The penalty that gave the Red Wings a late power play happened with 94 seconds left in regulation. Fredrik Modin didn't wait long enough to play a puck as he came off the bench, catching his team with six players on the ice thanks to a slow change. After a rough-and-tumble first 18:30 of the third period, the call didn't sit well with Columbus.
In hockey, the home team gets the last line change before a faceoff. This typically means the coach of that team will be able to pick the line-on-line matchups throughout the game.
For a team like Columbus, one that only has one really lethal line, this can be a major deal. While Rick Nash was shut down in the first two games against the Wings, the Blue Jackets get to play at home Tuesday night. That means Ken Hitchcock picks the matchup for Nash. That's a good thing, right?
Exactly 1,230 regular season games have been played. We're down to the best eight teams in each conference. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday night with four series lid-lifters.
The Western Conference is home to the league's best team (San Jose), the defending champion (Detroit), and the two most intriguing Cinderella stories in the league (St. Louis and Columbus). Can Cinderella put off the stroke of midnight, or will an established power advance their way to the Finals?
With the NHL playoffs just around the corner, FanHouse takes a look at some of the lesser-known teams that qualified.Thursday's installment: the Columbus Blue Jackets
On Saturday, October 7, 2000, the Columbus Blue Jackets played their first ever regular season game. It was a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, and the team would know nothing but losing for the next eight seasons. No playoffs. No winning seasons. Nothing. They have been, simply, the most anonymous, unknown team in the NHL.
On Wednesday, all of that changed as the Blue Jackets, for the first time in franchise history, qualified for the postseason thanks to a 4-3 shootout win over, coincidentally, the Chicago Blackhawks, their very first regular season opponent. So, who are these guys, and what can we expect from them in the playoffs and beyond? Here are five key players, the head coach, and everything else there is to love about this once unknown franchise.
There are certainly at least two really good teams in the NHL's Western Conference. Defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit and fast-starting San Jose appear in the clear to duke it out for the right to play for the Stanley Cup later this year.
Of course, we know that anything can happen in a best-of-seven series. In addition, we still have half a season left to play. What we don't know is which team in this conference is set up to challenge either the Red Wings or Sharks. They've beaten - at least once - pretty much everyone who has stood in their way, including each other.
While the top of the conference appears to virtually locked in place at this point, there are still serious battles to be fought, especially for the last four positions in the West. Currently, eight teams are separated by just six points. St. Louis, the last-place team in the West, is just nine points out of eighth.
Columbus goalie Steve Mason was perfect for 59 minutes on Friday night in his quest for his seventh shutout of the season. It was that one minute that proved to be the difference, as Travis Zajac and John Madden scored two quick goals to help lead the Devils to a 2-1 win.
Madden's goal, which proved to be the game-winner, came with some controversy as it needed a review from the infamous war room in Toronto. Mason appeared to have the puck covered long enough for a whistle, only to have Madden continue to dig and push the puck in as the net was dislodged. The call on the ice from referee Don Koharski was that it was a goal, and officials in Toronto apparently agreed, much to the chagrin of the fans in Columbus. Naturally, both teams had their own perspective on the events.
There's a meme that has been circulating among hockey blogs and message boards for probably as long as those forums have existed that basically asserts that Martin Brodeur isn't a particularly talented netminder and that his frequently gaudy numbers are merely the result of playing in a painfully boring, but effective, defensive system. At least that's the meme in its current form, as the causal clause has had to be tweaked a few times (from "playing for Jacques Lemaire" to "playing behind Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer" to the more generic way it's repeated now) in order to isolate the true reason behind Marty's perennially minuscule goals against average (which is most certainly not the result of, you know, talent).
But whether or not Martin Brodeur is a fraud is a discussion for another day. Today we're taking a look at a guy -- Pascal Leclaire -- who just might be the heir apparent to Brodeur's throne. No, not in terms of all those wins, Cups, wives and Vezinas (though who knows?), but in terms of being called out as merely the beneficiary of a painfully boring, but effective, defensive system.
"You're hoping the players on this club will understand the magnitude of the situation. We're trying to get this organization into the playoffs for the first time. That's a big deal. I don't think we all appreciate how big a deal that is." -- Michael Peca, center, Columbus Blue Jackets
It arrives as General Manager Scott Howson decides who to keep, who to dump, who to bring into his locker room from other teams. He's making these decisions in an attempt to secure his team's first voyage into the Stanley Cup Playoffs; but more importantly, he's making these decision with the future of the team's season ticket base potentially hanging in the balance.
Drop the balloons, strike up the band and raise a glass: The countdown is over, and Jacques Martin is the all-time winningest coach in Florida Panthers team history after the 'Cats defeated the Caps in a painfully boring shootout on Wednesday night. Yes, indeed, Martin has set the benchmark for success behind the Florida bench ... with just 84 regular season wins.
This is a franchise that's been in the NHL since 1993, right? Anaheim came in during the same season, and Ron Wilson won 120 games for the Ducks. Nashville and Minnesota have both only had one head coach, so they're well over 100 victories. The San Jose Sharks, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Ottawa Senators each have two head coaches who have won over 100 games with the franchises. Here's some perspective: The Columbus Blue Jackets -- the personification of futility until Ken Hitchcock came to town -- also have a franchise coaching record of 84 wins, held by the esteemed Gerard Gallant. Hell, Glen Hanlon managed to scare up 78 wins during his tenure with the Capitals.
Johan Franzen's power-play goal ended Columbus' season Thursday night, and the Blue Jackets aren't taking it very well.
In hockey, the home team gets the last line change before a faceoff. This typically means the coach of that team will be able to pick the line-on-line matchups throughout the game.
With the NHL playoffs just around the corner, FanHouse takes a look at some of the lesser-known teams that qualified. Thursday's installment: the Columbus Blue Jackets
There are certainly at least two really good teams in the NHL's Western Conference. Defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit and fast-starting San Jose appear in the clear to duke it out for the right to play for the Stanley Cup later this year.
Columbus goalie Steve Mason was perfect for 59 minutes on Friday night in his quest for his seventh shutout of the season. It was that one minute that proved to be the difference, as Travis Zajac and John Madden scored two quick goals to help lead the Devils to a 2-1 win. 
There's a meme that has been circulating among hockey blogs and message boards for probably as long as those forums have existed that basically asserts that Martin Brodeur isn't a particularly talented netminder and that his frequently gaudy numbers are merely the result of playing in a painfully boring, but effective, defensive system. At least that's the meme in its current form, as the causal clause has had to be tweaked a few times (from "playing for Jacques Lemaire" to "playing behind Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer" to the more generic way it's repeated now) in order to isolate the true reason behind Marty's perennially minuscule goals against average (which is most certainly not the result of, you know, talent).
"You're hoping the players on this club will understand the magnitude of the situation. We're trying to get this organization into the playoffs for the first time. That's a big deal. I don't think we all appreciate how big a deal that is." -- Michael Peca, center, Columbus Blue Jackets
Drop the balloons, strike up the band and raise a glass: The countdown is over, and Jacques Martin is the all-time winningest coach in Florida Panthers team history after the 'Cats defeated the Caps in a painfully boring shootout on Wednesday night. Yes, indeed, Martin has set the benchmark for success behind the Florida bench ... with just 84 regular season wins. 
