Columbus Blue Jackets

Columbus-Blue-Jackets

Rangers Interested in Nash

Bruce Garrioch at the Ottawa Sun reports that the Blue Jackets may finally be ready to deal captain Rick Nash and that the Rangers are interested.Garrioch adds that Nash’s $7.8-million cap hit through 2018 is going to make it difficult for the Rangers to fit him under the cap, but the Blueshirts could wait until they free up some cap space this off-season to make a deal with Columbus.Garrioch feels it’ll take a top young player, a prospect and a first-round pick to get Nash.The 27-year-old Nash is having a down year with just 17g, 17a on the season. Nash has topped 40 goals twice in his eight year career, while only dipping below 30 goals two times….so I’ve got to ask, would you be willing to trade McDonagh, Miller and a first round pick for Nash? Even with Nash having a down year by his standards, that’s a tough question. With Parise available this summer, I’d say pass.Finally, as he’s posted in the past, Garrioch adds that the Rangers have contacted Anahe…

HockeyBuzz Hotstove: Hotstove, Ed. 53: Trading Jeff Carter

Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I’m your host, Travis Yost.

On Saturday, four bloggers – including Adam French of the Phoenix Coyotes, Bill Meltzer of the Philadelphia Flyers, Richard Cloutier of the Edmonton Oilers, and Travis Yost of the Ottawa Senators – gathered to discuss the recent trade speculation regarding center Jeff Carter of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jeff Carter’s recently i…

Blue Jackets Prevail Over Ducks in OT

On Wednesday, the Columbus Blue Jackets felt gypped out of overtime and a point in the NHL standings due to a clock issue at the Staples Center. While the evidence is still being examined in the incidence and whether or not the Kings did or did not score in the final second of the game to win in regulation, there was no doubt about the results on Friday against the Ducks. Anaheim should have capitalized on the lowly Blue Jackets, who were missing key parts of their defense due to injuries. Instead, Columbus hung in there all game, legitimately took it to overtime and then finished off the Ducks in the extra time, 3-2. “It feels good, especially after what happened the last game in L.A.,” said Derick Brassard, who had the game winning goal. “We worked really hard and yesterday we had a day off. It’s always tough to come to the West Coast and play some good teams. We just stuck with it.”The Ducks started the scoring early in the first period. Teemu Selan…

Saturday Faceoff: Would you trade for Carter?

According to various reports, Jeff Carter is on the trade block and will likely get dealt by the end of the month. Despite his elite goal-scoring ability, teams could shy away from his contract and bad attitude. If you were a general manager, would you trade for Carter? Alexander and Patrick debate…No, I would not trade for Jeff CarterBy Alexander MonaghanNot only is Carter expensive, but he also carries his albatross of a contract for another 10 years. And while the former 46-goal scorer has the ability of playing at an elite level, he hasn’t consistently shown that over his career, or this season for that matter. Carter is more of a supplemental player with the ability to score goals. A leader, franchise player he is not. He has never been a leader in the room, and only once has he led a team in scoring – his aforementioned 46-goal campaign in 2008-09.Over the last couple of seasons, the Philadelphia Flyers moved him from his natural position of center, making him a sniper…

What could Jeff Carter draw in a trade?

It’s no secret that Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager Scott Howson is actively shopping center Jeff Carter, a player he acquired a mere seven months ago as part of an attempted series of impact moves designed to place the woebegone Blue Jackets into playoff contention. Carter’s reaction to the trade was that of extreme disappointment to the extent that Blue Jackets team President Mike Priest, Howson and team captain Rick Nash traveled to Carter’s New Jersey summer residence several days after the trade to try to determine whether Carter indeed wanted to come to Columbus as Carter could not be reached for several days after the trade was made.

