Columbus has won four of the last five as it returns for tonight's Hockey Halloween game
The Blue Jackets have been a lot of things through nine games. They’ve been resilient. They’ve been hard-working.
But they haven’t been perfect.
Few teams are so early in the season, though, and the Blue Jackets have done enough to be on the right side of the .500 mark going into tonight’s Hockey Halloween game vs. Toronto at Nationwide Arena.
Tuesday night’s 4-3 overtime win at Buffalo was another example of that. The Blue Jackets had dominant stretches – they led 13-1 in shots in the first period – and others where they let the Sabres get back into the game, and they faced deficits of 2-1 and 3-2.
Yet two more points went into the bank account, as Miles Wood’s game-tying goal late in the third and overtime winner capped a third comeback victory on the year for Columbus.
“We did see really good things obviously early,” head coach Dean Evason said. “They pushed and we were able – again, we’ve talked about this, staying in hockey games. Did we play 60 minutes? No, but we hung around. When they pushed, we were able to just hold. We feel good obviously about getting two points, but there’s stuff we can correct, there’s no question about that.”
With the victory, the Blue Jackets have now won four of the last five games to move above the break-even mark for the first time on the campaign. While Wood got much of the plaudits for his two-goal game in his return from injury, Yegor Chinakhov and Zach Werenski also chipped in a goal and an assist, four other Blue Jackets had points, and Jet Greaves posted a .921 save percentage.
“It was a great team win for us,” Wood said. “We played as a team tonight, and it certainly showed.”
That team nature has allowed Columbus to emerge victorious in some tight contests thus far, but the hope going forward might be to find a little more consistency and play a few less nailbiters. Columbus has had stretches of dominant hockey on the good side, but on the other, six times already this year opponents have scored twice within a three-minute stretch.
Sticking to their game for 60 minutes is key going forward, but it’s always better to learn from wins like last night’s than losses.
“Just play the CBJ hockey,” Chinakhov said. “Play our structure. That’s it. That’s what gives us success. Every win is good, so yeah, try to get another one tomorrow.”
Scratches: Zach Aston-Reese, Erik Gudbranson (injury)
Injured reserve/Non-Roster: None
Roster Report: Christiansen went into the lineup Tuesday after Gudbranson felt an injury during warmups, and he’ll stay in the lineup tonight. Wood made his return in place of Aston-Reese after missing five games with an upper-body injury, while Merzlikins will get the net in the second half of the back-to-back.
Oct. 29, 2020: The Blue Jackets sign center Ryan MacInnis to a one-year, two-way contract extension.
Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko each have points in seven of nine games this year and have matching 5-4-9 lines. … Wood’s two-goal game Tuesday was the ninth of his 11-year NHL career, while the OT winner was the first of his career in the regular season. He is the second player in CBJ history to score a game-tying goal in the third period as well as the overtime winner in the same game, joining David Vyborny, who did it twice. … Yegor Chinakhov had a goal and an assist vs. Buffalo for his 15th career multipoint game and first of the year. … The Blue Jackets have outscored opponents 20-14 at 5-on-5 thus far, and they’re tied for second in the NHL in the fewest goals given up at 5-on-5. … Sean Monahan is one point from 600 in his career. He would become the third player from his 2013 draft class to reach the mark following Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov and Elias Lindholm. … Charlie Coyle is one assist shy of 300 in his NHL career.
Head coach: Craig Berube (Second season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 3.50 (T-9th) | Scoring defense: 3.60 (27th) | PP: 14.8 percent (27th) | PK: 88.2 percent (7th)
The narrative: Finally, the “Core Four” run ended a season ago with the Maple Leafs falling to Florida in the second round of the playoffs. Toronto pushed the Panthers to their limit, going seven games with the eventual champs, but the 6-1 loss to Florida in Game 7 marked the end of an era. Longtime standout Mitch Marner left this offseason for Vegas, leading to a bit of a summer retooling and new vibes for a franchise that hasn’t made it to a conference final since 2002.
Scoring leaders: Marner may have left, but there’s still a lot of offensive firepower in the lineup. William Nylander has become a bona fide star with four straight seasons of 80-plus points, and so far this year he’s tied for sixth in the NHL with 15 points and tied for second with 12 assists. John Tavares (5-8-13), Matthew Knies (4-9-13) and Auston Matthews (5-3-8) follow.
In net: With No. 1 goalie Joseph Woll tending to a personal matter to start the season, Anthony Stolarz (3-4-1, 3.27 GAA, .886 save percentage) has carried the mail with eight starts on the year. He played in last night’s win over Calgary, so Cayden Primeau (2-0-0, 3.46, .875) will likely get the start in Columbus.
What’s new: With Marner out of the fold, Toronto tried to bolster its forward group with the additions of Nicolas Roy, Matias Maccelli and Dakota Joshua as well as the promotion of 2023 first-round pick Easton Cowan to the NHL, but those four have combined for five goals and eight assists to this point. They’re also a bit banged up with Scott Laughton and Chris Tanev missing time in addition to Woll, but the Leafs have won two in a row after a three-game losing skid.
Trending: The Blue Jackets won two of three matchups a year ago, including a 5-1 final Jan. 22 in the only matchup of the season at Nationwide Arena. Columbus is 4-2-0 in the series the past two seasons, but all-time, it’s nearly exactly even (CBJ is 21-20-1).
Former CBJ: Now in his third season in Toronto, center Max Domi has three goals in 10 games on the season, including two last night
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