Greetings all! I’m here to offer a quick preview of the AHL Semifinals or as I’m calling it “The Mirasty Cup.” The matchup is the Blue Jackets’ current affiliate the Springfield Falcons versus the CBJ’s first ever AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Now of course there’s no one left from those days probably, except owner Howard Dolgan. The Syracuse Crunch could be classified as the defending Calder Cup champs. Why the clarification? The Crunch is currently the Tampa Bay Lightning’s affiliate. Last year, Tampa Bay’s affilitate was the Norfolk Admirals, and they won the Calder Cup and had a pro hockey record 28 game winning streak. After winning the Cup, Tampa transferred their affiliation to Syracuse. Now, only 10 players remain from last year’s champs – one being AHL MVP Tyler Johnson. The Crunch also had to deal with a coaching change as Head Coach Jon Stevens was promoted to the Lightning on March 25th after Guy Boucher was fired. Continue reading AHL Eastern Conference Semifinal Preview
Finally! I can get back to work with the Falcons finishing off the Manchester Monarchs last night, even though I’m already a game behind in the OHL Finals.
Starting off in Springfield, the Falcons faced the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs in a best of five series (only the first round is 5 games, each series become best of seven the rest of the playoffs). Starting off on Friday – after a scoreless first, midway through the second period, Blake Parlett would earn a penalty shot which was the Falcons first ever in the postseason. Blake must have watched Artem Anisimov because that’s the move he used to roof it backhand over Martin Jones. Midway through the third period though, the Monarchs would tie it. The game would go to overtime and midway through the period, after the Falcons kept the puck in for a good bit, David Savard would win a board battle getting the puck to Ryan Russell. Ryan would send a cross crease pass to Cody Bass who, with a Monarch all over him, scored the game winner. Curtis McElhinney made 29 saves in the 2-1 win.
Sunday brought game two. Early in the game, after Cody Goloubef took a slashing penalty, Ryan Russell bounced the puck off the boards sending Trent Vogelhuber off on a breakaway which, much like Parlett’s penalty shot goal, just bounced over Jone’s pads. The Monarchs would score twice to make it 2-1 with a goal in the first and second periods. After a scramble in front, Michael Chaput sent the puck to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault who got it to David Savard who sent a blast from the point past Jones for his first playoff goal. Late in the third, the Falcons would have a goal called back but, as usual with these, who know why? The game would again go to overtime and who else but Cody Bass would score the game winner off a point shot. Bass is the third player in AHL history with consecutive overtime goals in the playoffs. Curtis McElhinney would make 41 saves in the 3-2 victory.
Continue reading AHL Quarterfinal/OHL Western Conference Final Recap
The NHL Draft Lottery was held last night and the Jackets had the lowest chance of picking first having only a 0.5% chance to win the lottery. Based on their finish, and the rules of the lottery itself, the Jackets could only pick 1st or 14th having only a 1 in 200 chance to pick 1st. With those odds, to the shock of no one, the CBJ stayed at 14 giving the team its second lowest pick ever.
Heres the lottery order
- Colorado
- Florida
- Tampa Bay
- Nashville
- Carolina
- Calgary
- Edmonton(justice)
- Buffalo
- New Jersey
- Dallas
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- Winnipeg
- COLUMBUS
Now, I’ll admit, looking at a list of picks at 14 (since 1980) its not exactly murderer’s row: Brad May (90) and Sergei Gonchar (92) are probably the most well known but some of the better defensemen in the league have been picked 14th lately including ex-division rivals (how great is it to read that) Brent Seabrook (03) and Kevin Shattenkirk (07) along with Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov (09) and Islanders forward Michael Grabner (06). Continue reading Jackets to select 14th in NHL Draft
A tiny change of format as I will be waiting until the end of the current playoff series to write about the CHL playoffs. The all Jackets prospect OHL Western Conference Final between the London Knights and Plymouth Whalers is currently tied at 1. So that means this week will be part season review and part playoff preview for the Springfield Falcons. So without further adieu here we go.