To be kind, the Carter acquisition has failed in just about every respect: Carter, while injured on two stretches of this season, has not exactly meshed with the Blue Jackets franchise player, Rick Nash and has appeared disinterested throughout the time he has been healthy. In fact, rumblings of Carter’s discontent occurred at a relativ…

Brassard’s OT goal lets Jackets end skid

Derick Brassard’s second goal of the game — with 1:05 left in overtime — lifted Columbus to a 3-2, come-from-behind victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night, snapping the Blue Jackets’ six-game skid.

Columbus’ Jeff Carter scored the tying power-play goal in his return from a 10-game absence with a separated shoulder as the Blue Jackets finally won in the finale of a six-game road trip.

The NHL’s worst team rallied from a third-period deficit in its first game since an apparent clock malfunction possibly cost them a point in a 3-2 loss up the I-5 freeway in Los Angeles two nights ago.

Teemu Selanne scored his 654th and 655th career goals for the Ducks, who have lost two straight home games in discouraging fashion after a 9-1-1 run through most of January.

Moments after Selanne barely missed the net with an overtime shot, Brassard took the puck away from Cam Fowler in the Columbus end and skated the length of the ice to beat Jonas Hiller, who stopped 18 shots.

Curtis Sanford made 33 saves for the Blue Jackets (14-32-6), who still sit 11 points behind 29th-place Edmonton in the overall NHL standings.

Columbus’ comeback erased another big game for Selanne. The 41-year-old Finnish Flash had his fourth multigoal game of the season, giving him 40 points in 35 career meetings with Columbus — including two goals in the Blue Jackets’ visit to Honda Center last month.

Selanne has been Anaheim’s leading scorer all year long, and his goals gave him 1,389 career points, 22nd-most in NHL history. His 655 goals are 13th in league history and just one behind Brendan Shanahan, who needed 224 more games to reach his mark.

The Ducks went ahead less than two minutes in when Lubomir Visnovsky’s hard shot leaked behind Sanford. Selanne sprawled onto the ice and tapped it home for the 17th goal of the season.

Columbus spent much of the second period short-handed, but the NHL’s worst penalty kill shut down Anaheim’s middle-of-the-pack power play three straight times. Brassard evened it late in the period, capitalizing on a defensive breakdown and a long rebound allowed by Hiller to score his eighth goal.

Brassard, who improved his rating to minus-18 with the goal, has eight points in 13 games after managing just 10 in the Jackets’ first 31 games.

Selanne put the Ducks back ahead on their fourth power play of the period, expertly burying a one-timer on a slick pass from Corey Perry under Sanford’s arm. Perry’s assist was the MVP’s first point in five games.

But Columbus evened it again on a power play early in the third period, with Carter easily backhanding home a loose puck during a power play for his 11th goal. Carter hadn’t played since getting hurt in Anaheim on Jan. 8 on a big check by Francois Beauchemin.

Blue Jackets 3, Ducks 2, OT

Derick Brassard scored his second goal with 1:05 left in overtime, and the Columbus Blue Jackets snapped their six-game skid with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

Jeff Carter scored the tying power-play goal in his return from a 10-game absence with a separated shoulder for the Blue Jackets, who finally won in the finale of their six-game road trip. The NHL’s worst team rallied impressively from a third-period deficit in its first game since an apparent clock malfunction possibly cost them a point in a 3-2 loss up the I-5 freeway in Los Angeles two nights ago.

Teemu Selanne scored his 654th and 655th career goals for the Ducks, who have lost two straight home games in discouraging fashion after a 9-1-1 run through most of January.

Curtis Sanford made 33 saves for the Blue Jackets (14-32-6), who still sit 11 points behind 29th-place Edmonton in the overall NHL standings. But Columbus didn’t pout after Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty beat them with a goal in the final second two nights earlier, an instant after the clock appeared to stop at Staples Center.

Columbus’ comeback erased another big game for Selanne. The 41-year-old Finnish Flash tore up a familiar foil in his fourth multigoal game of the season, giving him 40 points in 35 career meetings with Columbus – including two goals in the Blue Jackets’ visit to Honda Center last month.

