Boomer was the phallic mascot that lasted one week in Blue Jackets history. He won't soon be forgotten and now, thanks to me, he will have a weekly column in his name.
The purpose of the "Boomer Up" and "Boomer Down" is to assess the weekly status of current players. Also, to ensure that good weeks are met with praise and crap weeks are held accountable.
For now, we will start with only the Blue Jackets after a roller coaster of an opening week.
Three Boomers Up
Sonny Milano
You're not going to find a bigger fan of Sonny Milano on this website. This is an undisputable fact. If you go back into the archives, there was a period of time that I compared Milano to Patrick Kane. Now that I have grown up and partially seen the light, that comparison was silly, but Milano still has a chance to be a very solid NHLer.
For a player that needed good fortune at the start of the season to guarantee that he would stick with the club, Milano couldn't have asked for a better week. Not even Milano's own dreams could have put this together.
With two goals in two games with Nick Foligno as his center, Milano is going to stick with the Blue Jackets for the foreseeable future. Where he is placed after the team gets back to full strength remains to be seen but Milano has made a strong case for himself.
Pierre-Luc Dubois
Similar to Milano, Dubois needed a fast start and got it in the team's first game against the New York Islanders. He was all over the ice and was a possession monster, posting a CF% just under 70% at even strength. Not to mention he scored his first NHL goal as well.
With an even stiffer test against the Chicago Blackhawks the next night, he held his own once again. He was just under 70% CF at even strength and has put pucks towards the net consistently. Those numbers with his time on ice don't mean he is the next Patrice Bergeron but it at least tells you that his line is playing a cohesive, strong game.
Third Pairing
After going from the first pairing all the way down to the third pairing in just a season in a half, it wouldn't be surprising if you're selling Ryan Murray stock. The way he and defensive partner Gabriel Carlsson started the season has me buying up all the shares that are available.
After a lovely goal in the season opener, Murray showed he still has some offensive touch. Carlsson pitched in with an assist during the Saturday game in Chicago. The most fascinating and intriguing stat is the scoring chance percentage when the two are on the ice; they are currently the only pairing above 50%. Not only are they contributing offensively, but on the defensive end, they are stopping teams early. This could be a development that helps propel the Blue Jackets to even bigger heights.
Three Boomers Down
A Truly Offensive First Line
It looks like this line may be split up for the moment...and for good reason. Looking at a line of Artemi Panarin, Alexander Wennberg, and Cam Atkinson, you're hoping for a goal-scoring revolution. They didn't not get goals in the first game, but the second game highlighted a potential problem for the unit.
They can't stop a soul from creating scoring chances against them.
Wennberg, Atkinson, and Panarin are at the bottom of the heap when it comes to scoring chance percentage. In fact, Panarin is third to last on the team. [gulp]
With an offensively-focused line, you hope they are so dominant with the puck that the other team doesn't even have the puck enough to make a dent. That line wasn't good enough to stop the common cold. Improvement will be needed from all three, even if they are broken up as a unit.
The Fourth Line
Only a year removed from one of the best fourth lines in all of hockey, the Blue Jackets may now be icing one of the worst. Zac Dalpe, Markus Hannikainen, and Lukas Sedlak are all fine in their own right. Dalpe is a journeyman who has succeeded in different capacities at every stop. Hannikainen has excelled at the AHL level and Sedlak centered a quality fourth line a season ago.
The parts may be there, but the sum isn't looking so hot. They had poor shot differential numbers, all three are near the bottom in scoring chance percentage and they're doing this with an average ice time of 10 minutes. Not to mention Zac Dalpe took a penalty that negated a potential early power play against Chicago.
Updated lines have Sonny Milano moving down to the fourth line and Zac Dalpe taking a seat. Milano wasn't much better in either shot metric-based stat, but he could improve a unit that looks like roadkill thus far.
Brandon Saad's niceness
The guy is a stone, cold killer. I mean watch this handshake. He is calm, cool and collected.
Then he goes out and sticks a dagger in Blue Jackets fans' hearts by scoring one goal and one assist. He's an animal.
