Rookies leading way as Columbus off to best start

The Blue Jackets are currently one of the hottest teams in the NHL.

COLUMBUS (AP) — After stopping two Montreal Canadiens shots in a shootout victory Friday night, Columbus Blue Jackets rookie goaltender Steve Mason briefly described how he made the saves.

Then the 20-year-old added, “The rest is history.”

The way the Blue Jackets’ first-year players are playing, maybe the franchise’s sorry history is about to become, well, history.

After seven seasons spent in hockey’s purgatory — on the outside of the playoffs, looking in — the Columbus Blue Jackets are one of the hottest teams in the league right now.

The only club in the NHL to never play in the postseason is suddenly brimming with a fresh outlook and overflowing with confidence.

They owe almost all of it to their callow rookies.

Mason was called up Nov. 4 as an insurance behind Fredrik Norrena while starter Pascal Leclaire rehabbed from an ankle injury.

On a hunch, coach Ken Hitchcock threw him to the wolves Wednesday night against the Edmonton Oilers.

Hitchcock figured it would be a good experience for a kid who had played exactly three professional games, all at Columbus’ top farm club, Syracuse of the American Hockey League.

Even Hitchcock was surprised when Mason turned away 22 shots — including several in a wild final two minutes when the Oilers buzzed around the goal cage like bees near a hive — in a 5-4 victory.

“First game, hard circumstances — [he did] OK,” Hitchcock said. “He’s like a lot of our young guys — it’s on-the-job training right now.”

Mason, Columbus’ second pick in the 2006 draft, then came back with 33 saves in that 4-3 shootout win over Montreal.

Going with the hot hand, Hitchcock sent him back out Saturday night and he had 34 saves in an impressive 3-1 victory over Calgary.

Three games in four days, three good Canadian clubs, three wins. Not bad, particularly for a 6-foot-4, 212-pounder who had never before taken the ice in an NHL game.

Don’t be surprised if Mason, who wasn’t even on the team Monday, ends up as one of the league’s players of the week.

That last win gave the Blue Jackets points in their last six games and boosted them to second place in the Central Division behind Stanley Cup champion Detroit.

The thing is, many of the club’s top stars aren’t playing all that well. Rick Nash, one of the league’s top snipers, has just five goals despite numerous quality chances.

He hasn’t had a goal in nine games, although he still has drawn a lot of attention from defenses, making it easier for the rest of his teammates to score.

Veterans Raffi Torres, Michael Peca and Kristian Huselius have played well, but not great.

It’s the rookies who have spelled the difference, both in the hot streak and even before that.

Derick Brassard, a 21-year-old center who was the sixth overall pick taken in the same draft as Mason, has been a revelation. The NHL’s rookie of the month for October, he has six goals and seven assists to lead all the league’s first-year players in points. He’s had points in 11 of his 14 games, including four goals and three assists in his last six.

Winger Jake Voracek, 19, the seventh overall pick in the 2007 draft, has been almost as good, with three goals and seven assists in 15 games that also puts him near the top among league rookies.