I have good news and bad news. First, the bad: the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t score 6 goals tonight, and they stopped alternating wins and losses. The good news? They won despite scoring just 2, and earned their first back-to-back victories of the season. They did it against the stingy New York Islanders.
It’s weird this was our first divisional opponent and it’s the last game of October, right?
First Period
It was a scoreless first period, but the Jackets controlled possession and had the best looks at goal. One was a breakaway chance by Yegor Chinakhov that was just barely kicked away by Semyon Varlamov. Another came from Kevin Labanc, who managed to stop a breakaway at the offensive blue line, then got his own high danger chance.Great play by KLB to steal the puck at the offensive blue line and create another scoring chance
It looked as though the Jackets got on the scoreboard with a long bomb from Damon Severson, but there was a late call on the ice that waved it off for goaltender interference. JVR made contact with Varlamov while jostling for position behind Noah Dobson.
Second Period
In the early shifts, Zach Werenski and Cole Sillinger got some really prime shots, but Varlamov kept stopping them all. The Islanders, meanwhile, woke up and started pressuring more, and Elvis rose to the occasion.
Later in the period, there was the first and only penalty of the game, against Justin Danforth for interfering with Adam Pelech. The Isles only registered two shot attempts, though it felt like there was more action around the net than that. The best shot attempt of the two minutes came from Mikael Pyyhtia, however, on a breakaway with Sean Monahan. Nice to see Tuna earn the trust of the coaches to play on the penalty kill.
Third Period
Damon Severson finally got the goal he was robbed of in the first period. This time he made a nifty move at the blue line to create some space, and skated the puck deep into the zone. He took a tight angle shot but it went in. That’s a forward-caliber shot. JVR was once again in front of the net, but this time he was outside of the crease and raised his arms to make clear that he wasn’t making illegal contact with any Islander.
Now came an important test: would the Jackets turtle in the face of pressure, or would they continue to play aggressive even with such a narrow lead? Well, the Islanders did win the possession battle in the third but the Jackets continued to counterpunch.
There was one particular sequence that I loved. Steve Mears mentioned during one extended possession by the Islanders that all 5 Jackets had been on the ice for more than a minute. When they finally got control of the puck, Mathieu Olivier made a heads up play and skated the puck down the ice rather than just chipping it out. He also didn’t dump-and-change. He took the puck by himself into the corner of the offensive zone. This gave his linemates a chance to change for fresh legs, and it also meant that the Islanders would have to battle to get the puck back. Why just give them the puck back and let them regroup for an attack?
With just over two and a half minutes left, Patrick Roy finally pulled Varlamov. Not long after, Justin Danforth made a key block in the middle of the zone, and some slick passing from Monahan, Provorov, and Sillinger got the puck back to Danforth on a breakaway, and he got the empty-net goal to ice the victory.
Final Thoughts
I’d argue that Varlamov made more impressive saves tonight, but Elvis is the one that was perfect – and he had to be. It’s so great to see him get the shutout tonight after being so close and losing it on Monday against the Oilers. That makes it 60 saves on 61 shots faced over the two games this week. Also, the 11th shutout of Elvis’s career. It’s great to see the old Elvis again – or is this a new Elvis? He’s playing with calmness and confidence, and he can trust the defense around him in a way he has not been able to since his rookie season.
I couldn’t find enough individual videos on Twitter of Elvis being amazing, so instead watch this recap that has a lot of them, particularly in the final two minutes of the video:
After the first period it wasn’t a banner day for the offense, but it’s important that the players learn how to win games in different ways.
Up Next
The Jackets end the homestand on Friday night against the league-leading Winnipeg Jets at 7 p.m., fresh off a runaway third period in a win in Detroit tonight.