SvoNotes: Blue Jackets battle their way to win over Canucks

There's really no way of knowing when it will happen, but sometimes a team just doesn't have their energy in a given game.
But maybe it makes sense that it comes the day after a holiday that popularized the word tryptophan into the lexicon.
That was the best theory Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen could come up with Friday night after his team's 4-2 victory over Vancouver in Nationwide Arena. While the result was a good one, the Jackets certainly didn't play their best game, chasing the Canucks for the first two periods.

But in the end, a team that has found plenty of ways to win this year overcame the doldrums and found a new path to victory.
"That's turkey, cookies, cake -- I don't know," Larsen said when asked what ailed his team. "I have no idea. If I knew, then we wouldn't be flat. They looked fine this morning to me skating. I don't know. Why do you have these nights? I don't know. I really don't. You could chalk it up to Thanksgiving. There's a lot of factors that you can, but you know what? There's gonna be more of them, I'll promise you that. I don't know when."
Simply put, it might have been one of those days, but the Blue Jackets survived. There were plenty of stats that showed territorial dominance for the Canucks, including a 41-21 edge in shots on goal for the Canucks and a 72-42 advantage for the visitors in shot attempts in all situations.
Perhaps the most eye-popping stat -- through two periods, Columbus had just 16 shot attempts in more than 33 minutes of 5-on-5 play.
"I thought we lost too many battles on the pucks," said forward Gus Nyquist, who scored along with Adam Boqvist, Jack Roslovic and Max Domi. "We have to be way stronger on the puck in one-on-one battles. I think it starts there both in your own end -- that way you get out clean, you win your first battle and then you don't have to spend as much time -- and the same in their end. We got to win some pucks down there to be able to spend some time."
Yet it was a weird game in that the Blue Jackets never trailed for just the fourth time all season. Columbus got on the board first when Nyquist scored shorthanded in the first period, picking off a pass, fighting through Elias Pettersson in a footrace and then roofing a shot over goalie Thatcher Demko.
But Vancouver equalized in the final minute of the first after a CBJ turnover, as Vasily Podkolzin roofed a shot over Elvis Merzlikins from deep on the right. The Canucks pushed for a goal throughout much of the second period, but again Columbus took the lead when Boqvist put a rebound past Demko.
Another late goal got Vancouver back into it again -- this time, former CBJ forward Tyler Motte tipped a shot past Merzlikins -- but Columbus felt like it had more energy in the third and got the winner when Roslovic's shot from the high slot went off Quinn Hughes and past Demko. Domi added a late empty-net goal and that was that.
With Columbus failing to find its game through the first 40 minutes, the Jackets did at least start to generate more possession and shots in the third period.
"I'm not sure if I said anything wise there or anything," Larsen said when asked about his second intermission message. "Some of these nights, you're not even mad. You can tell that they just don't have it, and we're gonna have games like that, but the one thing I said was, 'Let's just try to find a way to win this. Let's try to piece together 20 (minutes) and see what happens.'
"I'm happy to win this way. It's not fun to watch. It's frustrating, but our guys, I'm thrilled they found a way to get through this and get a won at home here, and now we're going on the road again. It's a big win in a lot of ways even as ugly as it was."
With the win, Columbus now has captured five out of six and improved to 12-6-0, marking just the second time in franchise history the Jackets have 12 wins in the first 18 games. The Blue Jackets didn't play anything close to a complete game, but as Larsen said afterward, they aren't all going to be Picassos.
"The third was much better," Larsen said. "It still wasn't perfect by any means, but you scratch and you claw and you found a way to manufacture a goal and get an empty netter. Credit to the guys. Like I said, there was nothing pretty about it. Elvis was solid again in the net for us, he came up huge all game for us, so I am happy to win a game that way. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't perfect, but you're probably going to have to find a way to do it again."

Merzlikins Again Impresses

One game after posting a 36-save shutout, Merzlikins stopped 39 shots in this one, stacking another excellent showing on top of the previous game.
Yet, if we're being honest, probably his most memorable part of the night was his second attempt this season to try to score a goal.
Merzlikins shot a puck just wide of the net for an icing call late in the Jackets' win over Detroit on Nov. 15. That could have been a crucial play considering Columbus had a one-goal lead at that time with the Wings net empty, but with time ticking below 10 seconds in Friday night's game vs. Vancouver, this time Columbus was up two when he went behind his net, collected the puck and fired.
The shot didn't get very far before it was knocked down by a Vancouver player about 40 feet in front of the CBJ net, but Merzlikins swears that had it gone the full 180 feet or so required, it would have been in the net.
"I saw that one was flying in," he said. "That one was going straight, I tell you that. He shouldn't have put that stick up. That one was flying in straight."

The Latvian will have to wait for his first career goal, then -- and we feel like it's coming at some point given his derring-do and his puck-handling skills -- but he was pretty good at his day job on Friday night. He didn't always have to be spectacular, though there were times some big stops were required, particularly on a third-period power play for Vancouver. But for the second straight game, Merzlikins was probably the best CBJ player on the ice and the result was a win.
"Elvis was really good again tonight," Larsen said. "I'll never apologize for great goaltending. In this league, you have to have it. If you don't have it, you have no chance, and he was outstanding."
Added Nyquist: "He was good. Obviously gave us a chance to win. It's no secret we didn't play up to our standard. I felt like we stole this one, to be honest with you. He was good."
Yet when asked after the game if he felt good about his game, Merzlikins proved to be his own hardest critic.
"I don't know if I can too hard on myself, but today's game, yes there was good stuff, there was good things," he said. "But again, there was bad goals. On the first one, that was a really good shot. Second one again was tipped. I understand this is the NHL. There are the best players in the world. There are the best shooters in the world here, but I still want to save that puck. I want to save that thing."

Line Shakeup

Larsen has spoken quite a bit during the season about the importance about keeping lines, defensive pairs and special teams units together to build chemistry.
That approach largely has paid dividends throughout the year, but on this night, the head coach took a sledgehammer to his forward group for one of the few times on the season.
By the third period, the lines read as follows.
Gus Nyquist - Boone Jenner - Max Domi
Yegor Chinakhov - Jack Roslovic - Jakub Voracek
Eric Robinson - Sean Kuraly - Alexandre Texier
Gregory Hofmann - Cole Sillinger - Oliver Bjorkstrand
That meant three of the four forward lines were changed up, and you could say it worked - Roslovic finished a strong shift for that line with the game-winning goal just over six minutes into the third, and Nyquist and Domi combined for a nice hustle play to clinch the game with an empty-net goal.
Time will tell if that means changes are in the offing Saturday night in St. Louis, but it was a worthy throw of the dice on Friday night.
"I changed them halfway through the second and then I changed them again going into the third," Larsen said. "We haven't had to do that much, but tonight was a night there was a lot of guys who were flat. We just didn't have our legs. We were trying anything at that point."

Stats and Facts

• Roslovic and Domi continued to play well, as Roslovic notched his third goal in three games and Domi extended his point streak to three games as well (2-3-5, plus-6).
• Voracek entered the game tied with Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl for the NHL lead with 13 primary assists, then got the first helper on Roslovic's winning goal.
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov collected two assists for his fourth multipoint game of the campaign. He has picked up points in three straight games (2-3-5).
• Sean Kuraly went 15-5 in the faceoff circle.
• The Blue Jackets scored four or more goals for the ninth time in 18 games.
• Werenski's six-game point streak (3-5-8) came to a close one shy of a career high.
• The Blue Jackets improved to 8-1-0 against the Western Conference this year and notched their sixth straight win on Black Friday.
• Columbus blocked 19 shots; Jake Bean led the way with six.