Captain Boone Jenner returned tonight after missing six weeks with a broken jaw, but the Columbus Blue Jackets lost 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils thanks to a disastrous second period and Vitek Vanecek doing his best Dominik Hasek impression.
First Period
The Blue Jackets opened the scoring with one of their best goals of the season. Yegor Chinakhov brought the puck out of the defensive zone and through the neutral zone, drew two defenders as he crossed the blue line, and dished to Johnny Gaudreau. As Chinny got to the corner, Gaudreau sent the puck back, where Chinny tapped it behind him, between the legs of a Devils defender, towards Cole Sillinger waiting in the left circle. He blasted the puck past Vanecek.
Shortly thereafter, Kirill Marchenko drew a penalty, but a chance to add to the lead was cut short when Ivan Provorov was called for interference (it was a soft call, as he was just standing still and a Devils player ran into him). The Jackets got another power play later in the period and again failed to generate a shot on goal. The Devils, meanwhile, outshot the Jackets 3-1 on their two power plays.
Ugly stat: the Jackets won just 11.8% of faceoffs in the opening frame.
Second Period
The Devils wasted no time tying things up. John Marino fired a bomb through traffic in the opening minute.
Jack Roslovic took an offensive zone tripping penalty, which had me worried that the Devils would take the chance to completely retake momentum. Fortunately the Jackets killed it off. After that, they got their only good push of the period thanks to the Alexandre Texier/Sean Kuraly/Justin Danforth line, who put together an extended shift with two long stretches in the offensive zone.
Then things started getting out of hand.
Cal Foote (spawn of Satan) made a beautiful pass through the slot to Alexander Holtz. Somehow neither Yegor Chinakhov nor Damon Severson was able to get a body on him, instead futilely waving their sticks at the pass.
The Blue Jackets got another power play, and again failed to record a shot on goal. Adam Fantilli did have a shot ring off the post, however. Less than a minute after the power play expired, Nico Hischier extended the lead. He was stripped of the puck by Andrew Peeke as he entered the zone, but Peeke immediately coughed it up right back to Hischier.
A little over a minute later, a Jack Roslovic clearing attempt was not taken by either Peeke or Jake Bean. Kevin Bahl intercepted it and then had lots of daylight to skate the puck deep into the zone. He sent it into the crease, where Nathan Bastian was sandwiched by Bean and Roslovic but tipped it in anyway.
Jenner line at 26.67 CF% in 7:28 (team leading)
Third Period
The third period began with Texier taking a high-sticking penalty, but Kuraly and Danforth stepped up with two great scoring chances on the kill.
For the remainder of the period, it was all Columbus. They out-attempted the Devils 28-15 in the third. Vanecek made a lot of great saves, and had help from his teammates positioning well, blocking shots, and forcing others wide of the net.
With 2:19 left, it appeared that Sillinger had his second of the night to cut the lead to two, after deflecting a shot from Provorov. Lindy Ruff immediately challenged for off-sides, and replay showed that Johnny Gaudreau was off-sides by quite a lot, though Provorov was in the way and kept him from seeing the puck or getting back across the line. It’s the right call, though it’s frustrating that the zone entry occurred 26 seconds before the goal was scored.
Final Thoughts
It’s nice to have Boone Jenner back, but he was clearly rusty. His line had just 30% of shot attempts when on the ice at 5v5, and just 18.81% of expected goals. Despite this, they played nearly 2 minutes more than any other line at 5v5. Jenner led all forwards with 19:04 played in all situations. I get wanting to give him a chance to get reps, but maybe a guy who was eating through a straw until yesterday should have been eased into it tonight?
The Johnson/Voronkov/Marchenko line was the least used at 5v5, but still had more expected goals (0.69, nice) than any other line. Are Vincent and Recchi even watching the game, or…
Four goals allowed by Elvis doesn’t look great, though I’m not sure you can blame him for any of these. So many were the result of bad turnovers and defensive breakdowns. While he allowed 1.07 goals above expected, Vanecek allowed 1.65 fewer.
Up Next
The Jackets haven’t played more than two road games in a row all season, but now are off to Edmonton for the first of a five game trip through Western Canada, Seattle, and St. Louis. The action starts at 9:00 PM EST on Tuesday night.