The Ducks went ahead less than 2 minutes in when Lubomir Visnovsky’s hard shot leaked behind Sanford. Selanne sprawled onto the ice and tapped it home for the 17th goal of the season.

Brassard, who improved his rating to minus-18 with the goal, has eight points in 13 games after managing just 10 in the Jackets’ first 31 games.

NOTES: LW Jason Blake returned to the Ducks’ lineup after missing two games with an undisclosed foot injury. … Columbus C Ryan Johansen missed his second straight game with an illness, but D Marc Methot returned after missing two games with an illness. … Before the game, Anaheim reassigned C Mark Bell and RW Kyle Palmieri to its AHL affiliate in Syracuse. Bell, who hadn’t played in the NHL in four years before his recall last month, went scoreless in five games with the Ducks.

Ducks blow lead, fall to Blue Jackets in OT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Derick Brassard scored his second goal with 1:05 left in overtime, and the Columbus Blue Jackets snapped their six-game skid with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

Teemu Selanne scored his 654th and 655th career goals for the Ducks, who have lost two straight home games in discouraging fashion after a 9-1-1 run through most of January.

Columbus’ comeback erased another big game for Selanne. The 41-year-old Finnish Flash tore up a familiar foil in his fourth multigoal game of the season, giving him 40 points in 35 career meetings with Columbus — including two goals in the Blue Jackets’ visit to Honda Center last month.

The Ducks went ahead less than 2 minutes in when Lubomir Visnovsky’s hard shot leaked behind Sanford. Selanne sprawled onto the ice and tapped it home for the 17th goal of the season.

Brassard, who improved his rating to minus-18 with the goal, has eight points in 13 games after managing just 10 in the Jackets’ first 31 games.

Blue Jackets snap skid, beat Ducks in OT

Teemu Selanne scored his 654th and 655th career goals for the Ducks, who have lost two straight home games in discouraging fashion after a 9-1-1 run through most of January.

Columbus’ comeback erased another big game for Selanne. The 41-year-old Finnish Flash tore up a familiar foil in his fourth multigoal game of the season, giving him 40 points in 35 career meetings with Columbus — including two goals in the Blue Jackets’ visit to Honda Center last month.

The Ducks went ahead less than 2 minutes in when Lubomir Visnovsky’s hard shot leaked behind Sanford. Selanne sprawled onto the ice and tapped it home for the 17th goal of the season.

Brassard, who improved his rating to minus-18 with the goal, has eight points in 13 games after managing just 10 in the Jackets’ first 31 games.

Is Jeff Carter a good fit for the Toronto Maple Leafs?

A supposedly unhappy Jeff Carter could fit the bill for Toronto Maple Leafs’ long desired number 1 center they have been looking for ever since Mats Sundin left.

It looks like the Columbus Blue Jackets have indeed put their star player out on the trade block;
“Multiple sources confirmed to The Dispatch that Carter has been put on the trade block by the Blue Jackets, barely seven months after he was acquired from Philadelphia and deemed the No. 1 center the club has always needed.”
But how good of a fit is Carter if he were traded to Toronto?
Pros; Carter, at age 27 is in his prime. Carter could come as an easier transaction for the Maple Leafs than player’s such as teammate Rick Nash or Anaheim Duck star Ryan Getzlaf because of the situation Carter is in. The Maple Leafs are in dire need for a center and having Carter in the middle of Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul would be dynamite. I personally like that Carter ($5.27 annual cap hit) makes around $500,000…

Rosen’s NHL Notebook (Feb. 2, 2012)

Responses to “Clock-gate” at Staples Center

Frustration has mounted in Columbus, where six speakers held court in front of several hundred displeased, sign-carrying fans outside Nationwide Arena Saturday in a protest that, while assembled “not of anger, but of love for this team,” according to one, also contained acute grievances towards the direction of the club under president Mike Priest and general manager Scott Howson, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch.

