SvoNotes: Roslovic, Domi, Hofmann push CBJ to win over Buffalo

Gregory Hofmann didn't play in the Blue Jackets' last game, a 3-2 loss at Vegas on Saturday. Max Domi returned to the lineup in that one from Covid protocols, an ordeal that added another stroke of bad luck to what's already been a snake-bitten season.
Jack Roslovic, meanwhile, has been in the lineup all along but was still looking for his first goal of the season, making him the only CBJ forward to skate in more than three games and not tally at the start of the campaign.
Yet put them all together Monday night and they were the best forward line on the ice, combining for three goals in a wild 7-4 victory for Columbus at Buffalo.

Domi was all over the place, posting a goal and two assists to go with a plus-4 rating. Roslovic scored his first two goals of the year and added an assist while finishing plus-3, while Hofmann returned to the lineup to post a pair of assists and his own plus-3 rating.
Head coach Brad Larsen has said he sees offense coming from the Roslovic line no matter who the Columbus native is centering, and it finally exploded in a big way against the Sabres.

"You could tell they were feeling it right away," Larsen said. "They got more ice time. They played really well tonight. It was a good line."
And it was a good time for the trio to have a good night considering what each has been through recently. Domi has had a season's worth of difficulties in the first few weeks of the campaign, battling his way back from offseason shoulder surgery to beat the odds and be on the ice for the opener. He was all over the place in the first two games, then suffered a rib injury that cost him four games. Two games after coming back, he was out again because of the virus protocols.
On the ice, he's been great, totaling a 2-5-7 line in six games and posting a pair of three-point nights. The only hard part has been keeping him there.
"I'll tell you what, Max is a pain in the you know what when he's out because he wants to play so bad -- which I love," Larsen said. "He wants to get back in. He's done it three times now, and I'll say this -- he takes care of himself. He works his tail off. He's always putting in the work, and it shows. I'm really happy for him. To get that production is huge for us, but you can tell, when he has jump like that, you can see it right away in his game."
Added Roslovic: "He's been awesome. He's been really good for us when he has been in, and hopefully he can stay healthy. He was a big reason why we won tonight, so it's good to see."
Domi, for his part, wanted to focus on the success of the line and the team rather than himself. That meant plenty of praise for Roslovic, who entered the game with no goals and four assists, a far cry from last year's breakout campaign when he had a career-high 34 points in 48 games.
The Columbus native admitted it was tough to live through the scoreless opening 15 games -- when asked if he had handled it well, he admitted, "Not really" -- but the good news is other areas of his game hadn't truly suffered too much. While he wasn't scoring, it's not like he had been awful -- his faceoff percentage is up more than 10 points from a season ago, and the team's possession numbers at 5-on-5 were all above 50 percent -- but the score sheet stuff just hadn't come.
"I think of that as my job, and to do that is important," he said of scoring. "You're always trying to get better and help the team win, but I see my game as doing a lot of other things besides that. So it's something I keep working at, as always. If the work ethic is there, it will come."
As it often happens, it took a bit of a lucky goal to get him going. Zach Werenski sprung him in alone on Buffalo goalie Dustin Tokarski, and while the netminder got a piece of Roslovic's close-in shot, the puck popped over him and into the net to tie the game at 1 in the first period.
His second goal, then, was a much more skilled effort less than six minutes later, as Domi nutmegged Buffalo youngster Dylan Cozens then put the puck on a platter for Roslovic to fire past Tokarski and make it 2-1 Jackets.

"That's just part of the game," Domi said when asked about Roslovic's early scoring struggles. "Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not so fun. But that's what makes it fun is the grind to get through those tough times. Rosie is a passionate, hard-working guy. He loves to win. He loves to be a part of it. You saw what he could do last year, and it's great to see him back on track now."
The third goal by the line was also a pretty passing play, making it a 4-2 game just 55 seconds into the second. Roslovic came into the zone with speed along the left boards and stopped, slowing things down before picking out the right pass to the open Hofmann low on the left. From there, the Swiss forward threw the puck to Domi cutting through the slot, and his quick shot not only beat Tokarski but ended the goalie's night.
"Our line tonight as a whole was great," Domi said. "Jack was unbelievable. It's great to see him rewarded like that. He's been playing so hard. To see Hof jump in like that tonight was outstanding.
"We have all four lines going and everyone is pulling their weight. When we do that, we're a tough team to beat."

