Throwdown Lowdown – Blues @ Blue Jackets, 02-14-12

Jared Boll, doing what he does best against Milan Lucic. Image via slidingsideways/Flickr

Why not the St. Louis Blues. This team is white hot of late, thanks to some luck and some spectacular defensive play. Their 3-0 shutout victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday was a prime example of the kind of play the Blues are showing that makes experts and fans alike wonder if this really is a Cup contender. I still think it’s way early to consider that, but . . . the seed is planted and properly watered, so to speak. The Blues and Sharks had some interesting scuffles in the usual “dirty areas” during a lot of Sunday’s contest, but nothing that warranted fighting majors being issued. So the Blues remain in an 11th place tie with the Buffalo Sabres with 26 fighting majors each on the National Hockey League season. The team’s fight record sticks at 12-3-11.

And now, to visit the one team in the Central Division that, at least this season, has not inspired fear in opponents. Yes, it’s off to Ohio to face the Columbus Blue Jackets! It’s bad enough when a team grossly underperforms expectations, but it’s infinitely worse when your team is in the news for stuff other than on-the-ice related issues. In the Jackets’ case, it’s been a coach’s firing that probably should have happened sooner to save the coach from further embarrassment, a fresh acquisition (Jeff Carter) who has appeared unhappy to be there and who the team is willing to offload (at least according to reports), an agent (Allan Walsh, whose arrogance seems to be endless league-wide, mind you) telling the front office that they’re misusing one of his clients (Derick Brassard, who we’ll get to later but has not exactly lived up to his expectations in Columbus, save for part of a season) and a protest in front of Nationwide Arena by Jackets fans to protest the front office and their general lunacy, among other things. Add in that the team’s goaltending has been so (predictably) awful that their current “starter” is career backup Curtis Sanford (HEY, REMEMBER HIM?!), and you have a veritable train wreck of a season. I was talking to my girlfriend about it recently, and she put it best (I paraphrase, of course): “I feel SO BAD about this team . . . and yet, I don’t. They’re the Blue Jackets.” She’s a smart woman. Moving on . . . one thing the Jackets ARE good at this season is getting into fights. We’ve covered them on two occasions in this space (November 27th and December 18th, the latter being truncated). The Jackets have fought 38 times thus far on the season, good for fourth place by themselves in the NHL. Their record in those fights is relatively decent, actually, at 15-14-9.

26 of those 38 fights are split evenly among the top two Jackets fighters, and not only do they lead the team in fights together, but they both have the exact same fight record! I am, of course, talking about Derek Dorsett (6’0”, 192lbs, 5-5-3) and Jared Boll (6’2”, 219lbs, 5-5-3 including a Draw with Ryan Reaves, out indefinitely with a broken foot), each with 13 fights. Following them is Cody Bass (6’0”, 205lbs, 2-3-1 including a Win over Reaves, currently with Springfield in the AHL) with six fights, then Dane Byers (6’3”, 204lbs, 0-0-2 including a Draw with Roman Polak, currently with Springfield in the AHL) with two. The Jackets have four solo fighters, including our pal Kris Russell (5’10”, 172lbs, Win, traded to the Blues in November), James Wisniewski (6’0”, 208lbs, Win), Fedor Tyutin (6’2”, 216lbs, Win) and the aforementioned Brassard (6’1”, 202lbs, Loss).

I would find it extremely fitting and very amusing if Russell got into a fight with someone on his old team. So I’ll go ahead and say it’ll happen . . . Russell will fight Dorsett.

Keep winning. That is all.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights