Sens at Land’s End

I may have been the only fan in GM Place who didn’t suffer any type of shellshock at the Canucks’ home opener last night. Of course, I may also have been the only fan wearing a Blue Jackets t-shirt. The Jackets are, if you don’t know, my adopted Western Conference team, second only to the Sens in my heart. After that foulest of former Senators revealed his true, devilish nature this summer, the excellent Rick Nash inherited the title of My Favourite Player. I’m sure he will do it great justice.

He got off to a good start last night, picking up three assists in a 5-3 Columbus win. The Jackets played a fairly strong game. The highlight for me was a great kill on a 2-man disadvantage that lasted over a minute near the end of the first period. They managed to kill the first penalty, with new acquisition Sammy Pahlsson doing notable work, and then non-evil former Senator Antoine Vermette scored a nice goal after some very pretty passing from Nash just as the second penalty expired. With the goal coming in the last minute of the period, this was one of those TSN Turning Point moments.

The Jackets managed to score three more goals in the first six minutes of the second period: in fact, they scored four goals on four consecutive shots, and chased Roberto Luongo from the game. While all of the goals — scored by Kristian Huselius (after a cheeky behind the back pass from Nash), Rostislav Klesla, and rookie Nikita Filatov — were pretty to look at, I don’t think any of the shots could have been considered unstoppable. Luongo just plain didn’t look good, and the fans cheered when Andrew Raycroft came in to replace him.

Vancouver made the game interesting and came back to within a goal in the third, but Little Stevie Mason looked awesome and the Jackets held the lead. Mason stopped 40 of 43 shots, and yet was absurdly not named one of the stars of the game in the building. Madness.

So, the Jackets have started 2-0 — for the first time in their history, apparently — and the Canucks are now 0-3. Fingers are approaching panic buttons in the city of Van. It’s only three games, though: it’ll be okay.

Oh Right, the Sens

The unpredictable adventure that is the 2009-2010 Ottawa Senators will continue in about 20 minutes as the Sens take on the now super-testosterone-fuelled Toronto Maple Leafs. “The Monster” is in goal for Toronto. Filip Kuba and Ryan Shannon are both sitting out for the Sens, with Alexandre Picard and Shean Donovan stepping in as their replacements. No idea how this one will turn out: I can see it being a total blowout for either side or a really close game. Who knows?