Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Last Night's Pre-Season Recap (Sep 29)

It was an offensive outburst in Columbus, as the Blue Jackets rout the Blackhawks, 7-1. Rick Nash, Kristian Huselius, Fedor Tyutin and Rostislav Klesla all managed three points in the game, a solid mix of old and new faces to the line-up. I don't know if this is something to bank on for the entire season, but it is sure good to see that the Jackets might be a halfway decent spot to get points from. We all know that Nash will be a solid source of production, maybe even Huselius, but the defensemen will be a definite bonus this year.

Plenty of questions surrounding Michael Nylander and his effectiveness in the Washington line-up this year. The Capitals have a couple good centres already in place for the first and second lines, but Nylander put his best foot forward, setting up the game-tying and winning goal for Washington in a 3-2 win over New Jersey. Rumours are abound that he could be moving before too long and if he is this healthy, teams could be knocking sooner rather than later. He should be a keeper.

The Maple Leafs got a big boost from new faces as Niklas Hagman scored a pair of big goals that helped the team to the shootout, while Luke Schenn scored the shootout winner. Hagman, acquired as a free agent in the summer, was placed on a line with a couple other new faces, Nikolai Kulemin and Michael Grabovski to score his second goal, so it will be a season of new faces and new combos in Toronto. Pick Leafs with caution, it's gonna be a crap shoot at the ACC this year.

The Coyotes are looking ready to be contenders for the last couple playoff spots after a big 5-1 win over their division rivals, the Sharks. Peter Mueller led the way with a hat-trick in the game, while new teammate Mikael Boedker scored the other two goals for the team. The desert dogs will be relying heavily on their youth to power them through this long season, but they'll have enough youth to always have at least one going, you'd think.

No comments: