Tonight’s game was highly anticipated for a handful of reasons – most notably, Jakub Voracek hit the huge milestone of 1,000 NHL games; his first and 1,000th played with the NHL. I love having him here! Also, the Boqvist brothers played each other – Adam’s older brother Jesper is a Devil, and the last time they faced each other they were both injured in the first period so it wasn’t much of a matchup. Jake Christiansen also made his NHL debut tonight.
Besides those fun little storylines, the game was fairly bland otherwise. And thank God, because I couldn’t have handled a third high-scoring wallop in a row.
The first moments of the game started out in typical Blue Jackets fashion — they immediately gave up a goal, scored by Tomas Tatar. Fortunately, within a few more minutes, Max Domi was able to bury a rebound off a Vladislav Gavrikov shot. Gavy’s notched a notable 14 assists so far this season, a career high for him and tied with defenseman Zach Werenski.
And that’s about the end of any good stuff to come out of the game. The second period passed without incident, ending 1-1 despite a few solid opportunities on both sides. The Devils were certainly the ones controlling the puck, while the Jackets were scrambling to keep up.
Jesper Bratt, because there are apparently two men named Jesper on this team — news to me — scored the second goal and final nail in the CBJ coffin at the top of the third period. He was assisted by Jack Hughes, who’s been on fire with 13 points in the last 5 games, including his empty netter he was able to sneak in after Korpisalo was yanked with 1:44 in the game.
The Jackets had plenty of opportunities to catch back up, including two power plays in the remaining 10 minutes, but were unable to convert.
Well, we have another chance to beat the Devils this weekend, when they play at Nationwide Arena. Here’s hoping the guys took notes tonight, study them in the next 48 hours, and come back with a better game plan on Saturday night.