PREVIEW: Holiday hockey! Blue Jackets host Maple Leafs

The Blue Jackets went into the third period of Thursday night’s game down 2-1 to Metropolitan Division rival Washington. Yet facing one of the most veteran teams in the league, one of the youngest squads in the NHL wasn’t going to go quietly.

Columbus had the puck constantly as the final period began and moved it around with confidence, with the squad probing and probing for the tying goal. The Blue Jackets finally got the equalizer with just over seven minutes to play when Yegor Chinakhov scored, enough to earn a point in the 3-2 overtime loss to the Caps.

It wasn’t the full result the Blue Jackets wanted, but it showed the team is making some steps when it comes to believing it can score goals and win hockey games.

“That’s growth, but I sense a confidence,” head coach Pascal Vincent said. “Right now, before the game, we’re second in the league in goals for (at 5-on-5), and I think we’re third when you average it out. So we can create offense. We’re a good offensive team. Part of it is because of how we track. We come back and we kill plays on the way back, and we’re able to re-attack.

“And now they’re starting to feel confident about that part of our game. And once you start doing that, you feel confident in knowing that’s what we do – I do it, my partner does it, we all do it. It’s becoming part of our offense and the confidence is growing and growing, so that’s a real good sign.”

Even finishing with just two goals against the stingy Caps, Columbus has now scored 20 times in the past four games, and as Vincent said, the team’s 78 tallies at 5-on-5 are second in the league behind only Vancouver. The Blue Jackets are starting to build some confidence in their style of play, but the next step will be winning close games with the squad just 3-5-6 in one-goal contests.

The setback against the Caps was another winnable game that got away, but if the Blue Jackets continue playing in a similar fashion – including tonight against Toronto in the last game before the league’s Christmas break – they'll start to win more games.

“I thought we had good energy,” Cole Sillinger said. “That was a game that you could tell that we wanted and we played hard. We had a lot of good looks. Unfortunately it didn’t go in in overtime there and they closed the deal on us.”

Know The Foe: Toronto Maple Leafs

Head coach: Sheldon Keefe (Fifth season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.57 (4th) | Scoring defense: 3.43 (26th) | PP: 25.8 percent (5th) | PK: 78.3 percent (21st)

The narrative: It’s hard not to know where things stand with the Maple Leafs, as one of the biggest stories in hockey every year is the squad’s quest for its first Stanley Cup since 1967. Toronto finally won its first playoff series since 2004 – and first for its current core – last year, and the hope is to make another step this season.

Team leaders: Maybe the least talked about of the Maple Leafs’ stars, William Nylander has broken out the past two seasons, following last year’s 40-goal campaign with a team-best mark of 15-27-42 that ties him for seventh in the league in scoring. Auston Matthews’ 26 goals lead the league, while Mitch Marner adds an 13-21-34 line and John Tavares has nine goals among his 29 points after notching his 1,000th career point last week.

Joseph Woll has risen to the team’s No. 1 goalie spot this year with a 2.80 GAA and .916 save percentage but is out with an ankle sprain. Ilya Samsonov has had a disastrous last three appearances, allowing 15 goals, while Martin Jones has appeared in nine games with a .907 save percentage.

What's new: The Leafs are coming off a 9-3 drubbing suffered Thursday night at the hands of Buffalo, so the team might be smarting heading into Columbus. It’s another example of the Leafs leaking goals defensively, as the squad has allowed 27 tallies in the last six games (average of 4.50 per contest), though that might not be a surprise as Woll joins a large group of defenders (Mark Giordano, John Klingberg and Jake Muzzin) on injured reserve. Up front, Nylander is on a 10-game point streak, while Matthews has 10 tallies in the last six games.

Trending: The Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs have split the last four games, including the Jackets’ 6-5 overtime win in Toronto last Thursday. Interestingly, that was just the sixth overtime game ever in the 37-game series; Columbus has won five and tied the other.

Former CBJ: Max Domi signed with the squad in the offseason and is sixth in points (3-15-18) and first in penalty minutes (50) on the roster.

Roster Report

Projected Lineup (subject to change)

Johnny Gaudreau – Adam Fantilli – Justin Danforth
Yegor Chinakhov – Dmitri Voronkov – Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson – Cole Sillinger – Emil Bemstrom
Brendan Gaunce – Sean Kuraly – Alexandre Texier
Zach Werenski – Erik Gudbranson
Ivan Provorov – Damon Severson
Andrew Peeke – David Jiricek
Daniil Tarasov
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratches: Mathieu Olivier, Jake Bean, Spencer Martin

Injured reserve: Nick Blankenburg (upper body, day to day as of Dec. 23); Patrik Laine (fractured clavicle, out six weeks as of Dec. 15); Boone Jenner (fractured jaw, out six weeks as of Dec. 9); Adam Boqvist (shoulder strain, out approximately four weeks as of Dec. 6); Jack Roslovic (fractured ankle, out four to six weeks as of Nov. 13)

Roster Report: Severson will play his first game since Nov. 19 (oblique), going in for Bean, while Tarasov gets the net again for the third time in four games.

3 Stats to Know

• Kirill Marchenko notched the second natural hat trick of the season for the Blue Jackets on Tuesday in Buffalo, and his second and third goals came 18 seconds apart, a new CBJ record for the fastest two goals by one player. Marchenko now has six goals in the last eight games.
• Yegor Chinakhov notched a goal Thursday to extend his point streak to a career-high six games (6-4-10) and has now collected 8-5-13 in the past 12 outings. Chinakhov has goals in four straight home games (5-1-6).
• Milestone watch: Johnny Gaudreau is five points from 100 for his Blue Jackets career (27-68-95, 114 GP). … Spencer Martin is one game from 50 for his NHL career (16-24-6, 49 GP). … Zach Werenski is 10 assists from 200 for his NHL career (80-190-270, 447 GP).

Who’s Hot

Cole Sillinger has scored in two straight games. … With five goals and four assists in the last 10 games, Adam Fantilli is third among NHL rookies in goals (nine) and points (19). … Dmitri Voronkov also is tied for seventh among NHL rookies in goals (six) and tied for fourth in points (17). … Johnny Gaudreau has a four-game point streak (2-4-6) and a 5-10-15 line in the last 17 games. … Since being placed on a line together, Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinkahov and Voronkov have combined for 13 goals in 10 games. … Kent Johnson has a 3-5-8 line and is plus-4 in the last seven games, while linemate Emil Bemstrom has assists in two straight. … With 24 assists, Zach Werenski is tied for sixth among NHL defensemen in helpers. … The team’s rookie stat line of 16-28-44 is tied for first in the NHL in goals and second in points. … The Blue Jackets have power-play goals in three of the last four games and are 7 for 21 (33.3 percent) in the month of December.

This Day in CBJ History

Dec. 23, 2000: An offensive explosion delights the Nationwide Arena holiday crowd as the Blue Jackets set a then-franchise record for goals in a 7-5 win over the New York Islanders. Espen Knutsen has the first four-point night in franchise history with a goal and three assists, while Geoff Sanderson (2-1-3), Serge Aubin (2-1-3) and Steve Heinze (1-2-3) also have three-point nights.

Dec. 23, 2018: Sergei Bobrovsky stops 39 shots as the Blue Jackets head into the holiday break with a 3-0 victory at New Jersey.