The game is on.  The CBJ suffered their second loss in JLA in their first ever NHL playoff series.  They were beaten 4-1 and 4-0 on games that indicate the CBJ were outplayed and outscored by a team that in all honesty has more skill at this time. Fans, let us not kid ourselves, the temperature in the playoff oven has gone from room temperature to sizzle and it is truthfully very humbling to watch the Red Wings dismantle the CBJ in precision and surgically based fashion..  The opposition, the Red Wings, has won 4 Cups in the past 11 years and has shown no resolve against a team that wants it so bad.  The CBJ cannot get untracked in the identity of CBJ style of hockey.  The image of being “hard to play against” has not appeared but only for a span of 30 minutes in the 120 minutes that has been played.

The Red Wings are amazing.  The skills that one cannot teach come to the surface in pressure type games.  Puck protection...the want and the will to get the puck....hockey sense...defensemen that are included in almost every goal scored and every offensive rush.....why?...because Detroit is good....no seriously, they are really good.  As a fan of the game, it is fun to watch skill over ride the will of our young and learning.  Let us not kid ourselves, the CBJ are in a land that they have never been before....but in all indications the team is on the right track...of course not on the score board, but soon remember we are on the road and will return to the confines of NWA.  That is home...that is where we are going to need your vocal support.

We have more talent sitting out of this series, and then we actually have playing on the ice.  The students are in school...Filatov...Brassard.... Sestito...Mayorov.....etc etc.  Professor Hitchcock has them in the back of the class room taking notes and observing anddigesting the ambiance of the NHL playoffs.  They remain poised and confident for the future.   They are going to integrate the learned mistakes on the ice through the first two games, but through diffusion, absorb the unteachable skills the Red Wings throw our way.  That is what we have seen so far in this series.

I get excited just talking about the future....but forget that.  Let us look at the now!!  The CBJ are coming home.  They are going to face the first ever NHL playoff series and games in Columbus Ohio...infact to put things into perspective, the first time ever an NHL playoff game will be  played in the state of Ohio.  People..... Get excited...get involved...please.  I am not begging you; I am telling you this is going to be a real hoot!!

 There are festivities starting at 3:30pm on Tuesday and Thursday that you can get involved....all of it sponsored by Nationwide.  There is  going to be food, beverage, and give aways on the NWA Plaza...in fact tickets to that night’s game.  It will be a controlled tailgate that will allow all of us a chance to be part of history.  The ground floor of something that will grow with the franchise is upon us.  Let us have some fun that will filtrate to the product on the ice!!!

Stay tuned!!  “March On”...the Wings vs. the Bluejackets are on the clock!!!!