We had pretty close to a full Columbus Blue Jackets roster, at home against a Pittsburgh Penguins roster mostly missing its stars…and we got a 3-1 snoozefest that the the Jackets lost. Woops!
Highlights
The one good thing came midway through the first period, when Cole Sillinger was able to join the rush after coming out of the penalty box. He passed back to Kent Johnson, who had a shot but passed back through traffic to Sillinger. Not many players can make that sort of pass. Adam Fantilli was also at the corner of the net, taking some attention from the defense and the goalie, Tristan Jarry. Sillinger made the most of his chance.
Side note: I’m glad that Fantilli/Johnson were part of a unit at the end of a penalty kill. More of that, please. This is a great example of the chances they can create going the other way.
In a second period that the Jackets largely dominated (11-2 shots on goal), the Penguins managed to tie it up on a goal where, unfortunately, both defenders (Jack Johnson and David Jiricek) were below the goal line.
In the third period, the Penguins took the lead on a deflection goal from Jonathan Gruden (not the football coach) then they sealed the win with an empty net goal from Kevin Hayes.
Cheers
Cole Sillinger led all CBJ skaters in 5v5 CF% with 76.92 (20 shot attempts for, 6 against)
Ivan Provorov got to play on his off-hand tonight, on the right side of Zach Werenski. He was second among CBJ skaters with a 72.00 CF%.
Mikael Pyyhtia has appeared in 6 of the 7 preseason games so far. He got more shifts tonight as a result of the first period injury to Dmitri Voronkov. He had a 67.86% CF%. He doesn’t stand out from a skill perspective, but he looks comfortable in a bottom 6 role in an NHL lineup. That he’s gotten so many chances in preseason suggests he’s gotten the attention of the coaching staff. He has a very good chance of making the 23-man roster on Monday.
Damon Severson has had a poor preseason, but rebounded with a 60.71 CF% tonight…but he also played the fewest 5v5 minutes of the 6 CBJ defensemen.
Why did Severson improve? Well, it may have been because of Jake Christiansen, who has played well this fall and is making a strong case to make the opening night roster. He has a 55.52 5v5 xGF% in 5 games this preseason.
Jeers
Jack Johnson had the worst 5v5 CF% of the defensemen: 44.12. Jiricek matched him. This was not the game that Jiricek needed to impress, and it highlights the question I raised in the preview: has Johnson earned a spot on the roster? Since he was signed as a cheap insurance policy in July, the Jackets added Jordan Harris (who has been pretty invisible in his preseason games) and have seen Christiansen and Mateychuk make an impression.
The Blue Jackets controlled possession for most of the game, but failed to turn that into goals. Is this a “jeers” for the Jackets offense or a “cheers” for the goaltending of Tristan Jarry?
An injury in the first shift is not what we want to see for Dmitri Voronkov. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious and he can return soon.
Head coach Dean Evason felt that the amount of preseason games in a short amount of times affected the players’ legs in this game:
Up Next
On Friday night, the preseason concludes with a trip to Pittsburgh. Evason’s comments about 8 NHLers in the lineup confirms we’ll see mostly Monsters call-cups in that game. Action starts at 7 PM EDT.