Bethany's Hockey Rants

Next entry: Mason named Rookie of the Month

Mason in Net…Again.

by Bethany on 12/01/08 at 03:01 PM ET
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So, with yesterday being my last day of vacation so to speak, I took a day off blogging, and did a ton of homework that I had neglected over Thanksgiving break. I don’t want to talk much about the game on Saturday, other than it was a convincing win. Not only did the defense shut down Ovechkin, but Steve Mason was a brick wall and stopped all the shots he faced. He dazzled the fans with his glove hand, his pad saves, and just all around perfect performance.

Mason is quickly becoming the number one goaltender in Columbus. Not to take anything away from Leclaire, but this season, he clearly isn’t cutting it. The team plays well in front of Mason, and the kid is hot. He will get the start again tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. And, for the record, Mason is now the goaltender for my fantasy hockey team...I dumped Pascal Leclaire.

The Jackets are going to have the same lineup as they did against the Washington Capitals. You know what that means! The Goat Line is still together, which makes me pretty happy. Let’s hope for a repeat performance, if we start stringing some wins together, then we are going to be in the playoffs. Right now we are just a point out, that is totally doable.

The power play at this point is pointless. I wonder if we can just forfeit the two minutes, because we do just fine five on five. Tonight we have experiment number 4847392 on the power play with Methot possibly seeing some time. Hey, I am open to anything, as long as it delivers. Also, Tom Reed said that Backman is possibly going to be a scratch. Seriously, don’t get my hopes up. Backman drives me crazy. He did have a good play on Saturday, but that was the first one I have seen in a long time.

The Canucks are a good team, even without Roberto Luongo. Nash is going to have to be just as good as he was against the Capitals. Here’s the video of Mason, Nash, and Torres after the game. Listen to what Torres says when he talks about Nash. I love that quote. It’s around the 4:15 mark if you don’t feel like watching the whole thing.