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Flames: They are concluding a three-game road trip that began with consecutive-night losses against San Jose (2-1) and Vancouver (5-2), the latter played Saturday, and are on a franchise-record 13-game losing streak on the road. Calgary previously lost a home-and-home set with Edmonton by 4-1 and 8-2 scores and absorbed a 6-4 loss to visiting Columbus. The Flames have the worst goals-against average (3.51) in the NHL but rank 13th in scoring (2.68).

Avalanche: The team returned from Saturday's 4-0 loss at Phoenix early Sunday morning and didn't practice, but participated in the annual charity brunch and fashion show. ... The Avs have lost four consecutive games and 12 of their past 14. ... Forwards Paul Stastny (foot) and David Jones (knee) have been skating with the team and might return to the lineup Monday night, but winger Milan Hejduk (shoulder) and defenseman Ryan Wilson (ankle) are doubtful. ... The Avs are 2-1 against Calgary this season.

Mike Chambers, The Denver Post

Denver Post: LOADED: 04.08.2013

668735 Columbus Blue Jackets

Wild 3, Blue Jackets 0: Killer instinct lacking

Jackets give up two power-play goals, don’t challenge Wild’s Backstrom

By Aaron Portzline

The Columbus Dispatch Monday April 8, 2013 5:31 AM

On many nights this season, the Blue Jackets’ penalty kill has been the sharpest aspect of their game, the backbone of a defensive effort that has allowed them to survive on a narrow margin.

Last night, the Jackets leaned on the penalty kill, but it wasn’t there for support. The fall was ugly.

The Minnesota Wild — by far the more engaged and energetic team — scored two power-play goals in the second period and cruised to a 3-0 win before 15,909 in Nationwide Arena.

“That was tough ... tough to watch,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “The second period was a real flat period for us, just really disappointing from the sense of the importance of the game. We had no energy.”

The loss halted the Blue Jackets’ 12-game home points streak (9-0-3), a franchise record.

It also severely dampened their Stanley Cup playoff chances, as they remained four points behind eighth-place Detroit with four teams to leapfrog and only nine games remaining.

It marked only the third time all season the Blue Jackets have allowed more than one power-play goal in a game.

The Blue Jackets’ power play didn’t help, either, going 0 for 4 with only three shots on goal, and letting pass two third-period chances to pull within a goal.

But the power play has been in a flaccid state all season.

“We finally get a game where got more than one or two power plays,” winger R.J. Umberger said. “We didn’t generate anything, get any shots through.

“This time of season, it’s critical that your power play steps up. And our penalty kill, for the first time in a long time, gave up a couple of goals. That’s the difference.”

The Wild went ahead 1-0 at 3:13 of the second on Ryan Suter’s wrister through traffic, then pushed the lead to 2-0 when Charlie Coyle finished a terrific set-up by Mikael Granlund at 15:03.

The Blue Jackets went long stretches where they barely tested Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom. He made 14 of his 24 saves in the third period, but he needed to make only four stops in the second.

Much credit goes to the Wild, which had lost three straight before last night.

They played extremely tight in the neutral zone, and their line of Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Brodziak and Charlie Coyle were the most noticeable trio on the ice.

“Five-on-five, they were plugging it up so well,” Blue Jackets center Mark Letestu said. “When they play like that, they’re not giving up a lot of chances.”

The Wild capped the scoring with 1:25 remaining when Jason Pominville finished a rush off a pass from Zach Parise.

With nine games left, the Blue Jackets can’t afford any more nights like last night. They have only three home games left, including on Tuesday against San Jose.

“It’s not any secret,” defenseman Jack Johnson said. “We have to win our home games out, I think, and we have to be exceptional on the road.

“It’s not anything anybody in here should shy away from; we have to rise to the challenge.

“These are the kind of games you want to play in. They’re meaningful.”

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 04.08.2013

668736 Columbus Blue Jackets

Bob Hunter commentary: No matter how you add it up, Jackets all but eliminated

By Bob Hunter

The Columbus Dispatch Monday April 8, 2013 5:28 AM

When the NHL season reaches the stretch run, there are two kinds of “eliminated” that teams on the wrong side of the playoff line face: mathematically eliminated and realistically eliminated.

