The Blue Jackets are starting to do things we haven’t seen in a while.
For example, Columbus occupies a playoff position in January for the first time in years, thanks in part to their first five-game winning streak since Jan. 11-22, 2020.
But perhaps the most encouraging sign has come in the way the Blue Jackets have won the last three games. Columbus has allowed just five goals in that span, marking the first time the Jackets have allowed two or fewer goals in three straight games since March 14-20, 2021.
The latest victory, Tuesday night’s 3-2 shootout triumph over Philadelphia, was a bit of a slog the entire way – a “grinding, in the mud” game, as head coach Dean Evason said – but the Blue Jackets stuck with it and got the two points.
“It’s nice for the guys to get reinforced with having success and being excited about playing different ways,” Evason said. “Whatever way the game dictates, we have some knowledge and some feedback now that we can play like this. If it’s going to be a mucky game like it was last night, well, OK. If it’s going to be a little bit more of a skill game, we can play that, but at the end of the day we have to play how we play in order to have success.”
Another aspect of the win against Philadelphia that stands out is that it took a comeback to do it. The Blue Jackets are used to playing from ahead – they lead the NHL by scoring the first goal 27 times – but on this night, they responded to a 2-1 deficit in the third period by tying the game in the final five minutes.
It was the fourth third-period comeback win of the season for Columbus and the second of the winning streak, and Zach Werenski said the key is the lack of panic on the CBJ bench.
“We just stuck to our game plan,” said Werenski, who scored both goals in regulation. “We obviously know we can score goals in here. We have a lot of skill and guys who can make plays. It’s one of those things where you can’t change your game plan and try to do it yourself. We stuck to the plan and once we got our chance there, we found a way to make it count. I think our group is realizing that we have to stick to our game for 60 minutes and good things are going to happen.”
Columbus will try to extend the winning streak to six tonight against San Jose.
“It’s fun, and I think everybody wants to do that again and again,” Kirill Marchenko said of the streak. “We need to keep going.”
Know The Foe: San Jose Sharks
Head coach: Ryan Warsofsky (First season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 2.61 (28th) | Scoring defense: 3.41 (28th) | PP: 18.5 percent (23rd) | PK: 78.6 percent (18th)
The narrative: San Jose made the playoffs 19 of 21 seasons from 1998-2019, but the rebuild is fully on in Silicon Valley. You could certainly do worse, though, than the team’s top draft picks each of the past two years, as the Sharks took Macklin Celebrini with the No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s draft and talented forward Will Smith at No. 4 in 2023. Fellow attackers William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau were also taken high in recent drafts, and all four are starting to make an impact with the Sharks.
Team leaders: While there’s a bunch of young talent on the roster, a veteran that leads the way in Mikael Granlund, as the Swedish center in his 13th NHL season has 12 goals and 37 points on the season. Now in his second full season, the 22-year-old Eklund is next with a 10-24-34 line, while Celebrini is posting nearly a point per game (13-18-31 in 34 games) in his rookie campaign to be firmly in the Calder Trophy race. Tyler Toffoli has a team-best 16 goals, while Jake Walman leads the defense with 26 points.
In net, Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek have a combined 30 starts, but neither is on the active roster as Blackwood was traded to Colorado and Vanecek is on IR. Acquired from the Avs, Alexandar Georgiev is 2-6-0 with a 3.56 GAA and .887 save percentage, while rookie Yaroslav Askarov was added from Nashville this offseason and is 3-3-2 with a 2.39 GAA and .917 save percentage.
What's new: There have been some brutal stretches for San Jose at times this season, including an 0-7-2 start and a 2-9-2 record in December, but the Sharks can be a tough out with recent wins over Tampa Bay, New Jersey and Detroit. Captain Logan Couture has been out all season, but the Sharks have brought in a cadre of veterans to try to help bring the youngsters along, while first-year coach Warsofsky was promoted from an assistant’s role to lead the charge.
Trending: Columbus had won four games in a row in the series before a 2-1 loss in overtime Nov. 5 in San Jose in which the Blue Jackets put 50 shots on goal.
Former CBJ: Now 30, Alexander Wennberg has landed in the Bay Area and has an 8-13-21 line so far on the campaign including the game-winning goal in the first matchup between the teams.