Zach Werenski is usually cool as a cucumber.
Not one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, the CBJ defenseman and alternate captain admits he isn’t the most vocal player in the Blue Jackets’ locker room.
Yet his frustration was palpable Wednesday night after the Blue Jackets lost a 4-2 contest at Nationwide Arena to Montreal. Columbus had won three of four going in and took a pair of leads in the second period, only to watch the Canadiens battle back and steal the points thanks to a pair of late goals.
It was a game the Blue Jackets very well could have won but did not, and Werenski wasn’t thrilled.
“We’re in no position to let points like that slip,” Werenski said. “I just think we had a lot more to give in here, and we didn’t give it. It’s frustrating, especially coming off a big win against Boston and a day off yesterday. The mood was good this morning, and I just thought we had good moments in the game but for the most part it wasn’t acceptable to our standards.”
To head coach Pascal Vincent, the story was a little bit different. Coaches are there to have a read on their team, and Vincent’s read was that heavy games Sunday and Monday at Carolina and vs. Boston, respectively, left the team’s energy level flagging. Even as the Blue Jackets and Habs played a fair even game for the first 40 minutes – and Columbus took that pair of leads – Vincent saw a tired team on the ice.
“When I see Boone Jenner making mistakes with the puck or mishandling the puck, I know that the energy level, if you have a battery at a full 100 percent, we were (below that),” Vincent said. “He’s my indicator. I knew it would be a tough night.”
In such cases, then, the head coach said his team has to simplify its game and do whatever it can to leave with points.
“We need to find a way to win games in those moments, or to sustain our style of play somehow,” Vincent said. “We need to learn from this one. I’m certainly not happy with the result, but we have to factor in all the details. But we weren’t connected. There were a lot of mental mistakes that we don’t usually see, or we haven’t seen in the last five, six, seven games.”
In the midst of a 15-day stretch in which the Blue Jackets play nine times, Vincent may see the team in a similar situation again in the coming days. Tonight, though, the hope is Columbus will have the energy levels restocked as they welcome Ottawa to Nationwide Arena. The big addition for Columbus going into the game is the recall of first-round pick Kent Johnson from Cleveland, and he’s expected to play a big role.
Know The Foe: Ottawa Senators
Head coach: D.J. Smith (fifth season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 3.47 (7th) | Scoring defense: 3.41 (5th) | PP: 18.9 percent (20th) | PK: 74.6 percent (25th)
The narrative: The Senators have had a long playoff drought, having not made it to the postseason since the 2016-17 campaign. The team has acquired first round draft picks eight out of the last 10 seasons, acquiring such pieces as young talents Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot, but the earliest pick in the 2023 draft was in the fourth round as the squad is looking to win now.
Team leaders: Stutzle – who led the club in goals, assists, and points with 39-51-90 in 78 games last season – is one of the top young players in the league and leads the team in 2023-24 in assists and points with 5-17-22 in 17 outings. Tkachuk has posted five multi-point games this season and leads the team in goals with 10-5-15 in 17 contests. Claude Giroux adds five goals and 11 points as well.
In net, two former Blue Jackets draft picks have split the duties. Joonas Korpisalo signed a long-term contract this offseason and is 5-5-0 in 12 games with a 3.34 GAA and .902 save percentage, while Anton Forsberg is 3-4-0 with a 3.51 GAA and .850 save percentage.
What's new: The Sens will welcome back Chabot, one of the top offensive defensemen in the NHL, tonight after he has missed more than a month with a hand injury. Ottawa has lost two in a row but hasn’t played since Monday, a 5-0 loss to Florida that featured a combined 177 penalty minutes between the teams. Ottawa also had a busy offseason, trading Alex DeBrincat to Florida and adding Korpisalo (five years) and Vladimir Tarasenko (one year) on free-agent contracts.
Trending: Columbus has gone 17-17-4 in 38 all-time meetings vs. Ottawa, including 10-7-2 at home. Ottawa has won three of the past four contests in the series (CBJ is 1-2-1) after the Blue Jackets went 7-1-1 in nine meetings from March 17, 2018, through Feb. 24, 2020. This is the first of three matchups between these teams this season.
Former CBJ: Korpisalo put up an 87-78-24 record with a .903 save percentage in 210 games played from 2015-23 with Columbus and is the only goalie in team history to play in at least eight seasons. Forsberg had a 1-8-0 record with a .879 save percentage in 10 games played from 2014-17.
Roster Report
Projected Lineup (subject to change)
Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Kent Johnson
Yegor Chinakhov – Dmitri Voronkov – Kirill Marchenko
Patrik Laine – Adam Fantilli – Justin Danforth
Alexandre Texier – Sean Kuraly – Mathieu Olivier
Zach Werenski – Adam Boqvist
Ivan Provorov – David Jiricek
Jake Bean – Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin
Scratches: Eric Robinson, Cole Sillinger (upper body injury, day to day), Andrew Peeke
Injured reserve/Injured Non-Roster: Jack Roslovic (fractured ankle, out four to six weeks as of Nov. 13); Daniil Tarasov (knee, week to week)
Roster Report: The Blue Jackets used these lines at practice Thursday with Sillinger out. Voronkov will get a look at center, with Robinson and Sillinger coming out for Johnson and Olivier.
3 Stats to Know
- Johnny Gaudreau is six points from 700 for his NHL career (234-460-694, 706 GP).
- Kent Johnson is four games from 100 for his NHL career (17-29-46, 96 GP) after just been recalled from Cleveland on Thursday.
- The Blue Jackets rank second in the NHL in penalty kill percentage this season at 89.2 percent (58 of 65) and lead the league in penalty kill percentage since Oct. 20 (92.6 percent), killing off 50 of 54 opponent power-play chances over the last 20 games.
Who’s Hot
Zach Werenski finished with 11 assists in 15 November games, setting a new club record for most assists by a blueliner in a single month. … Yegor Chinakhov has notched goals in two straight games after recording his third of the season on Wednesday. He has totaled 2-2-4 in the last five contests. ... Adam Fantilli ranks sixth among league rookies in goals and eighth in points with 4-6-10 in 24 appearances. ... Boone Jenner has registered points in five of his last seven games (4-3-7) and leads the team in goals and points (tied) with 11-5-16 in 23 outings. ... Kirill Marchenko has recorded goals in three of the past five games (3-1-4). He ranks second on the club in goals (seven) and has totaled 7-3-10 in his past 15 appearances. ... Dmitri Voronkov ranks fifth among NHL rookies in assists and sixth in points (4-7-11). He is and second among league rookies in assists and third in points since Nov. 1 with 3-6-9 in 15 contests.
This Day in CBJ History
Dec. 1, 2010: R.J. Umberger notches a point in his 10th straight game, a franchise record at the time.
Dec. 1, 2011: Rick Nash ties the game with an extra-attacker goal with 58 seconds left and then scores the only goal of the shootout as the Blue Jackets beat Calgary by a 4-3 score in the Saddledome.
Dec. 1, 2022: The Blue Jackets sign draft picks Luca Del Bel Belluz and James Malatesta to three-year, entry level contracts.
\Jeff Svoboda contributed to this story. \