I highly suggest listening to the 'Fire The Cannon' show taped last night to get a great preview of the Flyers by Bill Meltzer and Eklund.
In what can be called a questionable decision by head coach Scott Arniel, Steve Mason will be in net against the Philadelphia Flyers who will counter with Ilya Brysgalov between the pipes.
Mason is coming off a performance where he allowed four goals on 11 shots by the Toronto Maple Leafs of which all could and should have been stopped. The CBJ netminder is currently ranked 39th in the league with a 3.36 goals against average out of the 44 goalies that are ranked by the NHL. His save percentage is even worse with a .880 mark that is 43rd out of 44. Yet, Arniel continues to have faith in his goalie.
“I know most people would probably say, ‘Give it to the kid (backup Allen York),’ but that’s the first time where Mase has really been responsible for a loss,” Arniel told Shawn Mitchell from the Dispatch. “Other players at times haven’t been very good this year and have had the opportunity to go back in and play. Mase deserves (that) opportunity.”
“Deserves” is an interesting word by the coach. Many would contend that the fan base “deserves” a winner or at least the thought that the team is doing everything both strategically and effort wise to win games.
When a team is 2-10-1 is almost always multiple things that have gone wrong and scoring is also a problem. In an effort to fix that the team, finally, has recalled Cam Atkinson to the big club after he scored a goal in a loss by the Falcons last night to the Flyers AHL affiliate Adirondack Phantoms. Atkinson has four goals in 10 games with Springfield and also a goal while with the Blue Jackets for the first 4 games of the season.
The Blue Jackets better start scoring tonight or this one could get out of hand as the Flyers are 2nd in the NHL with a 3.62 goals a game average. On the other side, the CBJ are 24th in the league with a 2.23 goals a game average.
Claude Giroux has been a complete beast for the Flyers this season with eight goals and 17 points which is second best in the league. The Jackets faced the top and third highest point getters in the league last game with Phil Kessel (21) and Joffrey Lupul (16). Both of them weren't able to score any goals but they collected a combined three assists.
The line of Giroux, Scott Hartnell and Jaromir Jagr will get special attention but the Flyers are more than a 1 trick pony. Danny Briere centers a line with Harry Zolnierczyk and former Blue Jacket Jakub Voracek. They also have some scoring punch on their third line of Andreas Nodl, Max Talbot and Wayne Simmonds.
In their last game, the Flyers marched out another former Blue Jacket in Jody Shelley along with Zac Rinaldo that flanked the rookie center Sean Couturier. Couturier was the player selected by the Flyers when they used the Columbus' first round pick in the last NHL Draft.
Flyers are also fighting a little bit of an injury bug as their captain Chris Pronger is most likely out from a right eye injury sustained on October 24th. James van Riemsdyk is also out as well as Brayden Schenn who has a broken foot.
Keys To The Game:
1 – Score First – The CBJ have only scored first 4 out of their first 13 games. This accomplishes two things at once. It would mean that Mason doesn't give up an early goal and the Jackets would be able to find a scoring touch.
2.Stay Out Of The Box – I know that the Blue Jackets are feeling good about their penalty kill lately as they have killed off 10 straight in the their last three games but the Flyers have a 21.1% success rate at home on the power play. Meaning if the Jackets go to the box five times, my money is on the Flyers scoring at least one goal.
3.Make Good Decisions – This goes both to the players and the coaches. It looks like they may finally have started with the recall of Atkinson but you have to let him play. The continual marching out of Alexandre Giroux, Aaron Johnson and Cody Bass is not going to help the situation. Players that are in the game need to play with a sense of desperation that they have not found yet. They all say in interviews that they are but the actions speak louder than words. R.J. Umberger played with it against the Leafs but others need to follow.
Falcons Fall To Phantoms
By: Sean Seifert
November 4, 2011 – The Springfield Falcons three-game win streak came to an end on Friday night as they lost by a goal to the Adirondack Phantoms by a score of 2-1 in front of 4,496 at the MassMutual Center . The Falcons were unable to overcome a shorthanded Adirondack goal in the last minute of the first period, despite a charged effort by Cam Atkinson and Danny Taylor.
Atkinson says his team played well, but there is more work to do. “I think we as a team respond well to going down a goal, but we can’t play like that,” said Atkinson. “We’ve got to set our goals higher and be one or two goals ahead of them, so we need to keep working.”
In the first period, the Falcons were forced to play from behind when the Phantoms’ Garrett Klotz was able to trickle one in past Taylor at 2:37. The Falcons were soon to answer on the power play by stringing together four quick tape-to-tape passes. Atkinson scored his fourth goal of the season at 8:17 of the first after Martin St. Pierre dished it to Nick Drazenovic who set up Atkinson for the game-tying goal.
Atkinson says the success on the power play is a result of practice. “We’ve been working on that for the past couple weeks,” said Atkinson. “We were able to move the puck around pretty well I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and Marty (St.Pierre) made a great play.”
Falcons head coach Rob Riley likes what he has been seeing from the power play. “Our power play has been good, I think we’re gaining a lot of chances,” said Riley.
A last-minute turnover at the Falcons’ blue line lead to a shorthanded breakaway goal by Phantoms’ Jon Kalinski at 19:34, giving Adirondack a 2-1 lead after the first period of play.
The scoreless second period got physical when Falcons’ captain Dane Byers sent an early message, lifting Oliver Lauridsen off his feet in the corner with a hit. The Falcons came close to tying the game with a shorthanded bid from Drazenovic. Drazenovic carried the puck to Adirondack goaltender Michael Leighton and ringed one off the post, but the period came to close with the Falcons down 2-1.
As the Falcons pushed for an equalizer in the third period, Taylor kept hope alive, stunning the Phantoms’ Tom Sestito and Denis Hamel with two last-second reaction saves at 10:57. The Falcons couldn’t overcome their deficit, losing to the Phantoms by a goal at 2-1.
Taylor denied 22 of the 24 shots thrown his way and the Falcons record now drops to an even 6-6 after Friday’s loss.
The Portland Pirates come to town next Friday night as the Falcons play their fourth straight game at the MassMutual Center at 7:30.
*****
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Blue Jackets Buzz; a one-stop feed for all things Columbus-related on HockeyBuzz. For more information, click here.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»