Even after last night’s devastating 3-0 loss to Minnesota, the Blue Jackets obviously aren’t mathematically eliminated. With 39 points, they are only four points behind eighth-place Detroit in the Western Conference standings.

But with nine games left in the season, numbers have started taunting the Blue Jackets like an obnoxious teenager, and that other unspeakable kind of “eliminated” is now in play.

Sportsclubstats.com, which compiles math on the playoff chances of all professional teams, listed the Jackets’ chances of making the playoffs at only 3.3 percent after last night’s loss, a drop of 5.4 percent based on that loss to the Wild. Given the web site’s percentage breakdown of the team’s playoff chances given every conceivable record the Jackets could compile in those last nine games, it strikes me that this isn’t based on a bad experience one of the web designers had at Columbus pizza shop.

Phoenix, Dallas and Edmonton are between the Jackets and eighth place. The Stars and the Oilers have the same number of points as Columbus, but they have the edge in tiebreakers. And just about everybody has a schedule advantage: Of the nine games the Jackets have remaining, six are on the road.

So it didn’t take a math major to figure out that the Blue Jackets were climbing a steep mountain even before the loss to the Wild. But no one in the team’s locker room denied that this one was a crusher.

“It’s a blow,” coach Todd Richards said, “not taking advantage of playing at home. Ten (now nine) games to go and we know what’s ahead of us. The players have talked, we’ve talked about the importance of these home games.”

But talk is cheap when the math is so brutal. Our friends at sportsclubstats.com say that if the Jackets go 8-1, they still have an 87.1 percent chance of making the playoffs. But get this: Even if they go 7-2 — that means winning all three remaining home games and going 4-2 on the road — their chances of making the playoffs are only 36.4 percent.

Even if those guys fudged their numbers a little over some deep-seated hatred of the Blue Jackets — and seriously, who can work up a good hate for a team that has made the playoffs only once in its 12-season existence? — it probably isn’t going to make anybody around here feel better to know that a 7-2 record really gives Columbus a 40- or 45-percent chance of making it.

Marian Gaborik came to the Jackets from the Rangers three games ago and he tried hard to put a spin on this. But frankly, he is better at scoring goals.

“We have to stay positive,” Gaborik said. “It really was a game that we should have had, but we just have to regroup and move forward.”

No one would deny that, but defenseman Jack Johnson admitted the team “felt like tonight was a must-win game,” which takes us back to that other unspeakable kind of “eliminated.” He wasn’t giving up, obviously, but he left little doubt that the situation is pretty grim.

“We’ve only got three home games left for the rest of the year, and we know we have to win those three and we have to be exceptional on the road,” he said. “It’s a tough spot to be in. We’re trying to climb over teams and it’s tough at the end of the year because you get a lot of three-point games going.”

He was even more direct when he was asked about the situation that the Jackets face in a different way.

“We have to win the rest of our games,” he said.

He might be right. If the Jackets go 9-0, sportsclubstats.com says that they have a 99.7 percent chance of making the playoffs.

But any Jackets fan up to his eyeballs in past misery would immediately recognize that for what it is: less than 100 percent.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 04.08.2013

668737 Columbus Blue Jackets

Blue Jackets notebook: Wild’s Backstrom rebounds with shutout

By Shawn Mitchell

The Columbus Dispatch Monday April 8, 2013 5:25 AM

Minnesota Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, invigorated by the metaphorical cold shower that he said goalies take when pulled from a start, had a clean sheet yesterday in Nationwide Arena.

The 34-year-old Finn made 24 saves against the Blue Jackets and pitched his 28th career shutout in a crucial win for Minnesota, three days after being yanked from a 3-0 loss at Los Angeles in which he allowed two goals on two shots.

“I don’t want to say that you get (ticked) off, but it is a wakeup call for you,” said Backstrom, who became the NHL’s first 20-game winner and shut out the Jackets for the first time in his career.

“You feel like you let the team down and you want to be sure you are ready the next time.”

Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards wasn’t happy with the lack of offensive pressure against Backstrom.

“We didn’t test him nearly enough,” Richards said. “It got a little bit better in the third period, but it’s still not what I expect out of our players based on the standards they have set.”