After a 6-0 loss in San Jose on Tuesday and Wednesday’s Staples Center clock controversy in a 3-2 loss to Los Angeles, more frustration has been heaped upon a fraught fanbase, prompting Howson to offer another empassioned plea less than a week after majority owner John P. McConnell had sent an email to the team’s season ticket holders clarifying the team’s disappointment this season.

After replays clearly showed that Los Angeles benefitted from the clock stalling for approximately one second at 1.8 seconds before Drew Doughty’s game-winning goal with 0.4 seconds remaining, Howson on Thursday morning left a blog posting on Columbus’ website detailing the organization’s frustration in unfairly being robbed of at least one point in the standings. An excerpt of the blog posting, which was removed from the website mid-day, is below.

“Either there was a deliberate stopping of the clock or the clock malfunctioned.

It’s easy to say that this doesn’t matter. We, the Blue Jackets, are in last place and it is likely not going to affect our place in the standings. However, in my opinion, this matters in many respects. It matters to our players, to our coaches, every person in our organization and our fans. In talking with our coaches and Craig Patrick, our players played with passion, tenacity, grit, determination and competitiveness after a rather embarrassing loss in San Jose the night before. This tremendous effort was put in without four of our top six defensemen (James Wisniewski, Nikita Nikitin, Marc Methot and Radek Martinek) and with Jeff Carter, Ryan Johansen, Mark Letestu and Kristian Huselius also out of the lineup. We will never know if we should have had one point or two points in the standings. What we do know is that we should not have had zero. Anyone who has competed at a high level of sports knows that when you put everything into a game, the result matters. And to have the result altered unfairly stings.

In addition, this result matters to every other team in the Western Conference that is competing with Los Angeles for a playoff spot. We will never know if the Kings would have got the extra point in overtime or shootout, but they may not have. This extra point in the standings could have an enormous impact both competitively and economically. What if the Kings make the playoffs by one point or gain home ice advantage by one point? We could be talking about a team not making the playoffs and missing out on millions of dollars in playoff gates. No one can ever convince me that this result does not matter.”

While the Blue Jackets are reasonable to bemoan the loss of a point, the more essential aspect of this conundrum is Los Angeles’ point inflation. It’s impossible to predict who would’ve come away with the extra point in overtime or a shootout, but considering that the Kings rank second in the league with 10 overtime losses, a Columbus win in extra time wouldn’t exactly come as a shock. Teams battling for playoff positioning with Los Angeles, including Minnesota, Dallas, Calgary, Colorado, and the Pacific-leading San Jose Sharks, all have a right to be upset with the events that transpired in the 10 o’clock hour in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night.

Last year, two points separated eighth-seeded Chicago (97 points) from both fourth-seeded Anaheim (99 points), and ninth-ranked, playoff-missing Dallas (95 points).

Kings general manager Dean Lombardi attempted to diffuse the situation with a nothing-to-see-here, we-are-lucky-to-have-just-witnessed-science response sent to reporters Thursday morning.

“Those clocks are sophisticated instruments that calculate time by measuring electrical charges called coulombs. Given the rapidity and volume of electrons that move through the measuring device the calibrator must adjust at certain points which was the delay you see. The delay is just recalibrating for the clock moving too quickly during the 10 10ths of a second before the delay. This insures that the actual playing time during a period is exactly 20 minutes. That is not an opinion. That is science. Amazing device quite frankly.”

The NHL disagreed with Lombardi’s assessment, with vice president of game operations Colin Campbell telling Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch “I don’t think that’s the deal in this case.”

Campbell explained to the Dispatch how the NHL first came to notice the time-keeping malfunction several minutes after Doughty’s game-winning goal found the back of the net.

“I started looking back at the penalty that was called (Sammy Pahlsson, hooking, 18:54 of the 3rd) to see how strong a call it was. This was after the game, after the players were in the rooms. As I followed the rest of the game through, I saw the clock stop. I saw it about the time the people in Columbus saw it, and I knew we had an issue.

“At that point, you can’t pull the teams back on the ice. The game is over. In cases like this, we don’t sleep. I know the Columbus Fox people were killing us, saying we were already asleep in Toronto. That’s not true. We were up watching this, looking into the matter already.”

