As the regular season comes to a close there have been a lot of great stories to develop and perhaps more to come as the playoffs approach us. Whether it’s the Bruins’ unexpected rise to prominence, San Jose’s ability to play at a high level from wire-to-wire; or Florida’s fight for a playoff spot and Nashville’s continued push toward the playoffs despite little money and rumors of them leaving Nashville swirling around from time to time. But arguably the best story of the year has been the unbelievable performance of Columbus Blue Jacket netminder Steve Mason who has seemingly come out of nowhere to take the league by storm and has Columbus poised to make their first post-season appearance in the franchise’s brief history. Mason has put up incredible numbers posting a 2.24 GAA, .918 save percentage and a record of 31-18-5. Mason always seems to be solid when he absolutely needs to be and has (get this) TEN shutouts! The next closes to Mason are three goalies tied with seven which is absolutely unreal. If you had asked around in many hockey circles last year and in the early stages of this year many respectable hockey minds couldn’t tell you anything about Steve Mason if they had even heard of him at all. The Blue Jackets’ netminder has been consistent all season and despite all of his success perhaps Mason’s best quality is not his glove, positioning in the net, or any other technical attribute, it is the fact that he is only 20 years old. It is unlikely that Mason will be able to continue this year’s success as the years go by but if there’s one thing we know for sure it’s that he’ll be giving NHL opponents a really hard time for many years to come. With a goalie like Mason and a vast assortment of other young talents assembled in Columbus this is a team that can make noise in the playoffs not only this year but for many years to come… the folks in Columbus have reason to be very excited.

Washington and Boston are two of the best teams in the lead not only in team points but in talent level and that makes all of their match-ups particularly intriguing. Washington made Boston come from behind twice in the game before the game was won 3-2 in overtime by Boston on a blocked pass attempt that by chance went into the net behind Theodore. It was unfortunate because both netminders played an incredible third period making incredible shots to keep their respective teams in the game as the aforementioned talent that these two teams are loaded with. Both Theodore and Thomas showed Tuesday night that despite all that talent it is the goalies who need to be the best player on the ice more often than not if any hockey team wants to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Some other notes worth mentioning before signing off:

Claude Lemieux made his return to Colorado with the San Jose Sharks. The 43 year old signed an AHL deal with San Jose before being called up to play with the NHL club last Tuesday.

The Buffalo Sabres scored 2 goals in the first 1:45 of the first period against Edmonton on route to crushing the Oilers 10-2.

The Detroit Red Wings started the second half of the season with a 3-2 OT loss to Columbus.