The Falcons were busy last week playing four games, going 3-1. They finished the year second in the Eastern Conference and the entire AHL. Starting off on Sunday the Falcons would play their home finale with the team handing out its team awards with Curtis McElhinney being named MVP and Nick Holden being the only two award winner. The whole list of award winners is here. As for the game, Andrew Joudrey would open the scoring when Blake Parlett would start the rush by getting the puck to Ryan Russell who’d chip the puck cross rink, with Joudrey snapping the puck past Jason Missiaen for his ninth of the season. The Whale would score two goals and Jonathan Audy-Marcessault would get in a fight (wait what?) to close out the first period. In the second period after Spencer Machacek would win a board battle getting the puck to Dalton Smith, who would bang away at the puck before it would come out to Michael Chaput who’d bury it for his 12th of the season. The Whale would score to go up 3-2. Late in the second period Audy-Marchessault would disrupt a Whale pass behind the net passing the puck to Matthew Ford for his eighth of the season to tie the game. In the final seconds the Falcons would create pressure down low where Machacek would get the puck out to David Savard who’d fire a slapshot that would bounce to Boone Jenner who’d collect the rebound for his first pro game winning goal. Allen York made 16 saves in the 4-3 win.
Continue reading Springfield Falcons Season Review/Playoff Preview
Another week in the world of Blue Jackets prospects with two prospects moving on to the Conference Final and another playing what probably was his final CHL game ever.
Starting off in Springfield as always, the Falcons went 2-1 last week with the team and some players picking up some hardware. Starting off on Sunday, the Falcons were off to Portland for a game against the Pirates. With the Falcons picking up a 4-2 victory along with some help from the Providence Bruins, Springfield was the first AHL team to clinch its division winning the F.G. (Teddy) Oke Trophy for the first time since 1997-98.
Jake Hansen opened the scoring with his second pro goal when he took an Alex Aleardi pass from behind the net and fired a slapshot past Mike Lee. Jonathan Audy-Marchessault scored his 20th goal of the season when he intercepted a clearing attempt and snapped a wrist shot by Lee. Blake Parlett scored his first as a Falcon to make it 3-1 when he fired in a Sean Collins rebound off the boards. Collins would make it 4-1 when he took a Matthew Ford feed for his 11th of the season. Curtis McElhinney made 19 saves for his 28th win of the season. Continue reading April 7-13 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Ah, Hockeysfuture.com – the hockey fans main resource for info on your team’s future stars along with it’s sister site of a place to kill brain cells/have a few laughs (HFBoards). Recently, they posted the Jackets top 20 prospects and, well, as the fanbase’s resident guru/geek (whichever you prefer) I went over the list and, much like The Hockey News list featured in my State of the Prospect Pool post, I’ve got some issues. Much like THN’s list, in my opinion it still feels like “hey what are you guys doing here?”, in addition to having a few rank order problems. It was pointed out to me that HF has criteria of what it qualifies as a prospect but since this is my post I’m gonna give my own take on HF’s and then post my list.
First things first lets look at theirs:
- D Ryan Murray
- F Cam Atkinson
- D Tim Erixon
- F Boone Jenner
- G Oscar Dansk
- D David Savard
- F Jonathan Audy-Marchessault
- D Cody Goloubef
- D Dalton Prout
- D Austin Madaisky
- G Joonas Korpisalo
- D Mike Reilly
- F T.J. Tynan
- G Allen York
- F Lukas Sedlak
- F Michael Chaput
- F Daniel Zaar
- F Seth Ambroz
- D Will Weber
- F Spencer Machacek Continue reading My Take on HockeysFuture.com Top 20 CBJ prospect list
Back again with the week in review with a minor change of format. I’m going to wait until the end of the playoff round to update the OHL prospects; otherwise, I’d only have stats for one game for two series this week, but ‘ll include how the series is with their stats. On with the show.
