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Blue Jackets' Kent Johnson is still looking for his first point of the season. Russell LaBounty / Imagn Images
COLUMBUS, Ohio — It was no surprise that the Columbus Blue Jackets spent most of practice Wednesday working on their special teams. But the way coach Dean Evason hit the “scramble” button on his forward lines and special-teams units was worth noting.
He’s not hitting the panic button, Evason said. He’s demanding a higher standard. The Blue Jackets, who have outscored opponents 8-1 at even strength through three games, host the high-powered Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Nationwide Arena.
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“Five-on-five we’ve been good,” Evason said. “It’s more of a situation of trying to get some different looks and some combinations, and maybe get some people going a little bit.
“So, yeah, we debated this a bunch. We’ve had a bunch of different combinations, and hopefully we’ve made the right choices on putting the lines together.”
Kent Johnson, who is still looking for his first point of the season, has been elevated from the third line to the first line, joining center Sean Monahan and right winger Kirill Marchenko. Remarkably, Monahan is also without a point, even though his linemates in the first two games — Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov — have combined for six goals.
Voronkov has settled onto the right side of the second line, with center Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger, which sets up a third line of Charlie Coyle with Boone Jenner and Mathieu Olivier on the flanks.
With forward Miles Wood expected to miss some time following an eye injury in Monday’s loss to New Jersey, Yegor Chinakhov slides into the lineup on the fourth line with center Isac Lundestrom and Zach Aston-Reese. It’ll be Chinakhov’s season debut.
Even though the Blue Jackets’ penalty kill is off to a horrific start statistically, Evason seemed more angered by the power play. The Jackets are 1 for 9 with a man advantage. But it’s the approach that’s bothered him, especially a lackadaisical power play on Monday vs. New Jersey when the game hung in the balance.
The Jackets trailed 2-1 when New Jersey’s Simon Nemec went to the box for hooking. The Blue Jackets created zero scoring chances and had no shots on net. They had only one shot attempt (by Johnson) and it was blocked. Mostly, they struggled to hang on to the puck.
“We didn’t like it at all,” Evason said. “The bottom line is, we didn’t win a lot of puck battles on our power play, right? We had opportunities to fish some pucks out and win some of those puck battles and we didn’t.”
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That’s why the power play units were reshuffled Wednesday, too.
The top unit still has Zach Werenski running the point, with Marchenko to his left on the half-wall. But Coyle has supplanted Monahan from the “bumper” spot between the hashes, moving Monahan to the right side, where Johnson once played. Voronkov has replaced Jenner at the net front.
The second unit still has Ivan Provorov running the point, Damon Severson on the left half-wall, and Fantilli on the bumper. Johnson is on the right side, while Jenner is net-front.
Erik Gudbranson, who suffered an upper-body injury last Saturday vs. Minnesota, is a top penalty killer.
“We’re doing a lot of good things (on the kill), as funny as that sounds with how many goals we have (allowed),” Jenner said. “A couple of bounces and breaks here and there, but structurally we’re OK. It’s a couple of errors, and it’s not the first one but the second one that’s costing us.”
Evason is insistent that the penalty kill not dial back its aggressive stance.
On Monday, the Blue Jackets took off on a rare three-on-one short-handed rush with Johnson carrying the puck and Fantilli and Werenski supporting him to his left. But a three-on-one short-handed rush means the barn door is left wide open behind the play, and sure enough …
The Devils had a two-on-one the other direction and scored, taking a 2-1 lead midway through the second.
“We (coaches) debated, ‘Should they have taken that (three-on-one) opportunity?’” Evason said. “Well, sure they should, right? I mean, if they score, that would have been 2-1 (Blue Jackets) at the time, and maybe it’s a different game. We talk all the time about being aggressive and making aggressive mistakes.
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“(That’s an example) of circumstances we’ve gone over with our penalty kill. It’s situational stuff, not a tactical thing.”
That play, two days later, was on Jenner’s mind, too.
“We have that three-on-one once chance … ” Jenner said. “We’re going to take that. We’re going to play hockey. It doesn’t go (in) and, unfortunately, they get a break the other way. But we’ve got to stay with it.”
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Aaron Portzline is a senior writer for The Athletic NHL based in Columbus, Ohio. He has been a sportswriter for more than 30 years, winning national and state awards as a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch. In addition, Aaron has been a frequent contributor to the NHL Network and The Hockey News, among other outlets. Follow Aaron on Twitter @Aportzline
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