What happened: The Blue Jackets fell behind 2-0 in the first period and Sergei Bobrovsky carried them through a scoreless second. Zach Werenski scored his first NHL goal in the third as the Jackets finally found some time and space, but San Jose hung on—as Bob continued to shine—for a 3-2 win.
Bright Spots: Bob kept Columbus in this game (31 saves), no question about it. And Zach Werenski belongs in the NHL. The 19-year-old picked up his first NHL goal on a seeing-eye shot that glanced off a Sharks skate on a power play in the third and looked solid defensively. Josh Anderson cashed in during the final minute after a Sharks empty-netter. Alexander Wennberg and Cam Atkinson picked up points for the second straight game and Seth Jones played 26:27.
Low spots: Mikkael Boedker and Joel Ward scored in a subpar first to put the Jackets in a 2-0 hole. Oliver Bjorkstrand sat for four minutes on a high stick and didn’t crack 10 minutes. Sam Gagner didn’t either and saw himself moved to fourth line duty. San Jose did play for the Cup and boasted the league’s best road record last year, so…it could’ve been worse.
GIFs:
Boedker struck first for San Jose, scooping up a rebound and sneaking it off Bob’s glove. Bob made the first save but there was no one to put pressure on the Shark forward and the netminder was kind of dead to rights.
Bobrovsky made a killer save late in the second, negating an odd-man rush that the Sharks nearly struck gold with. The defense is young and coming along (Seth Jones and Werenski topped the corps in TOI), so Bob’s probably going to have to play like this for awhile if the Jackets want to win some games.
Congratulations, Zach Werenski. That’s a puck he’ll keep forever and deservedly so. Looked for awhile like it would be the only goal of the game until Anderson made it 3-2 in the closing seconds. Take all the point shots you want, kid.
Full recap coming soon.