Backstrom improved to 11-5-1 against the Jackets, who took only four shots in the second period and totaled three shots during four power-play opportunities.

“He made the first save on a lot of occasions,” Blue Jackets center Mark Letestu said.

“There wasn’t a lot of second chances. They were doing a good job of keeping us out of certain areas.”

Reshuffle

The Jackets scratched four players, none of them healthy, and could be without the quartet again on Tuesday against San Jose.

Richards said he hoped center Brandon Dubinsky (illness) could return by then, but he was less optimistic about defensemen Nikita Nikitin and Tim Erixon (both upper body).

Erixon is slated to practice today but Richards did not know if he would be ready to play on Tuesday. Richards said he was “unsure” of Nikitin’s timeline.

Right winger Jared Boll (lower body) “is still going to be a little bit,” Richards said.

Division champs

Minor-league Springfield beat Portland 4-2 yesterday to clinch the American Hockey League Northeast Division.

The Falcons (41-20-9) clinched a playoff spot on Friday and secured their first division championship and 40-win season since 1997-98.

Falcons forward Jonathan Audy-Marchessault had a goal and an assist and is tied for second in the AHL with 63 points (20 goals, 43 assists).

Slap shots

The Jackets fell to 0-4 when allowing two power-play goals. They have not allowed three power-play goals since a 5-3 loss at Anaheim on Feb. 12, 2012, a span of 65 games. Columbus had killed 22 of its previous 23 penalties in Nationwide Arena. … The Jackets suffered back-to-back regulation losses for the first time since Feb. 23-24 (2-1 at St. Louis and 1-0 at Chicago), a span of 19 games. … Center Ryan Johansen won all nine of his faceoffs.

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 04.08.2013

668738 Columbus Blue Jackets

NHL: Blue Jackets blanked by Wild

Staff Report

Sunday April 7, 2013 10:30 PM

Niklas Backstrom made 24 saves, and newcomer Jason Pominville had a goal and an assist to help the Minnesota Wild snap a three-game losing streak with a 3-0 victory over the Blue Jackets tonight in Nationwide Arena.

Pominville, acquired last week from Buffalo, earned his first points with Minnesota.

The Wild, coming off its first shutout loss of the season -- 3-0 at Los Angeles on Thursday -- got better as the game progressed on both ends of the ice.

Ryan Suter's wrist shot in traffic started the scoring, and Charlie Coyle benefited from a perfect pass from Mikael Granlund as the Wild netted two power-play goals in the second period.

Backstrom and his staunch defense did the rest until Pominville scored late off a tape-to-tape pass from Zach Parise. Backstrom earned his second shutout of the season and 28th of his NHL career.

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 04.08.2013

668739 Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn's shootout goal completes Stars' comeback win over red-hot Sharks

Associated Press

Published: 07 April 2013 06:19 PM

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jamie Benn scored the lone goal in the shootout and Kari Lehtonen stopped all three attempts as the Dallas Stars snapped the San Jose Sharks' seven-game winning streak with a 5-4, come-from-behind victory on Sunday.

Alex Chiasson started the rally from a two-goal deficit in the third period when he scored his second goal of the game, and Loui Erickson tied it for the Stars, who have won two straight following a three-game losing streak. Eric Nystrom also scored, and Lehtonen made 32 saves through overtime for Dallas.

The Stars also erased a 2-0 deficit before falling behind 4-2.

Tommy Wingels, Brent Burns, TJ Galiardi and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for the Sharks, who had won the first six games of their seven-game homestand. San Jose failed in its attempt to become the first NHL team to win every game on a homestand of at least seven games, according to STATS LLC. Antti Niemi made 30 saves.

Benn beat Niemi in the second round of the shootout when he skated out wide and then came back to the middle for a forehand shot. Lehtonen sealed the win when he stopped Burns on the final attempt.

This was the first of three meetings between the teams in a span of 17 days, and the clubs look far different than they did for the first meeting of the season in February in Dallas.

The Stars have traded key players Brenden Morrow, Jaromir Jagr, Derek Roy and Michael Ryder since winning 3-1 then. That loss was the ninth in 10 games for the Sharks, who have turned things around dramatically of late.

