With Sillinger back in the lineup, the Jackets looked to follow up one of their best games of the season with a return home against a familiar metro rival.
First Period
Flyers score first after a nice move off the wall created space for a shot from in close. Elvis made the initial save but knocked it up into the air and Cates was there to tap it home. Shelley illustrated after the next commercial break that Fantilli covered the wrong side of the Philadelphia forward expecting the low D to make a different read.
PHI Goal 0-1: Cates (Foerster, York) 4:37
After some back and forth action a simple Philadelphia zone entry led to an innocuous looking Tippet shot that beat Elvis from above the faceoff circle.
PHI Goal 0-2: Tippet (Drysdale, Frost) 10:56
Sillinger to the box thirteen minutes in for high sticking, but a decent kill. A little life from the Jackets late in the period but it comes to a close with the road team up two. The Flyers lead the league in blocked shots and are tenacious with the stick checks. The Jackets were not prepared to match their energy in the first.
Flyers with a decisive advantage in the first taking 74% of the shot attempts and garnering 0.81 xG to the CBJ’s 0.16
Second Period
Flyers continued to keep the pressure on early in the second. Labanc committed a high sticking infraction near center ice and Konecny converted on the ensuing power play after some overeager PKers got out of position chasing the puck.
PHI Goal 0-3: Konecny PP (Brink, Michkov) 6:11
Back to the penalty kill after Olivier got called for elbowing a few moments later. Initially a major penalty, it was reduced to a minor after a lengthy review. Decent kill on this one to keep the deficit at three.
After some more intense time in the defensive zone, finally the Jackets draw a penalty to go on the man advantage. There was some clear drive from the top unit to score on this one and Werenski got one past Ersson after a reverse check from Marchenko allowed him to feed Z at the top of the zone.
CBJ Goal 1-3: Werenski PP (Marchenko, Monahan) 16:56
A great stretch pass from Farabee a short while later hit a streaking Konecny who craftily beat Elvis five hole on a breakaway for his second of the night. This felt like the dagger after Columbus finally got some life from the PP goal.
PHI Goal 1-4: Konecny (Farabee, Seeler) 19:00
No real improvement at 5v5 in the 2nd period. Flyers with 71% of the shot attempts and 0.76 xG to the Jackets 0.43
Third Period
Any hopes of a valiant come back effort were dashed quickly. Some miserably poor play in the defensive zone led a lone Flyer to beat three Blue Jackets to a rebound that he put in the net.
PHI Goal 1-5: Frost (Michkov) 1:55
Back to the PP three and a half minutes in, Konecny to the box for slashing. Decent movement and zone time, but couldn’t convert.
Finally some life midway through the third. A nice long shift in the offensive zone from the Monahan line ends when KJ drew the defense in before he found an open Fabbro. His shot was tipped by Monahan past the goalie.
CBJ Goal 2-5: Monahan (Fabbro, Johnson) 11:42
With 30 seconds left another good shift from the top line. After some good movement, Severson put one toward the net and KJ redirected it past Ersson for his second point of the night.
CBJ Goal 3-5: Johnson (Severson, JVR) 19:23
Game ends 5-3 for the road team, CBJ won the shot battle in the third at 5v5 but still lost in xG per NaturalStatTrick 0.46 to 1.01.
Final Thoughts
The Good: Werenski got his 9th goal of the campaign, tying him with Makar for most by a defenseman in the league. KJ tallied another two points to keep his hot season going. The team never truly quit, getting 3 goals out of this effort shows some resilience. Olivier out boxed Nick Seeler in their tussle in the 2nd.
The Bad: Everything else. This was a perfect Torts coached game aided by some uninspiring goalie play. The Flyers want to be strong on their sticks, block shots, and convert on rush opportunities. All that happened quickly in the first period and it was all downhill from there. Never felt like the Jackets could win a puck battle or get through the neutral zone cleanly to take advantage of a struggling goalie. Conversely, the Flyers won every puck battle and converted every chance they got. Some good material for Evason from this one, the quest for consistency from a young team continues. Nights like this will happen, let’s see how they rebound from it.
A final note that the Voronkov-Fantilli-Marchenko line was especially bad in the d zone tonight, I would not be surprised if this line is broken up.
Up Next
The Blue Jackets get a day off before hosting the league leading Capitals at 7 PM on Thursday.