In a game that had a little bit of everything, Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason was proud of just about everything his team did Friday.
Not only did Columbus beat Calgary by a 5-2 score in Nationwide Arena, but the Blue Jackets were also good in a lot of areas. They got scoring from their top offensive players, they didn’t allow a ton of chances, and when they did, goalie Elvis Merzlikins was there to make the stops.
And in a chippy game that thoroughly entertained a large holiday crowd in Nationwide Arena, Columbus stood up for itself in the physicality department. Add it all up and Evason was happy with how the team played, especially when compared to Wednesday’s overtime loss to Montreal.
“We just liked how we started,” Evason said. “We talked about it. We talked about us playing faster than we did the other night, and we did that. It’s not necessarily the start. It was our whole thought process was to play fast. Sure, there’s some physicality in the game and we held our own, stuck up for each other, and that’s the right thing to do. I think – I know our team will do that all the time. That’s the standard. But we really liked how quickly we played in all three zones from start to finish.”
The result was the Blue Jackets extended their point streak to five games at 4-0-1 and completed a four-game homestand with three wins and an overtime loss. With just over a quarter of the season in the books, Columbus remains in the thick of the postseason race, and perhaps best of all, they feel they’re starting to build something.
“It’s great,” center Adam Fantilli said. “Last year when we went on that bit of a losing skid, I said, you never want to get used to losing. Having a bit of a winning culture in here and how much fun we have with each other and how tight of a group we have makes it that way. It’s more enjoyable to come to the rink every day.”
Now comes a big test for the Blue Jackets as they leave the comfy confines of Nationwide Arena for a five-game road trip that starts today in Chicago before heading to Western Canada. The last extended trip for the Blue Jackets in November resulted in an 0-3-1 record where the team struggled to score goals.
They hope to bring home better results this time around.
“The swing out West, it wasn’t that we were playing badly except the Seattle game, I’d say,” Mathieu Olivier said. “I think overall, we actually played decent hockey; we just weren’t scoring. A couple mistakes that were costing us games, but overall I thought the team performed decently, except the Seattle game. We get home, we scored, now we have to do it on the road.”
Know The Foe: Chicago Blackhawks
Head coach: Luke Richardson (Third season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 2.48 (29th) | Scoring defense: 2.96 (12th) | PP: 22.4 percent (13th) | PK: 79.1 percent (16th)
The narrative: The team of the 2010s – Chicago won three Stanley Cups in a six-year span from 2010-15 – has fully entered rebuild mode, with the aim on being the team of the late 2020s. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, Connor Bedard, is the centerpiece, but the Blackhawks have made eight first-round picks in the last three drafts to try to bring in the talent to contend down the road. This appears as though it will the fifth straight season without playoff hockey at the Madhouse on Madison, but better days are ahead.
Team leaders: It’s been a struggle for Bedard, who went 12 straight games without a goal before a tally Wednesday vs. Dallas, but he’s still the team leader in points with a 4-13-17 line after 22 goals in his rookie season. Ryan Donato is second in scoring with a team-best 10 goals among his 14 points. Teuvo Teravainen has returned to Chicago and has a 6-5-11 line, while Tyler Bertuzzi (5-5-10) and Seth Jones (2-8-10) are the only other double-digit scorers.
In net, Petr Mrazek has started a team-best 17 games and is 7-9-1 with a 2.66 GAA and .911 save percentage.
What's new: Chicago has tried to surround Bedard and the fellow youngsters with a bevy of veterans including Teravainen, Jones, Bertuzzi, Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Craig Smith and Pat Maroon, just to name a few, and the best days are still ahead with most of the first-round picks still making their way to the show. The Blackhawks are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games and have scored two or fewer goals in eight of those contests.
Trending: Columbus swept the two-game series a season ago, including a 5-2 win in the Madhouse on March 2. Columbus has won four of the last five in the series as well.
Former CBJ: Now in year four in Chicago, Jones is out with a foot injury suffered in mid-November, while Foligno has posted six goals and nine points on the season.
