Jackets Lose and Face Elimination

April 22, 2009 by J. Justin Boggs

The Columbus Blue Jackets played their best 60 minutes of the postseason, however fell well short of defeating the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday in front of a sold-out Nationwide Arena in game three of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
Detroit now holds a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Detroit is one win away from moving onto the next round in their quest to repeat as Stanley Cup Champs. Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood played another fantastic game stopping 31 of 32 of Columbus’ shots.
Osgood has allowed only two goals in three games, both to Jackets' forward R.J. Umberger. Blue Jackets' goalie Steve Mason allowed three goals on 25 shots against. Detroit made it a 4-1 victory with a last minute empty-net goal by Henrik Zetterberg.
“You just can’t get away with this many mistakes,” Mason said. “Detroit is doing a great job of capitalizing and they are doing a great job of clearing their second chances and play around their net… At periods of time we controlled it, we just need to play a full 60 minutes.”
The Blue Jackets played with the tenacity needed to win. Mike Commodore went after Daniel Cleary of Detroit several times; one of those times flying into the Detroit bench. Blue Jackets defenseman Rusty Klsela knocked Detroit star forward Marian Hossa of his skates several times as well.
Columbus just did not get any breaks. Just 1:07 into the first period, Tomas Holmstrom scored on a shelled Mason.  After Holmstrom fired a shot off the pads of Mason, Hossa had a shot ring off the crossbar which bounced right back to Holmstrom who knocked his shot into the net.
Detroit fired eight of the game’s first 11 shots. Columbus dominated the rest of the first period getting eight shots on goal in a row, but Detroit ended that streak on a goal by Cleary on a spin shot that trickled past the legs of Mason.
“We talked about the first 10 minutes and (Columbus) being hyped right up,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “And that if we could be patient about it, we could take advantage of that. And I thought that is what happened on the first goal. It was a neutral zone turnover and next thing you know, we were going the other direction. “
“The first period was a really good period for us,” Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We did a lot of really good things again. We competed at a really high level. Created scoring chances, but we were down 2-0. I thought we were discouraged because of that in the second period… That second goal was a killer. We felt we were playing really well as a team but that second goal took a lot of wind out our sails.”
Zetterberg scored his first of two goals midway through the second in the mid-slot after reciving a nice pass from Cleary.
Umberger scored at 16:07 of the third to avoid giving Osgood his second consecutive shutout while on the power play.  At that point, Columbus had outshot Detroit 14-3 in the third period.
“(Detroit’s) team defense has been very solid,” Blue Jackets center Jason Williams said about the Red Wings play in the series. “They make it very hard to go through the neutral zone with speed. They are doing a good job of getting their forwards over top of our forwards. When they create turnovers, their transitions are very good. Getting in on three-on-twos and making us pay for mistakes. I find that as a big difference.”
 
Lines get jumbled
 
After sending out Antoine Vermette, Rick Nash, and Kristian Huselius out on the top line, Hitchcock spent the entire third period jumbling up those lines with Umberger or on occasion Williams centering that line.  During Umberger’s power-play goal, he was centering the Huselius, Nash line.
“We are not scoring goals, something has to change,” Umberger said. “We are looking for something to spark our team. When you have two goals in three games, any team is going to change their lines constantly looking for something to click. Some line to give them a spark going.”
“Anytime you are trying to create something, get some scoring chances going, you are going to do some line juggling,” Williams said. “I don’t think affected it that much but guys were going out there doing their thing and doing what we needed to do to get those scoring chances.”
 
Umberger bright in the postseason
 
Umberger being a leader on the offensive side is not surprising. Last year in 17 games played in the post season with the Philadelphia Flyers, he scored 10 goals. His second goal of this post season scored which was scored on Tuesday nearly did not happen.  Midway through the second period, Umberger took a nasty hit from Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart. Umberger went back to the locker room after getting the wind knocked out of him, but amazingly returned back to the bench later on in the second period.
“I couldn’t believe he was out there,” Babcock said about Umberger coming back after taking the hit from Stuart.  “My god he got hit. I haven’t seen a hit like that in a long time… He is just working hard, hard working kid. He always takes the puck to the net and he has good hands.”
“He is a real tough guy,” Hitchcock said about Umberger. “He is the type of guy you really admire as a player.”
 
Different Red Wings team?
 
In the regular season, the Columbus Blue Jackets went 3-3 against the Redi Wings including an 8-2 win at Detroit in March. Nash notched two hat tricks against Detroit during the regular season. The Red Wings have not looked better this season than they have against Columbus in the last three games going 3-0 winning by a total margin of 12-2.
“They have something to play for right now,” Umberger said. “Right now they are playing tough.  They are playing like they did last year. They want it bad… Our effort is there. We are just coming up short. They are taking it to us in certain areas. This time of year, this is not good enough. You have got to play sound, fundamental game and we are not just doing that.”
“(Detroit) knows what is at stake,” Mason said. “They have been there and obviously we are getting our first taste. They are extremely calm out there and almost making it look easy. Give credit to them.”
“It is called engagement,” Babcock said about playing better against Columbus in the playoffs. “Sometimes when you have 51 wins, and you can’t finish first, your guys aren’t quite as engaged. We had a tough year engagement wise, but we have a good hockey team. We have a professional group and we know what it takes.
“The teams in the West are so good… We were hopeful we weren’t going to face (Columbus). But we didn’t know who we wanted to face because everyone is so good; that is how good the league is right now. It is a different game, different level of engagement.”
 
Other notes
 
Center Derrick Brassard is said to be cleared for contact according to Hitchcock following five months off due to a shoulder injury. Brassard has been practicing with the team and could potentially be ready for game four if called upon. Defenseman Jan Hejda was injured during the game while taking a shot off the bottom of the leg. He did not return and Hitchcock said the x-rays came back negative.