After a mandatory three days off for the holiday break, the Columbus Blue Jackets returned to action tonight against the visiting Boston Bruins (who couldn’t fly in until this morning). Former teammates Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo faced off in the opposite nets, and Denton Mateychuk made his second straight appearance in the lineup.
First Period
It was slow and choppy for the first eight minutes or so, until Morgan Geekie took a penalty on Dante Fabbro. The Jackets power play took a while to get into rhythm, but they finally got the puck in around the net and made something good happen in the chaos. Sean Monahan somehow managed to get his stick on the puck and chip it over Korpi’s shoulder.
Despite the Jackets controlling the period, it just took one breakdown for the Bruins to tie it. It was a great pass from behind the net by David Pastrnak, but also woeful defense to leave Pavel Zacha completely uncovered on the back side of the play.
The Jackets really turned the pressure up at the end of the period, but Korpi came through with a big save on countryman Mikael Pyyhtia.
Second Period
The Jackets successfully killed a Kirill Marchenko penalty, then managed to trap the Bruins’ PP unit on the ice at 5v5. They finally get a clear and tried to get a long overdue line change, and the Jackets took advantage with a series of great passes to get behind the defense into the zone. Dmitri Voronkov made a great pass to Adam Fantilli for what we hope is a confidence-boosting play for the youngster.
The fun was just beginning. A minute later, Werenski faked a shot and instead passed across the royal road to a wide open Monahan.
Werenski had another chance on a breakway, but was slashed by Charlie McAvoy. Monahan won the faceoff and the power play kept the puck in the zone for a long time. Eventually Voronkov somehow found himself wide open next to the net, where he was fed the puck and found a way to slam it past Korpi.
Comment of the night from dskribes:
“22 shots to 10 on top of being up 4-1. The Jackets are trying to get Joe Sacco fired,”
With less than two minutes remaining in the period, McAvoy took another penalty and the power play struck again. Marchenko found Voronkov on the doorstep for the Big Russian’s second PPG.
Power play coach Mike Haviland happened to be absent tonight due to illness. We hope he feels better soon, and I’m sure this 3/3 night helps.
Third Period
Hey, why not another insurance goal, huh? Fantilli started this sequence from the defensive zone, springing Jack Johnson loose on a rush. JJ passed to Pyyhtia, who fired a hard shot at Korpi’s pads. The juicy rebound found Marchenko for the goal.
Boston responded quickly with a great effort by Charlie Coyle (and some not great defense from Provorov and Fabbro).
Fortunately the Jackets didn’t turtle, and the Bruins weren’t able to do much to get back into the game after that goal.
The true highlight of the period was when McAvoy tried to lay a big hit on Kent Johnson, but Johnson saw him coming and stepped out of the way at the last minute. The result: KJ kept possession and McAvoy ate glass.
Final Thoughts
Congrats to Monahan, who played his 800th NHL game. It’s neat to see him still playing some of his best hockey.
Quick stick-tap to Elvis. Not much to say about his performance since he didn’t have to make too many high danger saves. Based on Dean Evason’s comments pregame, it sounds like Daniil Tarasov is in line to start tomorrow, but could that change since Elvis played well here and wasn’t worked too hard? Or does it mean that Tarasov starts but could have a shorter leash since Elvis has gas left in the tank to take over in relief?
This is what I like to see from the shot chart:
Once again, the Jackets dressed 11F/7D. Whether this sticks may depend on Kevin Labanc’s availability. Damon Severson had a solid but fairly quiet game in his return from a healthy scratch. Jake Christiansen and Jack Johnson alternated playing on Severson’s left side. Christiansen’s underlying numbers with Severson were better, but Johnson had more standout plays (and also one really bad defensive play). Denton Mateychuk played 16:57 at 5v5, which was slightly more than Werenski. So it seems like he has the trust of the coaches to keep playing.
Up Next
Both teams will fly out tonight for Boston, where they will play again tomorrow at 7 p.m. from the TD Garden. Will the Bruins come out with more energy at home? The Jackets have been bad on the road, but one of their 4 wins away from Nationwide was a 5-1 win in Boston in November.