Another Wild One

This was the Blue Jackets' second win in the last three games when giving up four goals. That's not generally a recipe for success, but one also must acknowledge that the Blue Jackets did bring it defensively when they had to down the stretch.
It wasn't a pretty first 10 minutes to be sure -- the legs looked like they had flown from Las Vegas to Buffalo the day prior -- but Columbus battled back to take leads of 2-1 and then 5-2. But a pair of Buffalo power-play goals kept it close, with the latter making it 5-4 just ahead of the midway point of the game.
That was nine goals on the board in the first 30 minutes of the game, and the way things were going, it felt like it might very well take 10 to win on this night. Instead, Buffalo didn't get on the score sheet again, as the Jackets were able to settle down what had been an unsettled game and put away the win.
"The second (period), we attacked the game," Larsen said. "I think we had the chances 12 or 13 to two, and obviously two of (theirs) went in, but I felt like we were playing. Even in the third, they got some shots, but as far as the chances, I believe we outchanced them in the third even though the shots were lopsided. I thought we kept them to the outside better. We had the puck."
Natural Stat Trick saw it similarly
-- Columbus had a 15-8 edge in scoring chances and a 7-6 edge in high-danger chances over the last 40 minutes at 5-on-5 -- as did Domi.
"Good teams find a way to win no matter what is going on," he said. "Those are tough games to weather the storm, but it takes a good goaltender and good defense. We had both of those tonight. Obviously, it was a weird first period. The first 10 minutes were not so hot, but I thought we basically dominated the second 10 minutes of the first period and the same sort of thing in the second, played a lot of hockey in their zone, which nice. That's what we want to do.
"In the third period, we stuck with it, played sharp D and got pucks in when we had to. Everyone just stuck to the game plan. It's a massive win."
Also of note was a 5-on-3 kill of 32 seconds in the latter half of the third period. Yegor Chinakhov first went off for hooking in the offensive zone at 10:40, then Gus Nyquist was dinged for tripping, but Columbus gave up just one shot on goal over the full 3:28 of the two penalties.
"That was huge," Larsen said. "(Buffalo) had success early. You get a couple calls there and you're down to 5-on-3, it can change real quick there, but the kill was tremendous. Both the 5-on-3 and the 5-on-4, that was the best kill of the night and that was the most important kill."
Or, as Roslovic said. "That 5-on-3 was huge. I hate going against all of our PKers in practice, so I couldn't imagine doing it on the other team."

No Streaking

The Blue Jackets now have lost six times on the season. Five of those losses have been followed by wins, with Columbus having just a single losing streak of two games on the year.
Considering the Jackets entered the season as the youngest team in the NHL, that's impressive, as responding to adversity is already becoming a theme on the season.
"You wan to win again," Larsen said. "You have to get back in the win column. If playoffs is our goal, you can't lose too many in a row. We responded. It was good."
As silly as it might sound, that might be the difference between a good team and a bad team. Duh, right? But streaks are bound to happen in any season, and it's the teams that avoid falling into prolonged holes that usually find themselves in the hunt at the end of the year.
Especially with three-point games and the way momentum can go up and down during a season, a losing streak of five or six games can put a real dent in where a team sits in the standings. So far, through one-fifth of the season, the Blue Jackets haven't had to feel what that's like.
"It's great," Roslovic said. "Good teams never lose three in a row, but they try to keep it to not losing two in a row as much as possible. I think we're doing a good job of that this year. It's a thing that good teams do."

Stats and Facts

• We got this far without mentioning Vladislav Gavrikov, so congrats to the dependable CBJ defenseman for the first multigoal game of his NHL career. He tallied on a deflected shot from the blue line in the second to make give Columbus a 5-2 lead, then added the game-clinching empty-net goal. That's a good present considering his birthday was Sunday.
• How often do you see a game with three multigoal scorers -- in addition to the two each from Roslovic and Gavrikov, Buffalo's Tage Thompson had a pair of tallies.
• Even more wild -- neither Roslovic nor Gavrikov had scored yet this year entering the game. Now, 19 of 24 CBJ skaters to play in a game this season have tallied through 16 games. The only ones that haven't? Forward Kevin Stenlund and defensemen Gabriel Carlsson, Scott Harrington, Gavin Bayreuther and Dean Kukan.
• Roslovic also had never notched a point in five career games vs. Buffalo coming in. On the other hand, it was the fifth multigoal game of his career.
• The goals by Oliver Bjorkstrand and Domi in the first 55 seconds of the second period marked the first time in franchise history that the Blue Jackets tallied twice in the opening minute of any frame.
• Another night to remember for Werenski, who extended his point streak to five games (2-5-7) and finished plus-4. It's the third plus-4 night of his career; the last was March 31, 2019, at Buffalo.
• The Jackets picked up their 10th win in the 16th game of the season, tying for the fewest games to 10 wins in a campaign in franchise history (2010-11 and 2016-17). The team's 20 points are two off the franchise's best mark through 16 games (22 points at 10-4-2 in 2016-17).
• Gavrikov also tied a personal best with a plus-3 rating, marking the sixth such night of his NHL career.
• With Roslovic's line going, the odd trio out was the line of rookies Chinakhov and Cole Sillinger as well as veteran Jakub Voracek. They were the only three forwards to see less than 10 minutes of ice time at even strength.
• Columbus is 9-3-2 in its last 14 games against the Sabres and has scored four or more goals in five of the last seven games of the series.