Did the Mighty Ducks ever lose this badly? Maybe, like, back when they had Goldberg in net before letting the girl play? My Disney movie memories are foggy, but I do know that the Columbus Blue Jackets need an Emilio Estevez/Gordon Bombay boost after this one. (What sound does a blue jacket make, if not "quack"? What the hell is a blue jacket?)Seriously, watch the highlights of Wednesday's 9-1 drubbing. Sure, the Wings seem to have dominated all facets of this one -- 39-26 shots on net -- but the worst offenders here are Columbus' goaltenders, Steve Mason and (in relief) Mathieu Garon. There are some ugly, ugly goals in this contest.
"We didn't play committed or hard against a genuine opponent," Coach Ken Hitchcock told reporters.
Uh, yeah, the defending Western Conference champs probably do qualify as a "genuine opponent," especially after they mopped the ice with your face in the playoffs last year.
Hey, next time you'll know.
Perhaps the strangest thing is that Columbus has been good this year -- 9-5-2 going into the game -- while the Red Wings have been slow out of the gate -- 7-5-3 before yesterday's Christians-Lions face-off. Even now, Columbus has 1 point on Detroit in the Central Division standings.
The fact that this game was played in front of Columbus' home crowd probably won't help the team with its financial struggles -- nor quiet the haters who say hockey isn't viable in this city. (In Jacksonville, where tax dollars are being used to subsidize ticket purchases for the 4-4 football team, they're already having issues with just this sort of thing.)
Nationwide Arena has a hockey capacity of 18,144 and will host 41 home games this year. That's 743,904 tickets that need to be sold to have a packed house. (15,304 attended the Wings game.) Since Columbus has a population of 754,885, this is totally doable as long as everyone (yes, you, nana! get out of bed!) does their civic duty and attends a game.
Maybe they should just raise taxes.
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