Commissioner Gary Bettman also responded to the incident late Thursday in his weekly radio show.

“Now I know lots of people are going to say, ‘How can you have a mistake?’, Bettman asked. “Well, unfortunately or fortunately, our game is full of mistakes — by players, by coaches and occasionally by officials — and on some levels it’s no different than if a guy makes a bad penalty call, puts a team on the power play and they score the winning goal. It happens. We don’t like when it happens and our job is to minimize mistakes. We don’t want any, but obviously when you have a human element in any aspect of the game you’re going to have it.

“If we had any reason to believe that this was intentional we would deal with it in a whole different way, but we’re going to investigate it, get to the bottom of it.”

Bettman and Campbell’s quotes indicate the book is closed on last night’s game, no matter how illegitimate Los Angeles’ second point was last night. It would behoove the Kings to avoid a situation in which they scrape into the playoffs by virtue of tie-breaking criteria as an eighth-seed.

NHL defenseman talks M-11 helmet, concussions

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell is one of just a handful of NHL players using the M-11 helmet designed by Mark Messier in conjunction with Cascade Sports. We’ve previously addressed its challenging aim to reduce the number of concussions in hockey through its Seven Technology design, which it claims absorbs and transfers energy more effectively from “high impact linear forces”. Mitchell, whose 2009-10 season with Vancouver ended after sustaining a concussion delivered by Evgeni Malkin on an illegal hit that did not merit a suspension, recently spoke on why he wears the M-11 helmet as well as the often difficult-to-navigate terrain of concussion treatment and prevention.

Why did you choose to wear the M-11 helmet?
They’re probably the first helmet out there that’s done independent testing, I know that, upon following up with them. That wasn’t out when I went to the helmet, but I know they’ve done that here in the last little while which I think speaks volumes about how they think their product can make a difference. That’s important, because we all know that if you do your own testing, it’s pretty easy to skew the numbers a little bit by just changing the way and how you test. I’m just a believer in feeling that they really wanted to make a difference, and it wasn’t just OK, we’re an equipment company’ that has a broad range of things that they’re doing, and this is something they were specializing in doing helmets.

The technology, instead of transferring the energy to your brain, it’s actually supposed to disperse it. That’s the main reason. It’s been good. I think the number one thing for helmets and concussions on a personal level is fit, though too, right? You have to have a helmet that fits your head perfectly, and it fits my head really well, where I might put on a CCM or a different helmet, and it might even have the same technology in it, but the shape of it, all of our heads are different shapes and sizes, and I truly believe that they’ve taken the step to the next level. Eventually we’ll see helmets that are actually customized to everyone’s heads, because if you look around the room, we all have different craniums, right? They’re all different shapes and sizes.

It seems as though it’s difficult to find any uniform protocol to reduce the number of concussions. It’s one of those things where it’s tough to judge and tough to put any definitive data or event to say, yeah, I got hit this way, and if I was wearing another helmet, I wouldn’t have had a concussion’, you can’t do that, right? There’s no possible way. You get hit a thousand different times, your head gets twisted and turned a thousand different ways, and we’re still learning the broad reaches of how we get concussions. There are direct blows, there are shearing factors, where your brain sits in your cerebral spinal fluid and kind of twists and turns. That can cause them. Like I said, there are multiple things that go into it. Having a good mouth guard, I think, is very, very important as well because basically, it’ll take some of that force and deaden it when you have a mouth guard as well; it won’t transfer it right to your brain. So I think there are multiple things that we should be doing to help prevent an injury that none of us want to see any of our peers get.

Mitchell, who turns 35 in April, has three goals, 11 points, and a plus-three rating in 45 games this season as a stay-at-home defenseman. His two-year, seven-million dollar contract expires at year’s end.

Hodgson joining Calder Trophy race?

