The Blue Jackets appeared to be on the way to a fifth loss in a row Thursday night before something changed.
Columbus was down 2-1 through two periods to one of the NHL’s standard bearers, 2020 and ‘21 Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay, and the Lightning had heavily outplayed the Blue Jackets in the middle frame to take the lead.
We all love movies, and in this case, Hollywood would show a head coach delivering an inspirational sermon in the locker room, followed by the team in question coming out in the final period and winning the game.
And in many ways, that’s what happened Thursday, as Columbus got a tying goal from captain Boone Jenner, the winning goal from veteran Erik Gudbranson and an insurance marker from Johnny Gaudreau on the way to a 4-2 win against the Lightning.
It might not have quite been Hollywood, but one player questioned said that while the head coach tried to play it down, Pascal Vincent’s words during the break made a big difference.
“Pazzy came in and what he said hit the nail on the head,” Gudbranson said. “Called it as he saw it, and we did a really good job coming out here and believing in our ability to come win the game. It’s a tough team to take wins from, and we did a lot of good things. From last year to this year, that’s a significant difference, how we handled that deficit going into the third.”
As Gudbranson said, this Blue Jackets team already seems to have built a resiliency as compared to a season ago, but time will tell just how far that will take them. They’ve turned in good minutes in almost every game this season, including against the Lightning, as they got to the hard areas and created chances in the first period and then battled back from the tough second with a winning third.
“We know how we need to play,” Jenner said. “The first period, we liked it. We were on our toes. We were coming, skating, battling, and we got away from it a little bit in the second, so it was up to us to obviously respond in the third. I liked our response. We came out there, knew exactly what we had to do, and it was more an example of us buying in and going and getting it. It’s definitely a good win for us right now.”
The Blue Jackets are right back at it tonight in Washington. Facing another team that has a Stanley Cup ring in recent years, Columbus will have to stack one good effort on top of another, but Vincent hopes the end of the Tampa win can be a sign of good things to come.
“To come back the way we did in the third, that response, facing the adversity and how we dealt with it — that’s what we’re looking for,” he said. “That’s the type of win that builds character and builds confidence.”
Know The Foe: Washington Capitals
Head coach: Spencer Carbery (12th season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 1.89 (30th) | Scoring defense: 3.22 (21st) | PP: 10.7 percent (29th) | PK: 76.7 percent (18th)
The narrative: Washington’s eight-year playoff streak highlighted by the 2018 Stanley Cup championship came to a close last year, as an injury-plagued team slumped down the stretch and fell short of the postseason. The Caps are still one of the older teams in the NHL and are trying to squeeze what they can out of the Alexander Ovechkin era, and after a 1-3-1 start marked by just seven goals in that span, Washington has found its game a bit by capturing three of the last four.
Team leaders: Ovechkin, now just 70 goals shy of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL record, has a team-best eight points but just two tallies thus far, while Dylan Strome leads the way with six goals. John Carlson has a 1-6-7 line from the blue line, while Tom Wilson (2-3-5) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (1-4-5) are next on the scoring chart.
In net, Darcy Kuemper has started seven of the team’s nine games and is 3-3-1 with a 2.94 GAA and .899 save percentage. Hunter Shepard and Charlie Lindgren each have one start apiece, and each gave up four goals in said game.
What's new: There was big news for the Caps this week as longtime standout forward Nicklas Backstrom announced he would be stepping away from the team after two injury-plagued seasons. That leaves Ovechkin without his longstanding running mate, and finding an internal replacement has been difficult. There are some young faces up front, including first-round picks Connor McMichael (2019) and Hendrix Lapierre (2020), but it remains one of the older rosters in the NHL.
Trending: The Blue Jackets have generally held in there well against the Caps in the Ovechkin years, but it’s been a struggle of late, with Washington winning six of eight over the past two campaigns. Columbus was 1-2-1 in the series a season ago but did capture the last game of the season series, a 7-6 overtime win in DC on March 21 in which Vincent subbed in as head coach with Brad Larsen away from the team.
Former CBJ: Winger Sonny Milano signed an extension to stay in Washington last season, and the 2014 first-round pick of the Blue Jackets has a goal and an assist in two games.
3 Stats to Know
- Jenner moved into third place all-time in the Blue Jackets career record books with 336 points thanks to his two-point night Thursday, breaking a tie with Nick Foligno and trailing only Cam Atkinson and Rick Nash. Jenner also now has 175 goals in team history, passing Foligno (172) for third earlier this season.
- With 171 career assists, Zach Werenski is two away from tying Seth Jones for most career assists by a defenseman in franchise history.
- Milestone watch: With 667 games played, Jenner is seven games away from tying Nash for the franchise record. … Jack Roslovic is four points from 200 and five games from 400 for his NHL career (73-123-196, 395 GP). … Yegor Chinakhov is eight games from 100 for his NHL career (11-16-27, 92 GP). … Gaudreau is eight games from 700 for his NHL career (232-456-688, 692 GP).
Who’s Hot
Rookie forward Dmitri Voronkov notched his first career goal Monday in Dallas and has a 1-2-3 line in his first four games. … Gaudreau, Kirill Marchenko and Damon Severson have each scored their first goals of the season in the past two games. … Emil Bemstrom has three goals and an assist in the past five games and is tied for fifth in the NHL with three power-play tallies. … Roslovic has six points in the last seven games (2-4-6). … Ivan Provorov has eight assists in the last nine games. … Jenner’s faceoff winning percentage of 59.1 is 13th in the NHL.
This Day in CBJ History
Nov. 4, 2007: Pascal Leclaire stays red hot, as the Blue Jackets goalie earns his fifth shutout of the young season. Leclaire makes 21 saves in a 3-0 win over St. Louis, giving him the five shutouts in a 13-game span as Columbus gets off to an 8-3-2 start.
Nov. 4, 2010: Goalie Mathieu Garon notches his second shutout in three days, stopping 25 shots in a 3-0 victory at Atlanta.
Nov. 4, 2016: Columbus sets a franchise record for largest margin of victory and most goals in a game in a 10-0 drubbing of Montreal in Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets score three times in the first, five more in the second and twice in the third. Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno and Scott Hartnell each score two goals; Seth Jones and David Savard add individual tallies; and Alexander Wennberg has a team-high four points, all assists.
Nov. 4, 2022: The Blue Jackets play the third overseas game in franchise history, rallying from an early deficit to tie the score in the third before dropping a 6-3 final to defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado in Tampere, Finland. Blue Jackets captain Jenner plays in his 600th game in the contest, which is part of the NHL Global Series.
Roster Report
Projected Lineup (subject to change)
Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Jack Roslovic
Dmitri Voronkov – Adam Fantilli – Kirill Marchenko
Yegor Chinakhov – Cole Sillinger – Emil Bemstrom
Alexandre Texier – Sean Kuraly – Justin Danforth
Zach Werenski – Damon Severson
Ivan Provorov – David Jiricek
Jake Bean – Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin
Scratches: Mathieu Olivier, Adam Boqvist, Andrew Peeke
Injured reserve/Injured Non-Roster: Patrik Laine (upper body, day to day as of Oct. 20), Daniil Tarasov (knee, week to week)
Roster Report: The Blue Jackets recalled Chinakhov on Friday after three goals in three games with Cleveland, and he will enter the lineup tonight in place of Kent Johnson, who was assigned to the Monsters.
