Kukla's Korner Hockey
Entries with the tag: Steve+Mason
Morning Line- Part 2
by Paul on 11/12/09 at 08:41 AM ET
Comments (1)
“Seeing the fans giving me the cheers when you’re stopping the easy long shot . . . it’s not a great feeling to get that from the home fans. At the same time, they paid their money and they have their rights . . .”
-Columbus goaltender Steve Mason after losing to the Wings last night. More on the game from Michael Arace at Puck-rakers.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Steve Mason Still Has Goals To Achieve
by Paul on 08/02/09 at 08:48 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Ryan Pyette of the Toronto Sun,
Five goalies are invited to joust for the Vancouver trip. Three get the call.
The favourites—New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur and Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo—have reached crease superhero status. It’s difficult to imagine a Team Canada without them.
Mason is the youngest and, at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, the biggest. He’ll battle a couple of Stanley Cup winners --Carolina’s Cam Ward and Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury—for the No. 3 spot.
“I’ve played for Canada internationally before (MVP and gold medal at the 2008 world juniors) but this is a whole different level with all the star players in the NHL,” Mason, 21, said. “I idolized Martin Brodeur as a kid and I’ve played against Roberto Luongo, who I really respect.
“It would be unbelievable to get the chance to be part of it. I think the Olympics first hit home for me in 2002 when Canada won it.
“I was (13 years old) and I was at my best friend’s house (in Oakville) and we went out after the gold medal game and played road hockey.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Mason Does Las Vegas
by Paul on 06/18/09 at 09:32 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets,
Hello everyone. I just spent my first afternoon in Vegas and the one thing I got out of it was blisters. We went down to the strip and walked EVERYWHERE. I can’t remember the last time I walked that much. We checked out a few of the other hotel-casinos. Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio were two of them. I gambled a lit bit – slot machines – for fun, but mostly we just took it all in.
There are a ton of shopping places here. We went to Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace and there was an Elvis impersonator actually singing in one of the stores. That was pretty cool… sort of creepy, but cool. There was another place across the street from Bellagio that had a ton of stores, too.
continued (Mason is blogging from the NHL Awards Show)…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
A Look At Steve Mason
by Paul on 03/15/09 at 09:22 AM ET
Comments (0)
Elliotte Friedman of HNIC did a great feature on Columbus goalie Steve Mason last night.
I can’t point directly (no youtube either) to the 5 minute video, but start here, then look to the right for Top Stories then scroll to the Inside Hockey: Steve Mason feature.
Note to Steve- time to update the bedroom!
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Two Goalies In The Calder Race
by Paul on 03/12/09 at 02:00 PM ET
Comments (1)
from Dan Pollard of TSN,
Nashville’s Pekka Rinne is giving the Blue Jackets’ Steve Mason a run for top rookie honours. Both have helped put their teams in a position to make the playoffs this year. For Columbus it would be the franchises maiden voyage into the post-season.
There’s not much to choose from when comparing the goaltenders numbers wise.
Other than shutouts, Rinne’s numbers are better or almost identical to Masons.That being said, when forced to make a choice my support leans to Mason.
read on and more NHL topics (fighting and Daniel & Henrik Sedin)…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, Nashville Predators | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Pekka+Rinne, Steve+Mason,
The Blue Jackets Strength Starts In Goal
by Paul on 02/14/09 at 08:33 AM ET
Comments (1)
from Rob Oller of the Columbus Dispatch,
Hitchcock, like Holland, would begin his ideal team with a goaltender. In Dallas, he saw the before/after effect of Ed Balfour, whose work in net helped the Stars win the 1998-99 Stanley Cup.
“You don’t realize how important a goalie is until you have one,” he said. Which is why the Blue Jackets are so better positioned for a deep run into the playoffs, once they finally get there, than many teams.
Would Mason, who appears fully recovered from mononucleosis that kept him out of the previous three games, be able to hold up under playoff pressure? Impossible to know for sure, but the best goaltenders—the ones left standing, as Hitchcock likes to say—are the most competitive ones. And Mason burns with a bristly passion to win.
“There couldn’t have been a better team to come back against,” he said.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Steve Mason On IR
by Paul on 02/07/09 at 11:31 PM ET
Comments (1)
COLUMBUS, OHIO – The Columbus Blue Jackets have placed rookie goaltender Steve Mason on injured reserve retroactive to February 4, club General Manager Scott Howson announced today. Mason was diagnosed with mononucleosis on January 29.
Mason, 20, has posted a 19-12-2 record with a 2.09 goals-against average, .923 save percentage and seven shutouts in 34 games with the Blue Jackets this season. He leads the NHL in shutouts, while ranking second in goals-against average, seventh in save percentage and is tied for 10th in wins.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: steve+mason,
Steve Mason Has Been Playing With Mononucleosis
by Paul on 02/01/09 at 08:39 AM ET
Comments (1)
from Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch,
General manager Scott Howson confirmed late last night to The Dispatch that Mason has been suffering from mononucleosis for three to four weeks.
The rookie-of-the-year candidate made his 18th consecutive start last night but allowed three goals in the first 11 minutes of a 7-3 loss to the Dallas Stars and was pulled for the first time in his NHL career.
Howson said doctors did not diagnose Mason’s infection until Thursday, and he defended the team’s decision to play him in back-to-back starts this weekend.
“Our doctors feel he’s had it for a while and they feel he’s on the other side of the virus,” Howson said. “The worst of it is probably over.”
Mason’s spleen is not enlarged, one of the complications sometimes associated with mono, Howson said.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Mason Looking At Major Awards
by Paul on 01/10/09 at 03:42 PM ET
Comments (0)
from Brian Costello of the Hockey News,
Forget all that stuff you’ve heard lately about Columbus rookie Steve Mason being a late-entry candidate for the Calder Trophy. If he keeps playing even close to the way he has through 24 games, he’ll win the Vezina as the NHL’s top goalie and the Hart as the league’s most valuable player.