San Jose won in Anaheim on March 25 and then took the first six games of this homestand to vault from outside the playoff picture to the middle of the fight for home-ice advantage in the first round.

The Stars twice erased two-goal deficits with Nystrom and Chiasson scoring 26 seconds apart in the second period to tie the game at 2. Chiasson and Erickson scored in the opening half of the third period to tie it at 4. The tying goal game when Erickson beat Brad Stuart to the rebound of a shot by Matt Fraser midway through the third.

Galiardi, whose improved play has helped spark this recent run, had helped San Jose take the lead with a beautiful spin-o-rama goal in the second off a good play from newly acquired Raffi Torres.

Torres has long been reviled in San Jose for playoff hits that hurt Milan Michalek and Joe Thornton over the years. He was even greeted by a mix of boos and cheers in his first game with the Sharks. But Torres quickly won over his new fans by dishing out some hard hits, drawing a penalty and earning two assists, including one on Galiardi's goal.

Torres hit Nystrom to jar the puck loose in the offensive end and then stole it from Trevor Daley before feeding Galiardi in the circle. Galiardi then spun and fired a backhand with his back to the net, and the puck sailed just under the crossbar to beat Lehtonen. Galiardi even seemed surprised by the highlight-reel goal, holding his arms out in celebration.

There was little celebrating after San Jose's next goal as it came after a lengthy video review determined that Vlasic's wraparound trickled off Lehtonen and just over the goal line to make it 4-2.

The rare afternoon game in San Jose got off to a chippy start with Joe Pavelski hitting Fiddler with a high stick early, and a scrum near Lehtonen midway through the period.

The Sharks struck first when Logan Couture beat Aaron Rome in a battle for the puck behind the Dallas net. Couture centered the puck, and Patrick Marleau whiffed on the shot attempt. But Wingels was right behind Marleau in the slot and knocked a shot in for his fourth goal.

NOTES: Stars F Lane MacDermid, who scored in his first two games since being acquired in the Jagr trade, sat out with an upper body injury. ... D Jason Demers returned for the Sharks in place of Matt Tennyson after missing four games with a head injury.

Dallas Morning News LOADED: 04.08.2013

668740 Dallas Stars

With Jagr out the door, Jamie Benn looking like his old self again

Kevin Sherrington

ksherrington@dallasnews.com

Published: 08 April 2013 12:52 AM

There was some amount of confusion when I answered one of the chat questions last week and said that Jamie Benn might actually see his game improve now that Jaromir Jagr is gone.

"But didn't you tell us how much Jagr was helping everyone for the past two months?'' many of you asked.

Well, yeah, sure, but that was while he was still here.

OK, I'm only halfway joking with that response. Yes, Jagr did help everyone while he was here. He was a terrific role model who showed how to work hard and didn't just tell you about it. He was also a fantastic example of how to enjoy the game into your 40s, and how to continue to impact the game at that age level.

But he also was a huge planet that required a certain amount of reshaping of the Stars universe. Just as I wasn't going to talk about how his presence could be negatively affecting Benn when he was here, the Stars weren't going to use Jagr in a way that didn't fit his style. If Jagr wanted to dangle instead of dump the puck, then his linemates had to adjust. If he wanted to slow things down, then his linemates had to do the same.

He's Jaromir Jagr, for heaven's sake, and he was leading the Stars in scoring. What more did you want? Jagr is he is a lead dog…even if he doesn't ask to be. He is the eighth-leading scorer in NHL history, the guy who just hit 1,000 assists, the man who made mullets popular. He is Jagr! And if you have one lead dog, then there's really not room at the front of the sled for anyone else. So Jamie Benn had to slow things down, he had to defer, he had to change his game.

There's really no argument about that.

If you watched Benn play with Jagr, he rarely was on the gallop, he rarely was leading the rush, he rarely had blinders on. He wasn't out there walking around five defenders, passing the puck to himself, or going Mach 2 with his hair on fire like Lt. Pete Mitchell.

He was not buzzing the tower like Maverick would. He was playing by the rules like Iceman.

(Self Editing note: OK, these movie references are getting downright ridiculous. Seriously, "A Knight's Tale,'' "Office Space,'' "Trading Places.'' Just stop it…stop it. OK, back to your regularly schedule blog entry).

