PREVIEW: Blue Jackets host mascots, Panthers

There were a lot of reasons why Friday night’s game could have gotten away from the Blue Jackets.

Columbus returned home from Thursday’s loss on Long Island well after midnight and had to get right back at it against a rested, experienced Blues team. They did it with eight players out of the lineup, others playing sick, and the adversity mounted when captain Boone Jenner left the game in the second period with an injury.

But the adversity didn’t stop the Jackets, who battled back from a first-period deficit to score four straight goals on the way to a 5-2 win that snapped a three-game losing skid.

“I am really proud for sure,” head coach Pascal Vincent said. “But we’ve done it before. We’ve seen it before. That group is all-in. They want to do it the right way. They work hard. The systems part of it, we’re seeing better and better. The compete level has been good and consistent.”

The Blue Jackets got some bad news Saturday afternoon when they found out Jenner will be out for around six weeks with a fractured jaw suffered when he was hit with a shot Friday, but the good news is the team’s younger players have been stepping up.

The 5-on-5 goals last night came from the young Russian line of Kirill Marchenko (23 years old), Dmitri Voronkov (23) and Yegor Chinakhov (22) as well as the line of Emil Bemstrom (24), Kent Johnson (21) and Adam Fantilli (19). Columbus also got the first career win out of 22-year-old goalie Jet Greaves, a night after the Bemstrom-Fantilli-Johnson line combined for three tallies.

The youthful exuberance has helped the offense, but it also means the Jackets are learning how to win, but Marchenko was happy Columbus took a step forward Friday night as it extended its 2-1 lead to a three-goal victory.

“We lost a lot of games in the third period, and it’s not good for us,” he said. “We try to focus on the third period and just don’t force the game, but try to control the puck and play more in the O-zone. It’s a game played for 60 minutes, and try to go in the O-zone and play in the O-zone. We just need to focus on this component of play in the future, too.”

Vincent has consistently said the Blue Jackets have been close to stringing wins together, but big mistakes rather than consistently bad play have been the difference. Columbus avoided the big mistakes Friday and got the win, and they’ll try to continue building today against the Panthers.

“It was just a few mistakes here and there,” the head coach said. “We talked about it before the game, once we’re going to connect those pieces, we’re going to be a very interesting team to watch. Tonight was a huge commitment, and we talked about confidence in our compete and who we are as a team and our DNA, and that’s what they brought.”

Know The Foe: Florida Panthers

Head coach: Paul Maurice (Second season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.08 (19th) | Scoring defense: 2.54 (4th) | PP: 18.1 percent (22nd) | PK: 80.9 percent (14th)

The narrative: Two years after scoring more than four goals per game on the way to winning the Presidents’ Trophy, these Cats are built defense-first under Maurice, who is the sixth-winningest coach in NHL history. The Panthers snuck into the playoffs last year on the way to making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final and are second in the Atlantic Division this season, so it seems like it’s working.

Team leaders: It might say something about the depth of the Panthers that Matthew Tkachuk sits fifth on the squad in scoring thus far. Sam Reinhart is in the midst of a career year, with his 17 goals and 33 points placing him tied for second and tied for 10th in the league, respectively. Aleksander Barkov has a 9-16-25 line, while Carter Verhaeghe is second on the team with 12 goals among his 22 points. Evan Rodrigues (6-15-21) and Tkachuk (4-15-19) follow.

In net, Sergei Bobrovsky is the No. 1 Panther in net, starting 20 games and going 13-6-1 with a 2.42 GAA and .913 save percentage. He’s third in the NHL in wins. Backup Anthony Stolarz is 3-2-1 with a 2.34 GAA and .917 save percentage.

What's new: Florida got off to an up-and-down 5-4-1 start, but an overtime win over the Blue Jackets on Nov. 6 kicked off what is now an 11-4-1 run, including the current 4-1-1 stretch in which the Panthers have beat Dallas and Pittsburgh heading into this afternoon’s matinee.

Trending: Columbus has struggled in the series, with the OT loss in Florida this year dropping the Blue Jackets to 3-9-3 in the past four seasons.

Former CBJ: Bobrovsky is the winningest goaltender in CBJ history and won two Vezina Trophies with the team from 2013-19, while Kevin Stenlund has six goals and eight points and has played in all 26 games this year.

Roster Report

Projected Lineup (subject to change)

Johnny Gaudreau – Adam Fantilli – Patrik Laine
Yegor Chinakhov – Dmitri Voronkov – Kirill Marchenko
Emil Bemstrom – Cole Sillinger – Kent Johnson
Alexandre Texier – Sean Kuraly – Justin Danforth
Zach Werenski – Nick Blankenburg
Ivan Provorov – David Jiricek
Jake Bean – Erik Gudbranson
Jet Greaves
Spencer Martin

Scratches: Mathieu Olivier, Andrew Peeke

Injured reserve: Boone Jenner (fractured jaw, out six weeks as of Dec. 9); Elvis Merzlikins (illness, out approximately a week as of Dec. 6); Adam Boqvist (shoulder strain, out approximately four weeks as of Dec. 6); Daniil Tarasov (knee, in Cleveland on conditioning assignment); Damon Severson (oblique, out approximately six weeks as of Nov. 19); Jack Roslovic (fractured ankle, out four to six weeks as of Nov. 13)

Roster Report: Jenner goes on injured reserve while Sillinger comes off, while Laine and Gudbranson are able to return after missing three games with illness. They'll go in for Olivier and Peeke, while Greaves gets a second straight start.

3 Stats to Know

• Kirill Marchenko scored his 30th career goal in his 86th career game with the Jackets on Friday, making him the fastest CBJ player to the milestone in team history, passing Rick Nash’s previous mark of 96 contests.
• With three goals and an assist in the last two games, Adam Fantilli is tied second among NHL rookies with eight goals and alone in second with 16 points.
• Milestone watch: Gaudreau is two points from 700 for his NHL career (235-463-698, 711 GP).

Who’s Hot

Greaves' 87 saves in his first two NHL games are a league record, and he earned his first career win Friday night while stopping 41 shots. ... Yegor Chinakhov is coming off his second career two-goal game. … With two assists Friday, Dmitri Voronkov is now tied for fifth among NHL rookies with 14 points. … Fantilli’s linemates Kent Johnson (0-3-3) and Emil Bemstrom (1-2-3) also have points in two straight. … Johnny Gaudreau has eight points in the last 10 games with a 2-6-8 line and has three multipoint games in that span. … With 19 assists, Zach Werenski is sixth among NHL defensemen in helpers. He has 14 assists in the last 16 games and is plus-6 in that span. … The team’s rookie stat line of 14-21-35 is tied for first in the NHL in goals and second in points. … Columbus has allowed power-play goals in just five of the past 22 games, killing off 52 of 58 (89.7 percent) opponent power-play chances since Oct. 28. … Columbus is tied for first in the NHL in even-strength goals with 63. … The Blue Jackets have 64 points from defensemen this season, tied for sixth in the league.

This Day in CBJ History

Dec. 10, 2003: The Blue Jackets sign defenseman Jamie Pushor as a free agent. It starts the middle of his three stints with the team, a CBJ record.