ColumbusSports.com : Your place to stay informed and talk about the sports scene and sports teams in and around Columbus.

Even though hockey has one of the shortest off-seasons of the major sports, it seems like an eternity for those of us who are just itching to get back to the rink, myself included. Opening night comes second only to Hockey Fest in my book. Hockey Fest falls on Sunday, November 15th this season. If you've never made it out to Hockey Fest, you should make a point to go this season. It is a great opportunity to interact with the Blue Jackets players, and all of the proceeds from the day go to the Blue Jackets Foundation. There's also some great memorabilia to bid on in the silent auctions! But I digress...

Some big news broke out via Twitter while we were waiting for the pre-game show to begin. Blue Jackets defenseman Rostislav Klesla was signed to a four-year contract extension. Klesla was the original draft pick for the Jackets back in 2000, and he is the only remaining player from the first season's roster. Klesla is not the only player to sign an extension recently. Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and Antione Vermette all signed contract extensions this off-season. Oh, and of course, there was the biggest extension of the summer for the Jackets with Rick Nash's eight-year contract extension. The effect of the team captain signing a long-term extension is pretty amazing. With Nash signing a long-tern contract, it sends a message to the rest of the team (and the rest of the league, for that matter) that he believes in the direction that the team is heading. If a player as talented as Rick Nash wants to continue building with this franchise, surely others will want to follow his lead.

The Blue Jackets' Samuel Pahlsson and Minnesota Wild's Mikko Koivu battle for the opening face-off.

As for the game itself, it was, well, slightly boring. Don't get me wrong, hockey never bores me. However, last night's opponent, the Minnesota Wild, is a team that plays the notorious Trap defense. For those of you who don't know, the Trap basically shuts down many offensive scoring chances for the opponent starting in the neutral zone, and typically leads to a low-scoring game.

Of course, low-scoring does not mean no-scoring. R.J.Umberger scored the first goal for the Blue Jackets on a shorthanded breakaway midway through the second period. The goal brought the sellout crowd of 18,159 to their feet. Unfortunately, the Jackets were not so lucky on their next penalty kill. Shortly after Nikita Filatov went to the penalty box for tripping, Wild winger Andrew Brunette scored to knot the game at one goal each with a little over 15 minutes to go in the game. Then it was Klesla who decided to show the Columbus faithful that he is worth every penny of his new contract extension. At the 10:10 mark of the third period, Klesla scored the game-winning goal with a nice slapshot from the top of the face-off circle.

The rest of the game was no cake-walk, though. Remember how I said that the game was slightly boring? The first half of the game certainly was. However, with less than two minutes to go in the game, Blue Jackets defenseman Marc Methot was sent to the penalty box for holding, and soon after, the Wild pulled their goaltender, resulting in a six-on-four power play. Needless to say, the last 90 seconds of the game were incredibly exciting. While the atmosphere was not as intense as the playoffs, it was still up there. The Jackets were able to pull it off though, and had a good win at home to open up the season before they hit the road for a three game trip out west.

Some things to note:

•Nikita Filatov played just two shifts during the third period. Raffi Torres filled in his spot on the second line. Was this head coach Ken Hitchcock's way of punishing Nik for making too many moves and blowing his scoring chances, or was there another reason for cutting down the lines up Hitch's sleeve.

•Rick Nash made a fantasic sliding block during the last 90 seconds of the game during the line of fire. It was nice to see one of the biggest star on the team sacrificing his body to keep the lead.

•Something that has not changed since the last season is the lack of an effective power play. Towards the end of the second period, the Jackets had a four minute power play, and they looked completely lost and were scrambling around! There's almost nothing more infuriating as a fan than when your team looks worse when they are on the man advantage than they are at even strength.

•Despite the home opener happening at the same time as the Ohio State/Indiana football game, Nationwide Arena was still sold out for the hockey game. This would not have happened one or two seasons ago. It was great to see.

•I have never really understood people who leave hockey games early "to beat the traffic" or whatever other lame excuse they give. Especially with the heightened excitement of last night's game. Obviously they aren't real hockey fans.

That's all for now, folks.

Tags: columbus blue jackets, minnesota wild, r.j. umberger, rostislav klesla