PREVIEW: Blue Jackets finish quick trip in Florida

The Blue Jackets rallied from a 2-1 deficit after two periods of play on Thursday to come back and earn a character-building victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Nationwide Arena.

Columbus found itself in a similar situation after 40 minutes on Saturday night in our nation’s capital, staring a 2-1 hole in the face. Head coach Pascal Vincent has been trying to instill a sense of belief in his team that it can come back from adversity, and he thought the Blue Jackets could post a similar rally against the Capitals.

But despite excellent chances from Kirill Marchenko and Cole Sillinger in the final frame, the Blue Jackets just couldn’t get the tying goal, leaving D.C. with a 2-1 setback.

"Yeah, I really believed it,” Vincent said when asked if he thought the Jackets had a rally in them. “Marchenko back door, Sillinger in the slot. We had good chances. … In the third period there was a push. I thought we were coming back.”

In the end, though, despite 35 shots on goal, the Blue Jackets could only get one goal on the board. They had their chances, dominating the puck in the first period but finding themselves on the wrong end of a 2-0 deficit, then surviving a shaky second period before pushing in the third.

The next step is finding consistency and turning in a full 60 minutes of effort, which the squad hopes to do tonight as it concludes this quick two-game road trip against the Panthers.

“I think we had a ton of chances, definitely should have capitalized on the power play,” defenseman Ivan Provorov said. “And obviously towards the end, the ice got kind of bad, so we end up, we weren't executing as we should have. But at this point, you know, we learn from our mistakes.”

Know The Foe: Florida Panthers

Head coach: Paul Maurice (2nd season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 2.60 (25th) | Scoring defense: 2.80 (8th) | PP: 13.9 percent (25th) | PK: 72.2 percent (26th)

The narrative: The Panthers have built one of the more talented rosters in the NHL under former CBJ assistant GM Bill Zito, but it hasn’t always been easy. The team won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2021-22 with 58 wins but went out in the second round of the playoffs against nemesis Tampa Bay; last year, the Panthers barely made the playoffs as the No. 8 seed, then blitzed their way to the Stanley Cup Final. Getting back there will be tough in the East, but Florida is one of the teams with elite enough skill to do it.

Team leaders: Florida’s offense has yet to truly get firing during a 5-4-1 start, but there is still a lot of talent on the squad. Sam Reinhart’s eight goals are tied for sixth in the NHL, and he leads the squad with 11 points, while Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk have matching 2-7-9 lines. Evan Rodrigues has proven to be a strong pickup with two goals among his eight points, while Carter Verhaeghe and Dmitri Kulikov each have six points.

In net, Sergei Bobrovsky again leads the way, posting a 4-3-1 record to go with a 2.51 GAA and .912 save percentage in his fifth season with the Panthers.

What's new: Florida has had some tough injury luck at the start of the season as stalwart defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour are out of the lineup. The Panthers have added depth to the blue line by adding NHL veterans Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Niko Mikkola as well as Latvian import Uvis Balinskis. The Panthers had a four-game point streak (3-0-1) before falling Saturday night in Chicago.

Trending: Columbus went 20-3-2 against the Panthers from 2008-09 to 2019-20, but the past three years have been a different story. The Blue Jackets are just 3-9-2 against Florida in that span, including a 1-6-0 mark (total score: 33-13) on the border of the Everglades. The Panthers were 2-1-0 last season in the series, shutting out the Blue Jackets in each of the last two contests.

Former CBJ: The CBJ record holder in most goaltending stats, Bobrovsky is now more than halfway through his long-term deal with the Panthers signed in the summer of 2019, while Kevin Stenlund has landed with the Panthers and has two goals this season.

3 Stats to Know

• With his goal Saturday night in Washington, Dmitri Voronkov became just one of three CBJ players to have at least four points in their first five career NHL games. The Russian forward has a 2-2-4 line in his first five games, tying David Vyborny, one behind Zach Werenski for the franchise record.
• With 171 career assists, Werenski is two away from tying Seth Jones for most career assists by a defenseman in franchise history.
• Milestone watch: With 668 games played, Jenner is six games away from tying Nash for the franchise record. … Jack Roslovic is four points from 200 and four games from 400 for his NHL career (73-123-196, 396 GP). … Yegor Chinakhov is seven games from 100 for his NHL career (11-16-27, 93 GP). … Gaudreau is seven games from 700 for his NHL career (232-456-688, 693 GP).

Who’s Hot

Jenner has moved into third all-time in franchise history in goals (175) and points (336) this season and is ninth in the NHL in faceoff win percentage (60.1). … Kirill Marchenko has a goal and an assist in two games since re-entering the lineup Thursday. … Emil Bemstrom has three goals and an assist in the past six games and is tied for seventh in the NHL with three power-play tallies. … Roslovic has six points in the last eight games (2-4-6). … Ivan Provorov has eight assists in the last 10 games. ... The Jackets have killed off all 12 opponent power-play opportunities over the past four contests and lead the NHL in penalty kill percentage since Oct. 20 (92.3 percent).

This Day in CBJ History

Nov. 6, 2007: The Blue Jackets sign Stefan Legien to an entry-level contract.

Nov. 6, 2021: Zach Werenski puts a franchise record-tying 10 shots on goal in a 4-2 victory against Colorado.

Roster Report

Projected Lineup (subject to change)

Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Jack Roslovic
Dmitri Voronkov – Adam Fantilli – Kirill Marchenko
Alexandre Texier – Cole Sillinger – Yegor Chinakhov
Justin Danforth – Sean Kuraly – Mathieu Olivier
Zach Werenski – Damon Severson
Ivan Provorov – Andrew Peeke
Jake Bean – Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin

Scratches: Emil Bemstrom, Adam Boqvist, David Jiricek

Injured reserve/Injured Non-Roster: Patrik Laine (upper body, day to day as of Oct. 20), Daniil Tarasov (knee, week to week)

Roster Report: Columbus makes two changes to the lineup, with Olivier going in for Bemstrom and Peeke getting the chance to go back in for Jiricek.