Cody Hodgson was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month in January after capping off a six-goal, 10-point campaign with a third period, game-tying tally in an eventual 3-2 overtime win against Chicago Tuesday night. Hodgson’s fourteen goals on the season rank him two goals behind Philadelphia’s Matt Read amongst rookie goal scoring leaders, while his 30 points (in 50 games) rank fourth. One of 12 first-year players invited to participate in the All-Star SuperSkills Competition, he represented Team Chara in the shot accuracy contest.

He recently spoke to Canucks TV about how his game has developed this season.

“I think it’s a big benefactor of the way the team’s been playing,” Hodgson said. “We’re winning games and pretty successful as a team, so the individual stuff comes as a result of that.”

The third-line center between wingers Mason Raymond and Jannik Hansen, Hodgson gives the Canucks three excellent options down the middle and has been a key development in arguably the Western Conference’s top offense, a unit that ranks third in the NHL with 3.16 goals per game.

Recognized three times by the OHL’s coaches poll as the league’s smartest player, the former Brampton Batallion center won the Red Tilson Trophy as the most outstanding player in the Ontario Hockey League in 2008-09, an award that has also been presented to Tyler Seguin, Corey Perry and Eric Lindros. Turning 22 in just over two weeks, the 10th pick of the 2008 NHL Draft has gone a long way in solidifying his offensive role with Vancouver just two seasons after a muscle injury in his back was misdiagnosed as a bulging disc, an injury that caused the two-way center to miss all but 13 OHL regular season games two years ago.

Because Ryan Nugent-Hopkins continues to recover from a shoulder injury sustained early last month, the 18-year old phenom who has amassed 35 points in 38 games may be leaving the door open for an interesting Calder Trophy race. In addition to Hodgson, New Jersey’s Adam Henrique (34 points) or defenseman Adam Larsson (16 points), or Philadelphia’s Read (32 points) will also draw consideration for the league’s rookie of the year award.

More importantly, the upward-trending Hodgson makes Vancouver an even deeper immediate threat in the Western Conference, where they’re in a heated battle to defend their top-overall seeding, a race that will likely be determined much later than last year, when the Canucks separated themselves from second-seeded San Jose by 12 points.

GAME OF THE WEEKEND
St. Louis Blues at Nashville PredatorsSaturday, February 4, 8:00 p.m. ETFox Sports Midwest
Winners of five in a row and 10 of 11 prior to Thursday’s loss in Philadelphia, the streaking Nashville Predators continue their impressive fight for first place overall in the scorched earth battleground that is the Central Division when they host the rival St. Louis Blues, who have lost two in a row after winning eight out of nine. St. Louis, which doesn’t open its post-All-Star Break schedule until Friday night when it hosts Los Angeles, will be looking for more consistent road efforts, having won just eight away games this season, the lowest tally of the four teams fighting for control of the top-heavy Central. The Predators are 3-0 against the Blues this season, though two of the wins were decided in a shootout.

Our pick: Nashville

NHL investigating Blue Jackets-Kings finish

The Columbus Blue Jackets got the shaft Wednesday night.

This might not be a big deal when referring to hockey sticks, but it matters when it comes to a last-second goal that eliminated overtime against the Los Angeles Kings.

It matters a lot.

Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson appropriately pointed this out in a Thursday blog post that was later removed from the team’s website.

“Anyone who has competed at a high level of sports knows that when you put everything into a game, the result matters,” Howson wrote. “And to have the result altered unfairly stings.”

The situation: The game was tied 2-2 in the final seconds, with the Kings swarming the Blue Jackets goal on a power play. Drew Doughty scored with four-tenths of a second left.

However, replays showed the clock did not move during play for about one full second with 1.8 seconds left, a stoppage that Howson noticed and brought to the league’s attention.

NHL vice president Colin Campbell told Howson that the league would investigate.

Kings president Dean Lombardi had an interesting — yes, that’s the word — explanation for the clock situation. In an email to the Los Angeles Times, Lombardi wrote:

“Those clocks are sophisticated instruments that calculate time by measuring electrical charges called coulombs — given the rapidity and volume of electrons that move through the measuring device the calibrator must adjust at certain points which was the delay you see. The delay is just recalibrating for the clock moving too quickly during the 1010ths of a second before the delay. This insures that the actual playing time during a period is exactly 20 minutes.

