Brad Stuart and the Red Wings served notice to the Blue Jackets and the rest of the league that they are more than ready to defend their Stanley Cup. The Wings couldn't knock out the Jackets last night but they left R.J. Umberger and the CBJ wobbled and dazed after another beat down to the tune of 4-1.
Stuart's massive hip check on Umberger in the 2nd summed up the series in one play. RJU gained possession of the puck and was moving it out of the Wings zone. Then, like the Wings, out of no where Stuart smokes Umberger and left him wondering what school bus just hit him. Why it sums it up is that the Red Wings coasted this season to a 2nd place finish in the Western Conference. Yes, I said coasted! Now as Mike Babcock stated "It's called engagement." The Red Army has engaged and the rest of the playoff teams need to be aware that with this team engaged, they are a dominate force.
The question for Blue Jacket fans is can the CBJ pick themselves up off the ice, like Umberger did, and make the Wings nervous in a game let alone win? Umberger showed character and gained even more respect after he came back after being leveled. "I couldn't believe he was out there! My god, he got hit! I haven't seen a hit like that in a long long time. It looked to me that he was out and for him to come back and play says something about him," the impressed Babcock said. Could that be a statement that could be said about this Jackets team at the end of the series? Because this team looks like it is out but will people say, if somehow the CBJ make something out of this series, that it says something about this team? We will have to see.
Some stats that stuck out for me is the following:
Nash, Vermette, Huselius - Minus 8 combined
Cleary, Zetterberg, Franzen - Plus 9 combined
Derek Dorsett - 8:11 TOI (lowest on team by almost 2 minutes), 4 SOG (led team), 4 hits (2nd on the team)
Manny Malhotra - 10 out of 13 face off wins (77%), 0 SOG and 2 missed shots
Pavel Datsyuk - 4 out of 14 face off wins (29%), 2 SOG and 1 missed shot
Raffi Torres - 2 SOG, 5 hits (led team), 1 take away
Highlights from Game 3
Other Quotes and Notes
Blue Jackets Team Notes
Columbus played the first home Stanley Cup Playoff game in franchise history tonight in front of a club record crowd 19,219
It is the second time this season the club has had a crowd larger than 19,000
Seating capacity for Nationwide Arena is 18,144
The Blue Jackets goal was a power play goal, the club’s first power play goal in Stanley Cup Playoff history
The goal also snapped Chris Osgood’s shutout streak at 144:27
Blue Jackets Player Notes
C R.J. Umberger scored his second goal of the playoffs and the first home goal in Blue Jackets playoff history at 16:07 of the third period. Counting last season’s playoffs, he has collected 12-5-17 in 19 games. He had 10-5-15 in 17 games with the Philadelphia Flyers last season .
LW Rick Nash assisted on Umberger’s goal. The assist was the first home playoff assist in club history. It also was his first career playoff point in his third career playoff game.
C Jason Williams also assisted on Umberger’s goal. It was his first point of the 2009 postseason and first since the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs when he recorded 1-1-2 in six games for the Detroit Red Wings. It was his first playoff point since an assist on Apr. 25, 2006 at Edmonton.
Blue Jackets Head Coach Ken Hitchcock
Commenting on the start of the game…
“It’s a hard game for us to evaluate. The first period was again, a really good period for us. We competed at a really high level, created scoring chances and we’re down 2-0. I thought we were discouraged because of that at the start of the second period. We came back and played really well in the third.”
Commenting on the starts of the first three games of the series…
“We’ve played three games and had three great starts and had nothing to show for it. They scored early and we kept playing. That second goal was a killer. It took us half a period or two-thirds of a period to recover.”
Commenting on Detroit…
“Good teams make you pay. Detroit makes you pay, if you make a mistake they make you pay. They were opportunistic. Yes we had a lot of scoring chances, we hit goal posts, we hit cross-bars, but they end up with the 2-0 lead and that’s the momentum they wanted in the first period and full value for them. We made a couple mistakes and they ended up in our net.”
Commenting on Game 4…
“We’re in a sudden death situation. I know what we’re up against. We’re up against a real good team. Our issue is being discouraged. No reward for the work you’ve put in… we’re going to have to deal with it and it happens all the time (in the playoffs). To me it’s all about keep playing. Detroit squeezes the life out of you.”
