It's the age old question, what came first the chicken or the egg. In this case, did the winning come first or the confidence?
Head Coach Ken Hitchcock thinks it all came from one single goal, "the whole season changed with the 3rd goal in Edmonton, the whole season." Hitchcock went on to say, "The different atmosphere on the bench, different atmosphere in the locker room, a different feel. Like the air just went out of everything."
Raffi Torres, the 2nd star of the game and owner of the game winning goal, thinks it's keeping it simple. "It's just keeping things simple out there," Torres stated. "Hitch has really calmed down on his meetings and his one on ones and trying to put out a simple game plan."
A lot of this confidence has to come from now the players know Mathieu Garon is going to keep this team in games. Since Christmas, Garon has started 5 games and hasn't gave up more than 2 goals in any of the contests. He's 3-1-1 in that stretch and has made the stops he's suppose to make and made some with a little flair tonight. Hitchcock praised his goaltender, "He made big saves when we made the few errors, the two breakaways and a two-on-one at the net. He made big saves at the right time for us."
As Garon continues to get the starts in net (he has been named the starter already for Tuesday's game against St. Louis), he is building a rhythm and comfort level that should feed off it's self. Garon doesn't think it's getting easier but it doesn't hurt Garon agreed. "I wouldn't say it's easier but you get to feel better cause I think when you play once a week you have to start all over again. But when you play lots of games, it seems like it just keeps coming."
Whatever the reason or what came first, the confidence in the room is contagious right now and Garon can also feel it, "I think we’re playing with more confidence and we know where if we make a mistake we know someone else is going to cover up for us. Right now, like I said, confidence is a huge factor and I think we have it right now.”
Blue Jackets/Stars Highlights
Quotes:
Blue Jackets Head Coach Ken Hitchcock
Commenting on the defenseman tonight…
“We got really good minutes from (Milan) Jurcina and (Mathieu) Roy tonight. They gave us a three-pair rotation. There’s no room on the ice, they close quick and Jurcina is getting better.”
Commenting on the play of Torres-Vermette-Voracek line…
“I think (Antoine) Vermette plays with speed now. Vermette is, for the first time, I think very comfortable playing center ice. He’s breaking ahead of the puck and creating speed for the line. He’s playing well between the dots and it’s really having an impact on the line and because there’s always angles and little two-on-ones.”
Commenting on the play of goaltender Mathieu Garon…
“He made big saves when we made the few errors, the two breakaways and a two-on-one at the net. He made big saves at the right time for us. Both goalies were good tonight.”
Commenting on the play of the team…
“I don’t see any reason that we can’t play like this for the rest of the year. The players are comfortable in this type of game. I’m hoping we can continue down this path and play this way. We’re grinding it with really good teams and we’re more than holding our own.”
Columbus Blue Jackets Player Quotes
Blue Jackets Left Wing R.J. Umberger
Commenting on what the three-game win streak means after the recent skid of losses…
“A lot. I mean when you’re on a losing streak it compounds a lot and it’s always happening. And we’re a better team than that. You know the 20-some games, 25 games, but it was just a roller coaster that we couldn’t stop.”
Commenting on playing more soundly…
“We’re getting back to our style of hockey, you know other then the Vancouver game. But our goals-against is a lot lower and that is basically the result of us playing hard, fore-checking and not turning the puck over in our zone and being a hard team to play against.”
Blue Jackets Goalie Mathieu Garon
Commenting on the team’s play recently…
“I think we’re playing with more confidence and we know where if we make a mistake we know someone else is going to cover up for us. Right now, like I said, confidence is a huge factor and I think we have it right now.”
Commenting on his recent play…
“I’m feeling good, but like I said, guys are blocking lots of shots in front of me and taking care of the rebounds and all I have to do is the first save and tonight I felt good. But I think as a group we felt great.
Blue Jackets Left Wing Raffi Torres
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“We’re creating a lot of stuff, creating a lot of chances, so you know nothing can come out of that but confidence, you know and Jake (Jakub Voracek) is playing probably some of the best hockey he’s played here in a while and (Mathieu) Garon, he’s obviously playing really well, but we’ve just got to keep feeding off each other and keep doing what we’re doing.”
