February is in the books for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The month was mostly dominated by trade rumors and the team possibly moving out Scott Hartnell and Fedor Tyutin. Those never came to fruition. Meanwhile, on the ice, the Jackets managed to go 7-3-3 in the month of February. As Lori Schmidt of 97.1 The Fan pointed out, they had a chance to put together the best February in franchise history.
If #CBJ win tonight vs. the Rangers, it will be their 8th win this month. That would tie the 2010-2011 season as their winningest February.
— Lori Schmidt (@LoriSchmidt) February 29, 2016
The Jackets are 9-3-3 in their last 15 games dating back to the end of January. Joonas Korpisalo has been the starter for 14 of those 15 games. Curtis McElhinney got the call for one game, a 2-1 shootout loss in Detroit. Despite the recent run, the Jackets still only have one three-game winning streak which came all the way back in November. They did manage a six-game point streak after the blowout loss in Edmonton to start the month.
Here is your recap for January, where you can also find links to all the previous months of the season.
BUY
–William Karlsson. Bill’s offensive game has really taken off over the last month. He posted 4-3-7 in February to go along with an absurd +8 rating (which bumped him up to “only” -11 on the season). He only took one minor penalty and his ice time increased to nearly 16 minutes per game.
–Brandon Dubinsky. Dubi spread out his scoring throughout the month and finished with 3-5-8 as well as a +3 rating. His TOI was up over 19 minutes a game and he remains the CBJ’s best faceoff man.
–Seth Jones. The newest Jackets completed his first full month in the union blue sweater. He registered his first goal as a Jacket to go along with five assists for the month. Jones continues to improve as the top defenseman on the team and played over 24 minutes a night in February.
-Joonas Korpisalo. Korpi cooled off from his red-hot January numbers, but still went 7-3-2 for the month (now 9-3-2 in his last 14 appearances). He posted a .922 save percentage and a 2.4 GAA. It looks like the net is his until (if) Sergei Bobrovsky comes back.
SELL
–Gregory Campbell. Soupy has not registered a point since December 4th. He had a -4 rating in February to take him to -11 for the season. He has upped his faceoff win percentage to 46.7%. While not great, it is better than the 42% he was hovering around earlier in the season. Campbell played less than 9 minutes per game in February.
–Kerby Rychel. Have we seen the last of Rychel in Columbus? Some seem to think so with the swirling rumors that he asked for a trade and is now back in Cleveland playing for the AHL Monsters. Rychel has no points since January 23rd and played less than 10 minutes per game this last month.
-The Tank. It’s not happening this year.
RECAP
There were a lot of “ok” months from many players. Boone Jenner and Brandon Saad posted matching 5-0-5 stat lines. Nick Foligno and Scott Hartnell had matching 3-4-7 scoring lines. Cam Atkinson joined the 20-goal club last night, which meant he matched the 3-4-7 for February of Foligno and Hartnell. Brandon Dubinsky needs six more goals to become the fifth Jacket with 20 goals this season. No other player is in double digits for goals this season. While the top performers have been producing pretty well, the team has really missed goals from its bottom six and blue line.
The team is now in the midst of a rare three-day break (what is this, NHL?) and enters a March schedule that features just two sets of back-to-backs. Only 18 more games to the finish line.