"Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason, 20, yesterday was named NHL Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News. He is the odds-on favorite to win the Calder Trophy, and he will stand with the finalists for the Vezina, when the league has its award show in Las Vegas one month hence.
This is heady stuff for a glory-starved hockey market. How about the Big Kid? Mason put the Jackets on his back and carried them to their first playoff appearance. He was 33-20-7 with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
He was at or near the head of a sterling class of rookies, which included Bobby Ryan, Kris Versteeg, Steven Stamkos, T.J. Oshie, Jake Voracek, Drew Doughty, Luke Shenn, Zach Bogosian and Pekka Rinne, just to name a few.
Mason is one of the rocks upon which the Jackets are being built. But he needs buttressing.
His strength was sapped as the season went along. One wonders what his numbers would have looked like -- and whether the Jackets would have fared better in the first round of the playoffs -- had things broken better for him:
• Goaltending coach Clint Malarchuk took a leave of absence after suffering a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted, on the eve of the regular season. Interim coach Perry Elderbroom did not work out as hoped and was out of the picture by the end of March.
• Wade Dubielewicz, acquired in mid-January to back up Mason, never earned the trust of coach Ken Hitchcock. Dubielewicz started twice and made one relief appearance. Beat writers regularly asked Hitchock how long he would ride Mason and, invariably, Hitchcock would cut off the question with a one-word answer: "Forever."
• Mason started 65 of the last 74 games, counting playoffs. He had arthroscopic knee surgery during training camp, played through a bout of mononucleosis (from early January through mid-February, as best as we can tell) and played a game in late March, against Calgary, under a death threat.
Mason's goals-against average began rising in late January, and it is a testament to his talent and resolve that it never fell out of the top 10.
Over the last 12 games, including playoffs, the Jackets went 2-7-3, won one game in regulation and were outscored 43-24. All of this isn't on Mason, obviously, but he wasn't the same in April as he was in December."