Commenting on the positive signs…
“The number one encouraging sign is when we don’t get discouraged, we’re pretty darn good. They play a very mature game and we get discouraged at times with that. We’re trying to force it, rather than being patient.”
Commenting on forward Derek Dorsett and Raffi Torres…
“(Dorsett) and Torres were good together. They give us a lot of energy.”
Commenting on forward R.J. Umberger…
“He’s a tough guy. He’s a guy you really admire as a player. It’s going to take a lot to knock him out. I was impressed with the way he came back. No other way to describe it – he’s a tough guy.”
Commenting on goalie Steve Mason…
“I thought when it was 2-0 he made some good saves on the power play (for Detroit) and kept it close for us. I don’t think we’re not giving him the support he needs against (Detroit). You’re not going score one goal a game and beat Detroit.”
Blue Jackets Left Wing Rick Nash
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“The crowd was great, the fans were loud, we just made a couple of mistakes and the puck ended up in the back of the net. (Detroit goaltender Chris) Osgood played another good game and made some great saves. We just have to keep on working hard. Detroit is good, but we are good enough to play with them. We can beat that team. It is a matter of not making mistakes in critical areas. We have to work harder and focus.”
Blue Jackets Center R.J. Umberger
Commenting on trailing the series 3-0…
“I don’t want to talk about the big hit, there is more to talk about we are down 3-0 right now. There are a lot of things we need to clean up. The hit is just a small part of the series.
Commenting on getting shots on goal and being rewarded…
“We finally got a power play goal and getting pucks on the net get rewarded. We have been harping on it all series trying to get shots there. In the second period we were just not getting shots through. You watch how they score goals they put pucks on net then they can make plays after they get on net but we are not just getting it through right now
Commenting on what it takes to win this time of year…
“You do not want to show them any respect on the night you just want to go at them. You got to go at them hard but give them credit they back check as well as anybody. The best players come back through the neutral zone and clog things up. That is how you win games this time of the year.”
Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“We talked about in our dressing room right before the game. It was going to be an unbelievable atmosphere. We talked about the first 10 minutes… if we could be patient, we could take advantage of that… and that’s what happened on the first goal. There was a neutral zone turnover and we take it the other direction.”
Commenting on the shots…
“I thought (Columbus) had a real good push (tonight). They missed the net 13 times. We had 46 shots directed towards our net and we had 35… that doesn’t happen to us very often.”
Commenting on forward Dan Cleary…
“He’s good. He’s a big heavy body. Cleary has that skill level and hockey-sense to execute. His net front presence on the second goal was important, obviously. He can play against the best players and still generate offense.”
Commenting on goaltender Chris Osgood’s play…
“He had some opportunities (to let in goals). He was good early in the game, when (Columbus) was coming and on the penalty kill. Our goaltending has been real good and yet it’s not like we’re that surprised. That’s how he was last year in the playoffs. There is something about experience, in life, when you have it is good and when you don’t have it, it’s overrated.”
Detroit Red Wings Center Henrik Zetterberg
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“It was an exciting game, their first playoff game. It was a loud building, great atmosphere. We just tried to feed on that, too. We knew Columbus was going to feed off that and we tried to do it as well. Ozzie (goaltender Chris Osgood) came out huge for us especially at the start of the game again, and it kind of keeps them out of it. We got the first two goals and kind of went from there.”
Commenting on his two goals…
“The first one was a great pass by (Dan) Cleary. I was kind of alone in the slot and I just tried to get it high and it went in. The second one was also great play by Cleary. Good heads up play. He just put it in the middle and I had empty net.”
Commenting on being up three games to none…
“We know that they are going to come out on Thursday ready to play, so this is not over yet but we like where we are and will be ready to play.”
Detroit Red Wings Right Wing Dan Cleary
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“It was a good game, I thought we played well defensively. We pretty much gave them that one on the power play. Ozzie (goaltender Chris Osgood) was first star, he was great for us tonight.”
Commenting on his goal…
“It was a big goal, late in the period like that, to be able to deflate them a little bit. Any time you score late or early, the momentum swings. Z (Henrik Zetterberg) was great again tonight and Franz (Johan Franzen) was great, everybody played good.”
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Eric Smith
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