The point is, Benn couldn't be Benn, because he was being Jagr's sidekick. There's nothing wrong with that. After all, it helped Jagr score a ton of goals, and helped the Stars create some great scoring chances. And really, if you spent any time around Jagr, there was no other way to do it. Jagr was going to get top ice, Benn was going to help him out, and that was that.

But now by removing his aura from the formula, things change. Benn now plays Benn's game.

Ray Whitney is a great play-making winger, and he's going to defer to Benn. The two are moving things forward quickly and bringing a speedy element back to the Stars' game. They aren't perfect, and they make mistakes just as Benn and Jagr made mistakes en route to some serious minuses. But the Whitney-Benn duo makes mistakes at high speed and on the attack. Because of that, they don't get trapped as much. Because of that, they can circle back quickly and clean up the messes. Because of that, a player like Alex Chiasson can jump in and find a place.

In fact, the whole team can change their attitude. With the energy of the kids and an us-against-the-world attitude, the Stars are noticeably different.

"When you get rid of one of the best to ever play the game in Jagr, people are naturally going to assume that,'' Whitney said when asked about the outside perception that the team was waving the white flag after the trades. "But what you are doing is giving some young guys an opportunity, you're giving your team a different look. It's not so much a puck possession group as it was when Jags was here, it's more of a north-south mentality. When you have a younger team, it's easier for them to understand that. It's a simpler game when it's up and down, get the puck in and bang away. It's work your way into the playoffs. The difference was we had a couple skill guys that would vary from a control game to an up-and-down game, and the inconsistencies were there with that. Now, it's pretty black and white."

Because of that, the Stars are a different team. A better team? Well, we're not sure about that yet. Benn has two points in the last three games without Jagr. He had two goals and seven assists in the nine games previous to that playing beside Jagr. So, yeah, you have every reason to question my judgment on the statement that Benn is playing better or that he is in a better place.

But know this, he Stars were 4-5-0 when Benn and Jagr were scoring those points. They are 2-1-0 since. That's a small sample size, but if you watch the game, if you watch Benn get his stride back and get his bark back, you might come to the same conclusion.

Chiasson continues hot start: We've thrown enough roses at the feet of Alex Chiasson to make him blush, but he keeps giving you reasons to cheer. His two goals on Sunday were two more signs that the kid has something. He goes to the net hard, he finds open ice, and he finishes his chances. There's a lot to be said for that at any level.

A product of the USHL (DesMoines) and Boston University, Chiasson has been adapting to the AHL the past two seasons. He is now a 22-year-old with plenty of confidence and good size. He plays a simple game, and that has served him well in his three-game NHL career.

"He does the little things right,'' Stars coach Glen Gultzan said with a smile. "If he keeps doing that, I think I'll play him.''

Chiasson credited Whitney and Benn for their work.

"These guys are top guys, they're all-stars,'' he said. "They find me, and all I have to do is put them in. I'm grateful.''

Benn said he sees plenty of help from Chiasson.

"He's a goal scorer,'' Benn said. "he's a big power forward who uses his body down low and puts the puck in the net.''

Dillon continues to learn and grow: When the Stars coaches decided to move Brenden Dillon and Alex Goligoski onto a pair, the thought was that the two could try to find chemistry while not seeing as much pressure. With Trevor Daley and Stephane Robidas manning the top pair, you just figured they would get the most minutes and the toughest miniutes.

But there were Dillon and Goligoski notching 24:36 and 26:54 on Sunday. There was Dillon forced to deal with a lot of physical play, and forced to answer with physical play. The 22-year-old defenseman was whistled twice for penalties, and you could argue that San Jose agitator Raffi Torres baited him into a crosscheck, but you could also say that Dillon sent a message to Torres.

After Torres had an especially agitating shift, Dillon pounded him into the boards. And he didn't stop with just onoe cross-check. He got his full two minutes worth as he told the Sharks that he would be there if they wanted to play that kind of game.

Smart? Maybe not. Necessary? Kind of.

The Sharks have become a bit of bullying team, and they were playing at home in front of a jacked up crowd. They wanted to win all seven games of their seven-game homestand and they wanted to keep pushing forward on the positivity cloud they were riding.