A Boll, a Tyutin, and Hank's Special Friend

by Ryan

At the game on Wednesday, we did the "players on the Blue Jackets' roster" game. This didn't turn out as well as we had hoped. Of course there was Rick Nash and Pascal Leclare. Michael Peca came up, as well as our old friends Jiri Novotny and R.J. Umberger. Their enforcer is Jarred Boll. My friend Mike even remembered that Steve Mason played a few games for them, but that was only because Chris Mason was in net at the time.

Looking back at that list would make you think the Blue Jackets are a bunch of no names, but that's actually quite the opposite. Take a look at their roster; how many names do you recognize but just forgot played for Columbus?

Raffi Torres, Mike Commodore, Fedor Tyutin, Kristian Huselius; all names I'm sure you've heard before, are on the Jackets' roster. They have two first round picks in Alexandre Picard and Nikita Filatov. That's a lot of talent on a team sitting third in their division. With a play maker like Nash and Leclare in net, the Blue Jackets seem like a team simply stuck in a division dominated by the Red Wings.

And yet, Derick Brassard is their leading scorer. A former first round pick, mind you, but a kid with only 32 games of NHL experience to his name is pacing a team we rarely see. With the schedule the way it is this year, we will be seeing a lot of games like this where the pregame talk is only a bunch of questions.

Who is their first line center? (Brassard, apparently) Just how good is Steve Mason? Does Leclare have the shutout touch this year? Just how the hell did Mike Peca get suspended ten games for touching a ref?

What we do know is that Lalime is in tonight, leaving Miller to face the defending Eastern Conference champs at the Igloo tomorrow. Tim Connolly is more than likely out, as well as Maxim Afinogenov, who spent the majority of Wednesday night looking like this:



Seriously, the boy just looked so interested in what was going on. It was as if his enthusiasm for the game would show Lindy just how much he wanted to play. I wonder if he will watch like this from the press box tonight, hoping Darcy takes note of it and puts in a good word with Daddy.

A 7:30 face off tonight from the hockey rink not looking to be turned into scrap metal. I'll be in one of the 18,690 seats they have, so give a shout if you are doing the same.