There is a part of me that wanted to just write “Sergei Bobrovsky is very good at hockey right now, and the New Jersey Devils are currently not.”
When you get down to it, though, that’s what this game really was all about.
The Devils were nice enough to have Dalton Prout start the game against his former teammates, and former Devil Kyle Quincey, the other side of that trade equation also got some solid ice time, particularly on the early PK.
Quincey would be forced to take a hooking penalty to keep Kyle Palmieri from scoring, but that was one of a very small handful of real scoring threats for the Devils, who struggled to put together 20 shots through the contest, while the Blue Jackets started smelling blood fairly early after successfully killing both penalties, though they did not find an answer for Corey Schneider.
From the second period on, though, this game was firmly the Blue Jackets’ to win, and they got to work early.
Boone Jenner collected his thirteenth of the season early in the period, and not long after Oliver Bjorkstrand was bumped up to Scott Hartnell’s line in place of the injured Josh Anderson, the Danish dynamo took on the entire group of New Jersey players on the ice, including Corey Schneider, and won, putting his third goal of the season home to extend the lead to 2-0.
Really, the only thing even worth commenting about (aside from Sam Gagner popping his second goal in as many games) from that point on was the truly bizarre “illegal substitution” penalty levied against the Jackets which occurred in the final seconds of the third period when Quincey had a brief brainfart and went for a line change to the New Jersey bench, climbed into the box between the two teams’ benches instead to play a little Pierre McGuire, then tried to make his way back onto the Columbus bench, but was caught for what appeared to be a too many men on the ice call until the ref specifically called illegal substitution, to the complete bewilderment of everyone in the building.
As mentioned, Sam Gagner did put a little extra insurance down after going to the net to sweep the puck into the open net after it slipped away from Schneider, and the Devils never really put any appreciable pressure on. New Jersey had little to play for today, and it shows, while the Jackets attempted to open a little room up on Pittsburgh only to be thwarted by Buffalo’s third period impotence.
Beyond that, it really was a nice Sunday drive out on the turnpike, and a nice recovery from Saturday’s frustrating loss in Ottawa, and there’s nothing wrong with 41 wins and 88 points in 64 games, eh?
The Devils come into Columbus on Tuesday. Can Bob keep his shutout streak going? We’ll see…
My name is Bob
and wen is Game
or if the sticks
are on the ice
and all the shots
are in the crease
i stand up tol
i stop the puk