Flames Burnout as Jackets Mount Comeback

Not to be over shadowed by the mid-day rant from Allan Walsh, agent of Columbus Blue Jackets forward Derick Brassard, in one of the most unusual “Jekyll and Hyde” performances the Blue Jackets managed to fight back from a two-goal deficit to beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 in a shootout Thursday night in Calgary.

Antoine Vermette opened the scoring just over five minutes into the first period.  Despite being outshot 15-5, the Flames managed to tie it up at one, when Lee Stempniak caught Blue Jackets goalie Curtis Sanford arriving late to the post beating him five-hole.

The tables turned for the second period as the Flames outshot the Blue Jackets 15-3 and were rewarded with a goal late in the period to take a 2-1 lead.  Taking advantage of sloppy second period play, Alex Tanguay fed Rene Bourque as he blew by the Blue Jackets defenseman to let a slap shot go as he entered the zone beating Sanford.

Newly acquired Blake Comeau widened the gap by two 5:48 into the third period for his first as a Flame, after a lazy pinch effort from James Wisniewski.  From there, head coach Scott Arniel started to shake things up with some interesting line combinations and the Blue Jackets slowly started to show life.  With 4:05 left in regulation Nikita Nikitin let a point shot go beating Miikka Kiprusoff for his first goal as a Blue Jacket. 

Then with the net empty and .58 seconds left on the clock, the Blue Jackets managed to tie the game.  Captain Rick Nash tipped a slap pass given by Nikitin off the point.  Overtime solved nothing resulting in a shootout where Nash completed the comeback as the third shooter beating Kiprusoff.  Sanford kept the Flames off the board stopping all three shooters he faced.

The big story of the day was player agent Allan Walsh who released a statement earlier that day publicly criticizing Arniel for his decision to have Derick Brassard as a healthy scratch for seven of the teams past 10 games.  He goes on in his statement about how Arniel has a “history of burying players and using them as scapegoats to mask his own lack of success on the ice.”

As a first round pick (6^th overall), his point production hasn’t really stood out  compared to the likes of other 2006 draftee’s Jonathan Toews, Phil Kessel or Claude Giroux to name a few. 

But he hasn’t been the worst of the 2006 class either.

Every coach wants to maximize the point production out of players, that’s what coaches do, they want to see players succeed and develop to help a hockey club reach their ultimate goal of a Stanley Cup.  But hockey is a two-way game; you need to be strong defensively too, it is vital to any winning organization to be good at both ends. 

Especially when a team has been outscored consecutively the past four seasons, the closest margin coming in the year the Blue Jackets made the playoffs: 220 GF vs. 223 GA.

Brassard has only had one season where his +/- rating has been positive (+12 in 2008/09), coincidentally the same year the team made the playoffs.  Outside of that one year, he has been minus double digits each season, including 2009-10 where he led the team at -17. 

I hate to use +/- as a viable stat because a lot of people consider it useless or “not defiant of a player’s productivity,” especially since this year Nash is actually worst on the team sitting at -12.   But Brassards -11 rating stands out to me and the difference between Nash and Brassard aside from playing time is point production, which for Brassard has been nonexistent, 2-2-4 in his 18 games played.

The Blue Jackets have been playing winning hockey over the last 10 games, so there is no surprise that there hasn’t been a real shake up.  This makes it hard for Brassard to make a case for himself.  As much as everyone would like to see Arniel showcase Brassard, the team isn’t exactly in a position to take games lightly, they need every point they can get in this tight Western Conference.

I can understand why Walsh voiced his opinion, if he is like me he takes pride in his decisions, and if a player I endorsed was not seeing ice time, I would be upset too.  The unfortunate thing is Walsh made himself look like the rambling fool everyone thought he already was, when the simple fact is Derick Brassard is not playing good hockey. 

Until the team starts losing again or Arniel is convinced of otherwise, I don’t see any reason that warrants Brassard back in the line up on a nightly basis.