The Blue Jackets’ earnest pursuit of the Metro 3 spot started tonight in the first of two matchups against the Devils this week.
First Period
Apparently New Jersey has been known for hot starts at home this season and they certainly brought it in this one. Constant pressure early frustrated the Jackets and the Devils won all the puck races. A fairly soft tripping call against Fabbro 4 minutes in gave the home squad the first special teams chance of the night. Even without Jack Hughes, the Devils created confusion on the PK before Hischier tipped one behind Elvis.
NJD PP Goal 0-1 Hischier (Bratt, Hughes ) 06:37
Columbus got their own chance to even the score on the man advantage shortly after but failed to get anything established on the PP until the end. A late Provorov shot was easily blockered out high where Cotter, fresh from the box, retrieved it. He made a nice fake before sliding the puck between Merlizkins’ pads to extend their lead.
NJD Goal 0-2 Cotter (Unassisted) 10:49
Columbus finally started to get some zone time after this, noting a nice shift from Kuraly and the Jenner lines. I’m not sure if the ice quality was poor or if it was just the Devils speed, but the Jackets were on the wrong end of several weird bounces and missed on a lot of routine passes. One of these bounces on an attempted dump in sprang the Devils on a rush chance that Bratt knocked into the net near the close of the period.
NJD Goal 0-3 Bratt (Glass) 18:51
Second Period
Completely different feel to this one in the second from Columbus. A good shift early from the new 2nd line got one back for Columbus when Olivier tipped a Mateychuk point shot.
CBJ Goal 1-3 Olivier (Mateychuk, Johnson) 03:30
More strong play from Columbus led to this simply wonderful area pass from Fantilli to get Marchenko in alone on Markstrom to close the gap to one.
CBJ Goal 2-3 Marchenko (Fantilli, Werenski)
The Jackets got another power play with eight and a half minutes left in the second on a similar infraction to the Fabbro trip in the first. The first unit finally won an opening draw and spent the first minute in the zone. The puck movement was not terribly inspiring but they did generate a few decent looks. The 2nd unit came on halfway through, lost the faceoff, Chinakhov lost the puck battle, and then hooked a Devil to end the man advantage. The 45 seconds of 4v4 was uneventful and was followed by a scary looking NJ power play chance. Elvis stood tall and the Jackets earned the kill.
After some extended time on special teams, the Jackets got back to work on a long shift in the Devils o zone. Unfortunately, a cross-zone pass got tipped and New Jersey was off on another odd man rush. Timo Meier opted to shoot and rang a nasty shot off the post and in.
NJD Goal 2-4 Meier (Noesen, Dumoulin) 16:49
Third Period
Wasting no time after puck drop, the Devils carried the puck in and used some nice in-zone movement to confuse the Jackets defensive coverage. Luke Hughes freed himself at the point and sent a nice shot into the back of the net to restore the 3 goal lead.
NJD Goal 2-5 Hughes (Glass, Bratt) 00:26
Chinakhov drew a penalty 6 minutes in for the Jackets 3rd PP chance. Still not much going on for the first unit, but Chinkahov and Jenner sparked some nice movement on the 2nd unit despite no goal.
A great individual effort halfway through the period brought this game back within reach. Olivier got behind the net on the forecheck and carried the puck, and the defender, to the net front before forcing a shot towards the goal. His effort earned a fortuitous bounce for his second of the night.
CBJ Goal 3-5 Olivier (Jenner) 10:29
Sadly, Marchenko missed Pesce’s stick on an attempted stick lift and hit him in the face with a high stick to kill the momentum and give NJ another power play with eight minutes to go. This was a good looking kill featuring a decent shorty chance from Olivier after a nice read from Mateychuk.
Following the PK the Jackets again started to apply pressure leading to a Jenner slot chance he rang off the crossbar and out of play. Some latent tension boiled over after the whistle and Olivier dropped his gloves during the ensuing scrum despite no challenger coming forth to meet him. He was assigned a minor penalty with just over 3 minutes to play. This essentially killed any chance of a come back, though Columbus earned an offensive zone draw in the final minute. Jenner lost the faceoff and KJ also missed on an attempted stick lift and was assessed a high sticking minor to close out the game.
Final Thoughts
This was an important game in the standings, but only one team showed up at the start. New Jersey jumped all over a tentative Jackets team and built an early lead that ultimately proved too much to overcome.
There is sharp divide in offensive effectiveness between the top 6 and bottom 6 at the moment. Olivier continued to succeed on the new look 2nd with two more scores tonight (15 on the year!) and Fantilli continued to display elite puck skills. The top line was not dominant tonight, but they were able to contribute and weren’t a negative on the back end. Chinakhov still needs some time to get back into game shape but I thought I started to see some signs of life after the power play late in the 3rd period.
This may have been Werenski and Fabbro’s worst game of the season, which was almost balanced against a really nice effort from Mateychuk. Yet another night where Christiansen’s TOI was very limited, I’m wondering if he will have much of a role when Gudbranson returns.
Credit to New Jersey for jumping on their biggest chance to hold their position in the standings. The Jackets still have an advantage in games in hand and can set things on the right path back at Nationwide soon. Evason and his crew will need to put some work in on special teams as this season comes to an end.
Per NST the Jackets narrowly won the xG battle 1.27-1.26, but lost in all situations 2.41-1.76.
Up Next
The Blue Jackets return home to face the Vegas Golden Knights at 7 PM EST.