Starting off in Springfield as always. The Falcons could have clinched a playoff spot with a win over Albany but would fall 3-1 to the Devils. After allowing two first period goals, the Falcons’ Ryan Craig would strike for his 19th goal of the season when Nick Drazenovic sent a cross crease pass to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault. JAM’s shot would rebound to Craig who was at the doorstop. Allen York made 16 saves in the loss. Continue reading March 31st-April 6th CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Another week in the world of the Blue Jackets prospects with three moving on to the next round in their respective playoff series and another reportedly signing an ATO to join the Falcons. But in somewhat bad news we say “have a good summer” to all the Jacket’s NCAA prospects as all of their seasons have been completed.
Staring off in Springfield, on Thursday night the Birds would get into a wild one with Bridgeport with a new face on the team being the hero. Just 40 seconds after the Tigers made it 1-0, Matthew Ford would get three whacks at the puck before Jonathan Audy-Marchessault found the loose puck for his 19th of the season. The Sound Tigers scored twice to make it 3-1 before Ryan Craig made it 3-2 when he deflected a Matthew Ford shot for his 18th. The Tigers fourth goal would end Allen York’s night for about 12 minutes with Paul Dainton going in but suffering an injury stopping all four shots he faced. York would return to the crease stopping every shot he faced the rest of the way. Matthew Ford would start the comeback when he took a pass from JAM and scored on a pretty backhand for his sixth of the season (second with the Falcons) and his third point of the night. Will Weber scored his second of the season (both against Bridgeport and Rick DiPietro – Still funny!) when a Tigers’ clearing attempt bounced off a teammate’s skate right to Will who skated in on DiPietro and shot a backhand over his shoulder. A few minutes later Alex Aleardi, making his pro debut, found a loose puck after a Spencer Machacek shot for the game winner and his first pro goal. Allen York, despite the shaky start, would stop 15 of 19 in the win – his ninth win of the season. Continue reading March 24-30 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Greetings Jackets fans! Can you smell it in the air that the playoffs are here? In the CHL, all three leagues are getting started; plus the fun that is the NCAA tournament is getting underway next week. So let’s take a look at last week’s action.
Starting off in Springfield, a quick signing note: the Falcons added Alex Aleardi on an ATO after he completed his OHL career. Aleardi put up a career high 71 points (27-44-71 in 67GP) this season splitting it between Plymouth and Windsor. In his five year career, Alex picked up 227 points in 321 games.
The Falcons would bounce back after a rough week last week going 3-1 with the three newest Falcons picking up their first points with the team. On Sunday, the Falcons would fall to the Connecticut Whale 3-2 with Matthew Ford picking up his first goal with the Falcons when he backhand a Michael Chaput rebound for his fifth of the season. The Whale would score three times before Ryan Russell would score his eighth of the season when Ryan Craig would find him in front. Curtis McElhinney would make 15 saves in the loss.
Continue reading March 17- March 23 CBJ Prospect Week in Review
Greeting Jackets fans! Fresh off my State of the Prospect Pool post from last week I’m back with the week in review.
As always we start off in Springfield. The Falcons would pick up two new players in separate deals this past week acquiring forwards Spencer Machacek and Matthew Ford. Machacek was acquired on Sunday from the Winnipeg Jets for Tomas Kubalik. This is a “change of scenery” trade for both players especially with Kubalik seemingly passed by other prospects (even though you have to note that only centers have been injured and Tomas plays wing). It later came out through a puck rakers blog that Tomas actually requested the trade and Blue Jackets General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen honored that quickly. Here’s Hockeyprospectus’ Corey Pronman with his take on Spencer from his Winnipeg top 10 last summer: he was the Jets 8th best prospect. The birds would also make a deal with Philadelphia by acquiring Matthew Ford for future considerations meaning we got Matthew for…I have no idea. Some said it could be a draft pick, it could be a player, no one was really sure. Matthew is on twitter and you can follow him at @Frdy11. The Falcons would also add giant defenseman Thomas Larkin when he signed an ATO after Colgate was eliminated last week and Thomas finished his collegiate career.