Dallas Stars Quotes
Dallas Stars Head Coach Marc Crawford
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“When you are at points of the season when things are a little bit harder, you just have to dig in a little bit harder. On the positive side, Marty (Turco) played a lot better tonight. Defensively I thought we all dug in a little bit there. We could have been better moving the puck. We could have had a few more forwards moving their feet, being a little more aggressive in front of the oppositions net. We did get some glorious chances and didn’t put them away. Any time you get two breakaways and you have good guys getting them, you hope that you get something out of it. I think we can build on this effort, but we need to improve on it that’s for sure.”
Dallas Stars Left Wing James Neal
Commenting on the current road trip…
“It’s tough. We played well our last game and you want to keep that going, keep that consistency. We were struggling big time before this. You kind of want to get out of the basement. It was a tough night. We have to keep crashing the net and putting pucks there and good things will happen. We need to put this one behind us and look forward to Philly.”
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“Marty played well and you want to help him out. It’s a tough one to take. Columbus has been struggling, too and you want to come in here and play a hard road game and start up a good road trip and we got away from a few things. We had the chances.”
Dallas Stars Goalie Mary Turco
Commenting on tonight’s game…
“Things are starting to pile up we are not having a good enough complete game. We are accomplishing a lot of great things almost every night. The next step whether its swagger or attitude, just being able to win hockey games. Things look good, you have a lot of chances. It boils down to doing those things and believing in them. That’s an attitude that we have to earn and develop. We have seen some good things lately. We just have to start putting them together. A team like Hitch’s, you have to pay a price to win games. It’s not pretty or crazy. It’s shear hard work and determination and they are going to make you work for it and tonight we just didn’t get it done.”
Blue Jackets Team Notes
* Columbus has won three-straight games with tonight’s victory over Dallas, marking the first three-game win streak since Nov. 13-19
o The Jackets are 4-2-2 the past eight games after going 2-12-5 the previous 19 games
* With the win/loss tonight, Columbus is now:
o 11-9-3 when scoring the first goal of the game
o 6-6-3 when leading after the first period
o 13-3-3 when leading after the second period
o 8-11-3 when outshooting the opponent
Blue Jackets Player Notes
* G Mathieu Garon stopped all 26 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season and 16th of his career
o He has won three-straight games after going 0-4-3 in his previous seven decisions
+ The win streak is his longest since posting three-straight wins Nov. 5-16
o He has allowed two goals or fewer in six of his past seven decisions
o In his past nine games, he has a 2.02 goals-against average and .919 save percentage
* LW Raffi Torres has points in four of the past five games after scoring his 13th goal of the season tonight
o He has collected 3-2-5 the past five games after being held to 0-1-1 the previous 10 games
o His goal total in 42 games this season is one better than the 12 he had in 51 games last season
o He entered the night ranked sixth in the NHL in shooting percentage (19.4 percent) and had a game-high eight shots on the night
o Columbus is now 18-2-2 all-time when he scores a goal
* C Derick Brassard notched his 15th assist of the season with a helper on Torres’ goal
o It was his first assist in 17 games as he last had an assist Dec. 5 vs. Colorado
o He has notched 1-1-2 the past five games after being held to 1-0-1 the previous 12 games
o The 15 assists tie a career high, matching his total he had last season
* D Jan Hejda has points in three-straight games after collecting an assist on Torres’ goal
o He has registered 2-2-4 the past five games after being held to 0-1-1 the previous 14 games
o The three-game point streak is the longest of his career
o He entered the night ranked tied for 19th in the NHL in blocked shots with 87 to his credit, including nine the past three games
* C Antoine Vermette has points in four-straight games and in five of the past six after scoring a goal tonight
o The goal was the 101st of his NHL career and his third in as many games (three-game goal scoring streak)
o He has collected 5-6-11 the past 12 games after being held to 1-1-2 the previous eight games
o He was acquired by the Jackets at the trade deadline last March from Ottawa in exchange for goaltender Pascal Leclaire and a second round pick in the 2009 Entry Draft (Robin Lehner)
+ He collected 9-19-28 in 58 games (.482 points per game) for the Senators prior to the trade, but has registered 21-28-49 in the 64 games (.765) since being acquired by Columbus
o He is tied for the club lead in assists and is second in points
* LW Kristian Huselius notched an assist on Vermette’s goal, his 19th of the season
o He has points in four of the past five games, collecting 3-4-7 during that stretch after being held to 0-4-4 the previous 14 games
o He has collected 14-19-33 in 43 games this season and ranks third on the club in points and goals
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