Local boy ZAR drew into the lineup at the expense of Chinakhov following a fourth consecutive win. Could Miles Wood be the key to unlocking the second line in his elevated role?
First Period
Apparently only Elvis got the memo this game started at 5pm. The islanders dominated this entire period registering 17 shots on goal to the Blue Jacket’s 4. Elvis stood tall for nearly all of it, but the youngest player in the NHL did score quickly on the lone Islanders power play opportunity.
NYI PP Goal 0 – 1 Schaefer (Palmieri, Horvat)
Nearly 2 xG at all situations for the Islanders against .34 xG for the Jackets after one. Elvis has continued to draw the short straw on his starts.
Second Period
More of the same to start the second period with the Islanders increasing their shot differential to 23-4 despite a CBJ PP three minutes in. Finally around the halfway point of the period Columbus started to exert some pressure the other way. A good drive to the net earned the CBJ a second power play eleven and a half minutes into the period. They were again unsuccessful on the man advantage but we did see the return of the Fabbro-Werenski pairing following the attempt.
Columbus carried momentum through the second power play and the new second line would even the scoreboard after Jenner hit Fantilli on an entry pass before he took it deep, circled back and threw a quick shot towards the backdoor where it hit Miles Wood’s stick, before hitting the back of the net.
CBJ Goal 1 – 1 Wood (Fantilli, Jenner)
The CBJ would get a third chance on the power play in the middle period but were still unable to score or really generate much threat. The period came to a close tied at 1-1.
Third Period
Slow start to this period before all the things happened. First, 12 minutes in Mateychuk entered the offensive zone before dropping the puck off but skating in deep. While skating back, he went through the crease where a well timed rebound found him alone to give the Jackets the lead.
CBJ Goal 2 – 1 Mateychuk (Marchenko, Monahan)
Still pushing, Miles Wood tried to split the D on a zone entry and drew a minor penalty with less than 5 minutes left. The first power play unit came out but with Severson instead of KJ. Jody was quick to compliment Evason for making the “safe” call up a goal late in a game, but this read like a conservative benching of KJ to me. Not long into the power play Voronkov was called for interference on a zone entry on a rather soft call. (maybe this doesn’t happen if, good noted zone enterer, KJ is on the ice).
Thus the fourth man advantage of the Jackets came to an early end and we had 90 seconds of 4v4 action. Shortly after the start of 4v4 it looked the CBJ had extended their lead when Werenski shot the puck into the net over a flailing Rittich. The call on the ice was no goal as a Coyle charge into the crease was the reason Rittich fell backwards. Upon replay, and even after noting Coyle did take a deep route towards the net, it’s pretty clear that Coyle was shoved into the goalie by the Islanders defenseman. Evason elected not to challenge the play to avoid the risk of taking an additional minor while up a goal late. The 4v4 then came to an end and the Jackets killed off the ensuing abbreviated power play chance for the Isles.
New York pulled the goalie on the next faceoff and with just over a minute left Matthew Schaefer shot the puck towards the net and got a fortunate bounce off of Werenski’s net front stick, off the cross bar, and into the net to tie the game.
NYI Goal 2 – 2 Schaeffer (Unassisted)
Rattled by the goal, the CBJ were on their back-foot and the Islanders took it to them on the next shift. 30 seconds after the tying goal, Severson was knocked down behind the net and he kicked the puck out front as he fell. The islanders recovered and made a quick cross-crease pass to Anders Lee who shot it near side. The puck just got through Elvis and sat on the goal line before Holmstrom won the race and re-took the lead.
NYI Goal 2 – 3 Holmstrom (Lee, Pageau)
Elvis smashed his stick on the crossbar before heading to the bench for the remainder of the game as Evason elected to ice 6 skaters. Alas, no goal for Columbus, and no points on the second night of a back-to-back.
Final Thoughts
A slow start was predictable coming into this contest. A close game the night before, travel after, and then an early puck drop. But that first period was something from the worst of the Larsen/Vincent seasons or the pre-Torts era.
Credit to the team for battling through poor play to put themselves in position they should’ve won from on a night they clearly didn’t have their fast ball. By the middle of the third period it felt like the CBJ had started to assert themselves as the better squad and Miles Wood continued to be effective wherever he was deployed. When healthy, that dude is fun to watch.
Elvis Merzlikins was terrific in this game yet again, and his frustration after the collapse was immense. Aside from breaking his stick during the contest, the post-game show showed him partially undressed sitting on the bench alone trying to collect himself after the game. He deserved better in this one.
And even though they battled to gain a late lead, they didn’t win this game and there were some self-inflicted wounds. I understand that the second line has not produced recently, but the team has won 4 in a row in large part because they could roll 4 lines and one of them would crush their minutes. I’m not sure why the coaching staff felt KJ needed to be knocked down to the 4th line but I’m sure there was no way they wanted KJ and Chinakhov on the 4th line. That’s why ZAR drew in and accumulated the lowest TOI.
Not icing your top power play unit late (despite its own struggles) in favor of a more defensive group, and not challenging that goalie interference play (considering some of the other earlier challenges) reeks of my least favorite coaching tendency and that’s playing not to lose. Evason has generally avoided this trap but the end of this game was disastrous. The team can learn from this, but there is going to be a lot of competition in the Metro division for the playoffs and these points matter.
Final note, the Jackets weren’t the only ones asleep at the start of this game. The Fanduel broadcast didn’t have a fully functioning score-bug all game long and the in-ice audio was noticeably missing for the beginning of the game. They showed the in-arena clock (with comic sans font?) and were unable to use any widgets to display power play time remaining, empty net, etc. Not a great look for a service people pay for.
Up Next
The Western Canadian road trip starts in Calgary on Wednesday night when the puck drops at 9:30 PM EST.