PREVIEW: No rest for the Jackets as they take on Vegas

It’s a little bit like a chicken or the egg scenario.

Did a Blue Jackets team without a number of regular players struggle to create much Friday night in a 6-1 loss at Colorado because the team is shorthanded, or did a Stanley Cup-contending Colorado team simply overwhelm the Blue Jackets with their speed and skill?

No matter how you slice it, it wasn’t a fun night for Columbus, which was outshot 51-24 and gave up the last six goals to the Avs. Logically, it made some sense, as the Avs are fine-tuning their game for what they hope is a deep playoff run while the banged-up Jackets are headed to another season without postseason hockey.

Defenseman Damon Severson was among those who tipped his hat to the Avs, who never seemed to let the Blue Jackets come up for air for much of the night.

“They just have such a good mix of players from the goaltender right to the first line, fourth line, the defense,” Severson said. “They get how to play. They know how to play the right way and they just know what it takes to win and they've been there before. (Their) speed was a killer for sure, but just their all-around game, they were buzzing.”

On the other side of the coin was fellow blueliner Zach Werenski, who wasn’t satisfied with what the Blue Jackets did to try to get the Avs off their game in what was a sixth loss in seven games for the Jackets.

“I think you can slow them down by putting pucks behind them and making them come a full 200 feet,” Werenski said. “When you don't do that, it's plays right into the game they want to play. And I think for the most part we kind of did that.

“It’s a good hockey team. They make it hard on you, but I don't think we did ourselves any favors tonight.”

Things don’t get much easier tonight, though, as the Blue Jackets face another team battling for playoff positioning in Vegas. Put another way, Columbus goes from taking on the 2022 Stanley Cup champion to battling the 2023 winner about 24 hours later, but Werenski said the Jackets are ready for the challenge.

“It’s great for us,” Werenski said. “This time of year, obviously teams are fighting for points, and pretty much every time we play is a playoff team from here on out, so they’re fighting for home ice, all that stuff. So I think it's great for our group. Back-to-back two tough teams, two tough buildings. We have to bounce back tomorrow, so we'll see how we handle it and respond.”

Know The Foe: Vegas Golden Knights

Head coach: Bruce Cassidy (Second season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.16 (14th) | Scoring defense: 2.96 (11th) | PP: 18.7 percent (22nd) | PK: 80.4 percent (13th)

The narrative: The 2023 Stanley Cup champs are holding on to the last wild card spot and are battling to solidify yet another postseason appearance – their sixth in seven NHL seasons – down the stretch. The Pacific Division has proved to be a tough one, with the Golden Knights below Vancouver, Edmonton and Los Angeles in the standings, but this is still a battle-tested squad that used its size and transition skills to beat all comers a season ago. Many of the same names are back, too, as only Reilly Smith and Phil Kessel are no longer on the squad from the top 10 scorers a season ago.

Team leaders: Jonathan Marchessault has continued to be one of the most effective forwards in the league, just as he has been since the franchise’s inception, as his 38 goals among 60 points are tied for ninth in the NHL. Jack Eichel (22-31-53) and Mark Stone (16-37-53) follow with matching point totals, but the latter currently on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. William Karlsson has 24 goals and 22 helpers to place fourth on the squad, while Chandler Stephenson checks in with a 15-27-42 line.

Goalie injuries last year led to Adin Hill’s postseason star turn, and he currently has a 17-10-2 record with a 2.65 GAA and .914 save percentage. Logan Thompson has started a team-best 34 games and is 19-12-5 with a 2.77 GAA and .905 save percentage.

What's new: Vegas as usual made a big move at the trade deadline, adding injured Sharks star Tomas Hertl for the roster along with defenseman Noah Hanifin from Calgary and Anthony Mantha from Washington. Hertl and Stone remain out, though, and the Golden Knights are still trying to find their stride down the stretch, going just 6-10-1 in their last 17 games dating back to mid-February. The Golden Knights have allowed 3.76 goals per game in that span, and Hill has struggled with a .879 save percentage in his last 12 appearances.

Trending: Columbus used Alex Nylander’s hat trick to pull away to a 6-3 win in Nationwide Arena on March 4, ending a two-game losing streak for the Jackets in the series and making them 6-4-1 all-time vs. Vegas. Columbus is 2-3-0 in its five visits to T-Mobile Arena.

Former CBJ: Marchessault and Karlsson are the only two Golden Knights on the roster to play in an NHL game for the Union Blue, though checking line forward Keegan Kolesar was a CBJ draft pick and has 6-8-14 in 66 games.

Roster Report

Projected Lineup (subject to change)

Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Alex Nylander
Alexandre Texier – Cole Sillinger – Kirill Marchenko
Trey Fix-Wolansky – Dmitri Voronkov – Mikael Pyyhtia
Mathieu Olivier – Brendan Gaunce – Carson Meyer
Zach Werenski – Damon Severson
Jake Bean – Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen – Erik Gudbranson
Daniil Tarasov
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratches: Adam Fantilli (calf laceration, out eight weeks as of Jan. 31), Justin Danforth (concussion, out indefinitely), Sean Kuraly (lower-body injury, week to week), Yegor Chinakhov (upper-body injury, day to day), Adam Boqvist (upper body), James Malatesta

Injured reserve: Kent Johnson (torn labrum in left shoulder, out for season)

Roster Report: The Blue Jackets will likely turn to Tarasov in net, while Malatesta was recalled in case Nylander (illness) can't go.

3 Stats to Know

• Johnny Gaudreau reached the 40-assist plateau for the second straight season on Tuesday in Detroit and added another last night in Colorado. He has posted two 40-assist seasons in his two campaigns in Columbus, joining Ray Whitney, David Vyborny and Artemi Panarin as the only players with multiple such seasons with the Jackets.
• Zach Werenski has set a new career high with 38 assists, and Werenski ranks 11th among NHL blueliners in assists per game (.66) on the season. He is one of 24 active defensemen with at least five-plus 40-point campaigns.
• Milestone watch: With 204 career assists, Werenski is the CBJ record holder among defenseman and tied with David Vyborny for second in team history.

Who’s Hot

Daniil Tarasov has posted a .934 save percentage in his last nine appearances, stopping 283 of 303 shots against and allowing just 20 goals. ... Alex Nylander’s eight goals since making his Blue Jackets debut Feb. 23 are a franchise record for a player in his first 14 games with the team. ... Boone Jenner has notched his fourth career 20-goal season, making him just the fourth CBJ player to have four such campaigns in team history. He joins Rick Nash (eight), Cam Atkinson (six) and R.J. Umberger (four). ... Dmitri Voronkov has 17 goals on the year, tied for third among NHL rookies. His 31 points are also seventh among NHL rookies. ... Johnny Gaudreau has 23 points (4-19-23) in the last 23 games. ... The team’s rookie stat line of 30-37-67 is tied for first in the NHL in goals and fourth in points.

This Day in CBJ History

March 23, 2012: R.J. Umberger notches his second hat trick as a Blue Jacket, scoring three times against Carolina’s Cam Ward in a 5-1 win over the Hurricanes in Nationwide Arena.