL team, the existing Pens and Wings fans in Ohio (except maybe Toledo and far east Ohio area) will slowly fade out to future generations of Jackets fans. It won’t happen soon enough either. I just hope they have a team to root for in the future.
Agree with jpizzow. It will change over time as more kids grow up with the Jackets.
When I lived in Kingston, ON (3 hrs from Toronto and Montreal, 2 hrs from Ottawa) from 1997-2002, most everyone age 20+ was a Leafs fan or Habs fan, but with kids you’d see far more Senators fans. The Sens started play in 1992.
Even in Ottawa, there still were/are a lot of residual Toronto and Montreal fans, although they lost ground to the Senators more quickly than in outlying areas like Kingston.