Archive for December 2012

December 17-23 CBJ Prospect Week in Review + WJC Pre Tournament

By on December 26, 2012

Seasons Greetings folks! We’re getting into some of the best time of the hockey calendar as the World Junior Championships are getting ready to get going in Ufa, Russia.

Last week was a light one for the Falcons – they played only two games before getting four days off for the holidays. Starting off on Wednesday, the Falcons traveled to Portland to take on the Pirates. Miami (Ohio) product Andy Miele would open the scoring two minutes in before the Falcons would score two goals with David Savard scoring his third of the season and Ryan Johansen scoring his 10th of the season. The Falcons went into the first intermission leading 2-1. After a scoreless second period, the Birds would allow two goals only 26 seconds apart in the third to give the Pirates a 3-2 win. Allen York would make 29 saves in the loss but he is still looking for his first AHL win of the season. For the fight fans, Ethan Werek made one of the bigger mistakes of his life messing with Will Weber after Will checked a Pirates player. I’m giving the decision to Will. Saturday night it was off to Giant Center in Hershey, PA in the land of chocolate (I had to). With Andrew Joudrey serving a hooking penalty and the Bears entering the Falcons zone, Matt Calvert forced a turnover and was off to the races. This caused Bears goalie Braden Holtby to over commit and allow Matt’s eighth of the season and first shorthanded goal of the season. The rest of the game would be the Curtis McElhinney show making 19 saves for his new franchise record sixth shutout of the season in the 1-0 win. The 1-0 victory was the first time ever the Birds shutout the Bears and first 1-0 victory since December 3, 2005 against Manchester. Continue reading December 17-23 CBJ Prospect Week in Review + WJC Pre Tournament

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December 10-16 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

By on December 20, 2012

Seasons Greetings all! It’s a light week –  all but three of the NCAA prospects and most of the European prospects are off till after the holidays except for Anton Forsberg and SSK who will be back next week. So without further adieu let’s get going.

As always, starting off in Springfield it was a bit of a rough weekend with the team going 1-1-1 and losing two of their best defensemen in Saturday’s game. Starting on Friday with a rough one, the Falcons traveled to Providence to face off against the Bruins in a stoplight game – the Falcons wore their red alternates and the Bruins wore their yellows. The Falcons would spot Providence a 3-0 lead before Tomas Kubalik would score his sixth of the season when Tim Erixon‘s blast bounced off the end wall and Kubalik backhanded it in. 18 seconds later Nick Drazenovic would make it 3-2 with his sixth of the season. Midway through the third period Cam Atkinson would score his team leading 14th goal of the season. Curtis McElhinney would make 23 saves in the 6-3 loss allowing an empty net goal. Continue reading December 10-16 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

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A Night with the Brick Layer

By on December 18, 2012

Last night, I attended the Town Hall meeting with John Davidson and Todd Richards. Aside from the pomp and circumstance of parading out the new scoreboards (which are amazing as everyone says) and introducing the sales reps, it was down to business.

I think the biggest take away from last evening was that JD is basically asking us to buy in to a new way of building this team – and he’s got the resume to prove he can do it. It’s very clear that JD has a plan and a tagline to go with it: “One Brick at a Time”. The analogy was drawn that bricks are used to lay a foundation – and, if that is done properly, you’ve built something that will last. Last night was hearing more about exactly what that means: this is a process to get the Blue Jackets to a place of sustained greatness and it’s going to take work. Continue reading A Night with the Brick Layer

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December 3-9 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

By on December 11, 2012

While the NHL and NHLPA continue to tackle the seemingly impossible task of negotiating a new CBA, there was plenty of hockey to be had on the prospect front. Without any more delay, let’s get to the recaps for last week’s play.

It was a short but travel filled week for the Falcons as they loaded up for a rare flight for the team’s only trip to Canada this season. The Birds headed as far East in Canada as you can get to St. John’,s Newfoundland for a back to back with the IceCaps. First on Friday night, with the Falcons trailing, Ryan Craig would open the scoring just 2:51 into the second. Cam Atkinson’s blast bounced off the end boards and all Craig had to do was tap it in for his 45th goal all time with the Falcons. Later in the second, Dalton Prout would send a pass to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and JAM would be off to the races skating past two Caps defenders before deking the puck past Eddie Pasquale for his seventh of the season. Just 1:28 later Nick Drazenovic would score on another breakaway firing a wrist shot over Pasquale’s shoulder launching the goalie’s water bottle off the net. After allowing two IceCaps goals, Cam Atkinson would take over scoring two goals. The first came off the rebound of a Dalton Prout blast and the second would be an empty net goal to seal the 5-3 victory. Curtis McElhinney would make 33 saves for his 12th win of the season. Continue reading December 3-9 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

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November 26-December 2 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

By on December 6, 2012

Back again all for another week in the world of CBJ prospects with some international news sprinkled in.

Starting in Springfield, the Falcons had every player’s favorite: a three in three, including a back to back with the Manchester Monarchs and a game against the Connecticut Whale. Starting on Friday in Manchester, the Falcons would be overly nice and spot the Monarchs a three-goal lead before Nick Holden would score his second of the season on an innocent looking shot that Martin Jones just couldn’t get. Matt Calvert would score a pretty one to make it 3-2 when he took a cross-rink pass from Cam Atkinson with Calvert firing a one timer from the face-off dot. The Monarchs would get another one but then it’d be all Falcons, scoring three straight with Dalton Smith scoring his third goal of the season just 11 seconds after the Monarchs scored from down in front. AHL only signed Ryan Craig would score two goals to finish the comeback with the first being the 100th of his AHL career, Curtis McElhinney would make 25 saves in the win. Friday night in Springfield Cam Atkinson would score the Falcons only goal in a 2-1 loss when he’d tap the puck past Monarchs goalie Peter Mannino, Paul Dainton would make 27 saves in the loss. Sunday to finish the weekend the Birds would travel to Connecticut to take on the Whale the last time the Whale hosted the Falcons would be a Springfield 10-2 win and tonight wouldn’t be much different. Cam Atkinson would open the scoring just two and half minutes in tapping in a JAM rebound for his team leading 10th goal of the season, Ryan Johansen would score his seventh of the season off a give and go with Audy-Marchessault deep in the Whale’s end to make it 2-0 Falcons. To close out the period Matt Calvert would score off a John Moore blast from the point (somehow hard to tell from the video) for his sixth of the season. Sean Collins would score his fifth of the season when he’d intercept a pass at the blueline before rifling a shot over Jason Missiaen’s shoulder; again, it’d be Ryan Craig finishing off the scoring off a pretty passing play for his fifth of the season to make it 5-0. Curtis McElhinney would stop all 34 shots he faced for his franchise record tying fifth shutout of the season and 11th win of the season. On the weekend, it was Ryan Craig leading the way with three goals and an assist, among CBJ prospects it’d be Cam Atkinson and Matt Calvert with each scoring two goals and an assist. Nick Drazenovic would have three assists; Nick Holden would have a goal and an assist and David Savard, Andrew Joudrey and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault each having two assists with Savard’s two assists being in the final game of his eight game point streak where he scored two goals and eight assists. Continue reading November 26-December 2 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

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