No player in the history of the league has won those three awards in the same season, so we truly are seeing a phenomenal story in the making.
Consider the undisputable facts. Mason spent the first month of the season in the American League as Pascal Leclaire and Fredrik Norrena patrolled the crease for the Blue Jackets. It wasn’t until Nov. 5 the 20-year-old Mason got his first start of the season. He started off with three straight wins and six of nine.
Then Mason got hot.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Another Blue Jacket May Be Hurt
by Paul on 01/09/09 at 05:20 PM ET
Comments (0)
via Aaron Portzline of Puck-rakers,
Just spoke with GM Scott Howson in the lobby restaurant of the Blue Jackets team hotel. Goaltender Steve Mason is questionable for tonight’s game vs. Washington with upper body “tightness.”
update 7:10pm, Mason is in the lineup.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Rookie Of The Month
by Paul on 01/02/09 at 03:02 PM ET
Comments (0)
NEW YORK (Jan. 2, 2009)—Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason, who posted a 7-5-0 record with a 1.41 goals-against average, .950 save percentage and three shutouts in 12 games, has been named the NHL Rookie of the Month for December. It marks the second consecutive month that Mason has earned top rookie honors and the third consecutive month a Blue Jackets player has done so, following Derick Brassard in October.
Mason edged St. Louis Blues center Patrik Berglund (6-7--13 in 15 games), Anaheim Ducks right wing Bobby Ryan (4-8--12 in 13 games), Boston Bruins left wing Blake Wheeler (5-6--11 in 13 games), Florida Panthers center Michael Frolik (4-7--11 in 14 games) and Chicago Blackhawks right wing Kris Versteeg (3-6--9 in 11 games) for the award.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Steve Mason With Another Shutout
by Paul on 01/01/09 at 07:27 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch,
Less than an hour before 2008 turned to 2009 in the Eastern time zone, Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason played his way into the club’s record books during a 2-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks in the Honda Center.
Mason made 27 saves for his third straight shutout, giving him 181 minutes, 59 seconds—and counting—without allowing a goal.
“I’ve never even had two shutouts in a row (before this),” Mason said. “It was a tight game. Very tight. The guys played great in front of me. I didn’t really have to make too many really good saves. It was a pretty routine game.”
read on for a game recap....
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Mason In The Calder Race
by Paul on 12/19/08 at 03:08 PM ET
Comments (0)
from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,
No, Stamkos and Kyle Turris, the other pre-season Calder Trophy favorite, are not in the mix as the NHL passed the one-third mark of the season in mid-December – and you could make a case that the leader at this stage of the season is a player who wasn’t even in the NHL on opening night.
That would be Columbus Blue Jackets’ goaltender Steve Mason, the London Knights’ grad, who continued his exceptional early-season run this past week, by out-and-out stealing a 2-1 overtime victory from the Sharks. Mason stopped 47 shots in the victory – third-most in franchise history – and allowed just a single goal to the highest-scoring team in the NHL.
read on plus, Sundin, Wings/Sharks and other hockey topics…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Two Rookies On The Radar
by Paul on 12/05/08 at 12:23 PM ET
Comments (0)
from Jeff Hale of Slap Shot at the NYT,
Hands up out there if you had Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks as your candidate for the Calder Trophy this season.
Versteeg, 22, leads N.H.L. rookies in points (22), assists (15) and plus-minus (+13). Versteeg’s route to prominence was a long one. He has escaped major notice because he was drafted four years ago in the fifth round by Boston, who dealt him to Chicago for Brandon Bochenski in February 2007. The Bruins would probably love to redo that deal.
It’s possible that Versteeg’s main challenger could be just as unexpected. Steve Mason, 20, the goalie for the Columbus Blue Jackets, is 6-3-1 with a .917 save percentage and a 2.18 goals-against average. He also has two shutouts.
continued with some WHC and Phaneuf talk included.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Kris+Versteeg, Steve+Mason,
Mason May ‘Stick’ With Columbus
by Paul on 11/26/08 at 09:26 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Disptach,
(Steve) Mason, who posted his first NHL shutout Saturday, will start at 7 tonight when the Blue Jackets play the Phoenix Coyotes in Nationwide Arena. It’ll be his seventh start in the past nine games.
“Right now, we’re going day to day with the situation,” Howson said, delaying a decision on the Blue Jackets’ three-headed goaltender situation for a few more days. Mason, Pascal Leclaire and Fredrik Norrena remain on the active roster.
But when coach Ken Hitchcock was asked to map out the club’s upcoming schedule—seven games in the next 12 days—he mentioned Mason and Leclaire at least sharing duties, a signal that Mason’s next month is certain enough that he could buy a Christmas tree this weekend.
“The kid’s earned it,” Hitchcock said after Mason’s 15-save effort in Atlanta, a 2-0 Blue Jackets win. “What else can you say, but the kid has definitely earned the chance (to start tonight).”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
Blue Jackets Call Up Steve Mason
by Paul on 01/07/08 at 03:58 PM ET
Comments (3)
via the Columbus Blue Jackets,
The Columbus Blue Jackets have added goaltender Steve Mason to the roster on emergency recall, club General Manager Scott Howson announced today. Blue Jackets goaltender Pascal Leclaire left Saturday’s game at San Jose following the second period due to illness and will not be available to play when the club visits the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
Mason, 19, was recently named the Most Valuable Player at Top Goaltender at the 2008 World Junior Championships after leading Canada to its fourth-straight gold medal. The Oakville, Ontario native went 5-0-0 with a 1.19 goals-against average, .951 save percentage and one shutout in five games.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Steve+Mason,