“That is not an opinion — that is science — amazing device quite frankly.”

Quite frankly.

For those who do not know, a coulomb is named after a fine gentleman named Charles de Coulomb, who lived from 1736-1806 (according to dictionary.com). It is the amount of electricity conveyed in one second by a current of one amp.

Evidently it has something to do with the time shown on the clock syncing with the internal computer that runs the clock. Or something like that. A member of the Kings communications staff confirmed that Lombardi send that email.

Though impressively scientific, this does not eliminate Howson’s legitimate concerns. The clock malfunction seems improper, and it matters. It won’t matter to the Blue Jackets, who are 13-32-6 this season. But it might matter to the Kings and the Western Conference playoffs, where a point or two can make a difference in playoff seeding, home ice and, in the most extreme, who makes the playoffs.

“We will never know if the Kings would have got the extra point in overtime or shootout, but they may not have,” Howson wrote. “This extra point in the standings could have an enormous impact both competitively and economically. What if the Kings make the playoffs by one point or gain home ice advantage by one point? We could be talking about a team not making the playoffs and missing out on millions of dollars in playoff gates.

“No one can ever convince me that this result does not matter.”

During the day Thursday, Howson asked that the blog post be removed, thinking that some of the wording was a little too pointed. Reasonable. But in this age, once something is posted and reposted, it’s tough to eradicate completely. There also were valid and good points in the blog.

It also is valid to say if the Blue Jackets really wanted to avoid the controversy they would not have let Los Angeles score. That would have erased any and all discussion. But this still leaves an odd feeling. The NHL can’t change the outcome of a game — league rules — but it can do some digging to find out what happened.

And it might come to an answer nobody likes: Even in the most perfect of systems, human error happens. Fans and media who cry for replay constantly ignore the fact that things won’t always be 100 percent correct because humans operate cameras, machines and clocks.

Even in the most perfect of systems, perfection is unattainable.

The question is whether someone in Los Angeles willfully stopped the clock. If so, he or she should be held accountable.

“We anxiously await the results of the NHL’s investigation,” Howson wrote.

Doesn’t everyone.

NHL investigating Blue Jackets-Kings finish

The Columbus Blue Jackets got the shaft Wednesday night.

This might not be a big deal when referring to hockey sticks, but it matters when it comes to a last-second goal that eliminated overtime against the Los Angeles Kings.

It matters a lot.

Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson appropriately pointed this out in a Thursday blog post that was later removed from the team’s website.

“Anyone who has competed at a high level of sports knows that when you put everything into a game, the result matters,” Howson wrote. “And to have the result altered unfairly stings.”

The situation: The game was tied 2-2 in the final seconds, with the Kings swarming the Blue Jackets goal on a power play. Drew Doughty scored with four-tenths of a second left.

However, replays showed the clock did not move during play for about one full second with 1.8 seconds left, a stoppage that Howson noticed and brought to the league’s attention.

NHL vice president Colin Campbell told Howson that the league would investigate.

Kings president Dean Lombardi had an interesting — yes, that’s the word — explanation for the clock situation. In an email to the Los Angeles Times, Lombardi wrote:

“That is not an opinion — that is science — amazing device quite frankly.”

Quite frankly.

“No one can ever convince me that this result does not matter.”

Even in the most perfect of systems, perfection is unattainable.

The question is whether someone in Los Angeles willfully stopped the clock. If so, he or she should be held accountable.

“We anxiously await the results of the NHL’s investigation,” Howson wrote.

Doesn’t everyone.

NHL: Doughty’s goal should not have counted

The NHL is investigating whether human error or a glitch in the clock system at Staples Center was responsible for prolonging the Kings game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday long enough for Kings defenseman Drew Doughty to score the decisive goal in a 3-2 victory.

