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PHT’s Three Duds of the Week: Blue Jackets (again!), Hornqvist, Heatley

Scott Arniel

Columbus Blue Jackets coach Scott Arniel, center, addresses his team during the third period of an NHL preseason hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Sept 29, 2011, in Columbus, Ohio. The Blue Jackets won 4-2. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)

AP

Every Monday, we’ll highlight (or, lowlight) three of the NHL’s biggest duds from the past week.

1st Dud: Pick a Jacket, any Jacket. Again.

Key Stats: Columbus didn’t win a game last week, much like the week before.

Making the Blue Jackets our 1st Dud for the second straight week might seem like a cop-out, but how can you justify choosing anyone else? The Jackets remain the NHL’s only winless team and have the league’s worst goal differential. They’re finding new, painful ways to lose hockey games and now face a week where they’ll play Detroit (5-1), Buffalo (5-2) and Chicago (4-1-2). Jeff Carter is out, Radek Martinek is out, Marc Methot is out, both backup goalies are out and their pets’ heads keep falling off. It’s a mess.

Eventually, we’ll spread the wealth around. But for the second consecutive week, Columbus is our No. 1 Dud -- with a bullet.

2nd Dud: Patric Hornqvist, RW, Nashville Predators

Key Stats: 0G-0A-0PTS in three games played. Minus-3 rating.

Remember how Hornqvist finished last season? It’s fine if you forgot as Hornqvist would probably prefer it that way. To refresh: He scored three points in his first four playoff games, then went scoreless over his final eight. That included the second-round series against Vancouver where he played wearing Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility (nerd alert!)

Dating back to last season, Hornqvist’s now gone 14 consecutive games without registering a single point. Nashville just can’t have this. Hornqvist’s scored 51 goals over the last two years, which on a normal team is a pretty healthy total. For the Predators, it’s like half their offense.

3rd Dud: Dany Heatley, RW, Minnesota Wild

Key Stats: Sometimes, poor play can’t be quantified by numbers alone.

On Saturday, Heatley took a criminally dumb slashing penalty in in OT against Vancouver -- ESPN’s Jess Myers called it “a strange swipe” while the Vancouver Sun’s Iain MacIntyre described it as “absurd” -- which led to Sami Salo’s game-winning goal with 21 seconds to play.

The call capped off a rough week for Heatley. While he did manage to muster two points, he’s only recorded one goal in his last seven games -- this despite averaging over 22 minutes a night, more than all but one of his Wild teammates (defenseman Marek Zidlicky).

If you’d like to weigh in with your duds of the week, add ‘em in the comments section below.