Holy shit. That Star Wars trailer affected me.
Sorry, sorry. We'll get there in a minute. Let's talk hockey first.
You didn’t think the Blue Jackets would keep their lines together for two entire games, did you?
I’m almost 100 percent kidding. I actually thought they would. I thought they had four combinations that, at least for the first 4-5 games, made sense and John Tortorella would let them play through any mistakes or missteps through the coming weekend. But boy, I was dead wrong. We weren’t even midway through Saturday’s game and the opening night lines were tossed into a Vitamix and turned into a delicious armchair GM smoothie.
This is the stuff, right here. The stuff that gets exactly half of the fan base all red and pissed off while the other half looks like the "this is fine" meme dog, but without the fire.
You can be both, I promise.
The line changes for tonight’s game are…significant. Alexander Wennberg gets booted from his spot between the team’s two best offensive players, and that’s nothing other than a message being sent. Wennberg didn’t win many face-offs (not the end of the world), the line didn’t create much 5-on-5 and the power play kinda sucked a ton. I just didn’t think it would happen after two games.
Josh Anderson is back, so you’ve got to find a way to work him in. Pierre-Luc Dubois has been a badass in his first couple of NHL games and is driving play like a madman. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sonny Milano have been hit-and-miss and now even more is being asked of poor Nick Foligno. He won a shit ton of face-offs and has looked pretty good as a center, but now he’ll be asked to awaken the No. 1 line.
This should be one interesting game tonight. Tortorella is watching like a hawk for any sign of complacency or comfort, and it looks like he’s firing his first warning shot.
I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH
Tortorella said following Monday’s practice that the Blue Jackets “need to have the puck more.”
Okay, I get that, but when you look into it…they’ve actually had the puck a lot. They’re just not very dangerous with it. And that's not good.
Through two games and a very limited sample size of 5-on-5 play, the Blue Jackets are just shy of a 54% 5-on-5 Corsi in 106 minutes of play. That’s not the best indicator, but it gives you an idea of their time with the puck. Where they’re struggling is in the scoring chances department, something my friend Alison Lukan spoke to Tortorella about prior to the season; when they’ve had possession, the Blue Jackets have had a hard time getting into the “home plate” area of the ice, where most teams get their prime scoring chances.
Even more troubling: they’re letting teams get into their own home plate area. It’s testing Sergei Bobrovsky and, to an extent that calls upon the recency bias in all of us, Joonas Korpisalo (who was under siege at the United Center on Saturday).
In a nutshell, the Blue Jackets have had the puck more than their opponents. They’re just not shooting it well at all, and it’s leading to some issues up and down the lineup. They don’t have much balance and their special teams haven’t been very good.
And so, here we are.
Sam Blazer penned a strong analysis of the situation yesterday, pointing out that each of these new combinations appears to have some statistical rooting to it, whether the head coach admits it or not. Anderson is going into the lineup right away after a conditioning game in Cleveland, one in which he fired a team-high seven shots on goal. By all accounts, he was one of the best players on the ice and that bodes well for the Blue Jackets, who need someone to get to the interior and get the puck on goal.
I highly recommend Sam’s piece, which you can read here.
OH MY GOD
The Last Jedi's full-length trailer dropped last night. It's okay, I'm fine. I promise.
It's the first time I have deliberately watched Monday Night Football in years, but this wasn't about football. And yes, I bought my tickets already and I'll see you all on Dec. 14. But let's talk about this.
- Point #1: In the opening line of the trailer, Supreme Leader Snoke is definitely talking to Rey. Rian Johnson wants you to think it's Kylo Ren (clever editing there, folks). I have a feeling that Snoke becomes as obsessed with Rey as Ren does; every time someone mentions "the girl," both of them lose their shit.
- Point #2: Are we setting up for Kylo redemption story? The internal struggle he faces when deciding to blow up his mother's escaping ship is real, deep stuff. Obviously she survives that attack because we see her at the refurbished Resistance base on Crait (rumored in the third act) later in the trailer with those ugly-ass icicle dogs.
- Point #3: Luke Skywalker ominously warning about "raw strength" that he's seen only once before...hmm. The filmmakers are pushing us in one direction, but could it be Snoke that he's talking about? I'm leaning Kylo, but after 38 viewings of the trailer, I'm second-guessing a lot of things.
- Point #4: The final shot is a total set-up. Remember "who are you?" and "I'm no one" from The Force Awakens trailer? We're in a similar spot here. I don't think we'll see Rey and Kylo in a truce or partnership-formation scene in The Last Jedi. I'm inclined to think Rey is talking to Luke around a campfire on Ahch-To.
But seriously, holy hell. What an incredible tease. I can't wait until Dec. 15.
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