Colin Campbell, the leagues senior vice president of hockey operations, said Thursday he believes the Blue Jackets were wronged because the clock was paused with 1.8 seconds left in the third period and Doughtys goal with .4 of a second left should not have been allowed. In our opinion it was one full second, Campbell said of the stoppage.

The decision wont make much difference to 30th-ranked Columbus but could prove crucial for the Kings, who are battling for a playoff spot.

In determining playoff seedings when teams are tied, wins gained in a shootout are subtracted from each teams win total and the greater win total gets the better seeding. Had Doughtys goal been disallowed the game might have gone to the tiebreaker, potentially reducing the Kings wins in regulation and overtime.

The pause was not immediately seen by officials in the NHLs Toronto situation room, where every goal is reviewed. Campbell said the initial concern in Toronto was to determine if the puck had crossed the goal line before time expired according to the clock burned into the corner of the footage they saw. Not until later did they back up the frame-by-frame footage to the moment the clock stopped. Seeing that hesitation with 1.8 seconds left persuaded him Columbus had gotten a bad deal.

When you look at it, regulation was over when L.A. scored so yes they did, Campbell said in a phone conversation. They didnt have the opportunity to get a point for a tie game. They didnt get a point from the tie game, which they would have got and they werent afforded the opportuntity to go for an extra point in overtime or a shootout.

Campbell said the league had contacted the clocks manufacter, Daktronics, to determine if the clock was at fault and will send technicians to Staples Center to examine the clock and the system. Campbell also said the NHL will send a representative to Los Angeles to meet with the off-ice officials, who are employed by the league. That crew includes the person designated the game timekeeper Wednesdaywhom Campbell would not identifyas well as the official scorer, penalty timekeeper and others.

Although Campbell said he believed there had been other problems with the Staples Center clock involving basketball games, Staples Center spokesman Michael Roth said he was unaware of such difficulties.

Columbus General Manager Scott Howson posted a blog on the teams web site criticizing the process that allowed the goal to stand and emphasizing how important the extra point for the win could be for the Kings, but that blog was later removed.

Campbell said investigating the incident is crucial to maintaining trust and credibility in Los Angeles and every other arena in which NHL games are played.

“We have to peruse two areas, Campbell said. Theres a human element, where a fellows operating the clock. And was there a human mistake here? So was there human error in this case? Is he watching the play? Did he think there was a high stick? Did he think there was a hand pass and he accidentally stopped it and started it? Or was there an error in the Daktronics clock?

Weve talked to the Daks people. Weve also asked them if its humanly possible to stop the clock and start it just one second.

Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi said via email that the clock was correct and no extra time had been added.

Those clocks are sophisticated instruments that calculate time by measuring electrical charges called coulombs, he said. Given the rapidity and volume of electrons that move through the measuring device the calibrator must adjust at certain points which was the delay you see. The delay is just recalibrating for the clock moving too quickly during the 10 10ths of a second before the delay.

This insures that the actual playing time during a period is exactly 20 minutes. That is not an opinion. That is science. Amazing device quite frankly.”

Campbell discounted Lombardis comment. I read it and it sounded interesting, Campbell said.

–Helene Elliott

Columbus GM Discusses Clock Problems In LA

from Scott Howson at the Blue Jackets website, I spoke with (NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations) Colin Campbell on two occasions after the game. Sometimes in watching the game on television there can be confusion with respect to the game clock. Some television broadcasts use their own game clock that is not official with the rink. However, and after double checking, Colin confirmed that we were actually seeing the official game clock stop for one full second. Therefore, when you do the math, Drew Doughty actually scored 0.4 seconds after time had expired, which means the goal should have been disallowed and should have gone to overtime. Colin has promised me that the NHL will investigate this to try and figure out how this happened.

It is an amazing coincidence that with the Kings on a power play at STAPLES Center and with a mad scramble around our net in the dying seconds of the third period of a 2-2 hockey game that the clock stopped for at least one full se…

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