Winning Thoughts: The Pittsburgh streak is over

After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets victory.

1. The Blue Jackets finally got a win in Pittsburgh.

It was nearly a decade ago on Nov. 13, 2015, when the Blue Jackets last won before tonight in the Steel City. You can almost hear a radio announcer painting a picture of what life was like then as he begins a flashback montage...

"Hello” by Adele was the No. 1 song on the charts. Gas cost $2.23 a gallon, and Peyton Manning was on his way to winning his second Super Bowl...

It had been that long since the Blue Jackets left Pittsburgh as a happy bunch, a 15-game losing streak against the division rival that seemed to defy all logic.

There is no magic formula to beat that kind of hex, but the Blue Jackets finally found the right balance between acknowledging it and not really caring.

After all, this is a gameday roster that had 10 new players – plus a new head coach in Dean Evason – since last year’s March 28 loss in Pittsburgh, so it’s not like most in the dressing room were preoccupied with the past or had even lived that much of it.

Add in a relatively young bunch of players – it’s not like Dmitri Voronkov or Adam Fantilli have had too many difficult drives through the Fort Pitt Tunnel in their careers – and it wasn’t really something that hung over this squad that much going in.

“I don’t care,” Kirill Marchenko said afterward. “We just wanted to win, that’s it.”

“I think there were a couple of jokes about it when we flew into Pittsburgh, but I think guys were pretty confident, thinking, ‘This is the year we can do it,’” Kent Johnson said. “Obviously we’ve been a better team (this year), so it definitely felt good to do it.”

Evason was more on the side of not giving two flips, as whatever happened before he got to Columbus has been largely immaterial to him this season. He said assistant coach Jared Boll may have mentioned the streak in the coaches' room before the game, but Evason’s laser focus was on having the team ready to play, and the Blue Jackets succeeded in that regard.

“Listen, this is a different team than in the past 10 years or whatever it’s been, (or) last year,” Evason said. “We’re a different hockey club. We’re playing the way that the Columbus Blue Jackets play today in order to win. So what’s happened in the past, it means nothing. It really does. This group, if we play hard like that every night, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win regardless of if we haven’t won somewhere.”

2. Adam Fantilli stepped up in a big way after the loss of Sean Monahan.

The first-year Blue Jackets center has been one of the biggest pieces of the team’s resurgence this year, providing excellent play on the top line and bringing leadership to the locker room.

So when Monahan left the game in the third period – he suffered an upper-body injury in the second but tried to go in the final frame, leaving after one shift – it could have been a major blow to the Blue Jackets.

Enter Fantilli, who moved up between Marchenko and Voronkov and brought energy – as well as contributed to two goals – to help the Blue Jackets erase a 3-1 deficit in the final eight minutes. First, his centering pass deflected off of Marchenko and went right to Voronkov at the right post, and the big Russian made no mistake in putting it past Tristan Jarry to make it a one-goal game with 7:55 left.

Fantilli then scored the tying goal with 2:36 remaining and the Blue Jackets on the power play. Taking Monahan’s spot in the bumper position on the man advantage, Fantilli one-touched a sweet pass from Johnson past Jarry from the slot to even the game.

“Fants started talking before – ‘Yeah, I’ve been watching Monny a lot. I know what to do here,’” Johnson said with a laugh. “He knew exactly where to be. He has a world-class shot. That was such a nice shot he had on my fake shot-pass there, so that’s really elite by him.”

The goal was Fantilli’s ninth of the season, perhaps not quite as many as fans and observers would have expected at the midway point of his sophomore season. But Evason and Blue Jackets players have raved about Fantilli’s dedication to playing a 200-foot game even if he’s not always putting the puck in the net, which led to Evason’s faith that he’d be able to step up into Monahan’s roles.

“Fants has played fantastic in all areas,” Evason said. “I know there’s probably been some concern or talk of his offensive production, but that’s not what we’re worried about. We want him to play the right way every night, and he’s committed to do that. We know that the type of goal that he scores here tonight is going to be there. If we can put him on the ice in all situations and be a reliable player in all three zones, he’ll score that goal.

“He’s done that, and we’re happy that he got rewarded to help the team win by not only scoring a goal but playing the right way.”

3. Voronkov is a beast.

This observation is pretty plain and simple, but what more is there to say about the big Russian wing who is quickly becoming an indispensable part of the Blue Jackets attack?

Voronkov scored the first two Blue Jackets goals in this one, and if that sounds familiar, it should – it was the fourth time he’s tallied twice in the last seven games, and his nine goals since Dec. 19 lead the NHL in that span.

The only thing he’s yet to do is notch a hat trick at the NHL level, but the way he’s playing, it feels like that’s coming. Voronkov’s combination of size and skill is rare for an NHL player, and they complement each other perfectly – his big body allows him to take up real estate in the so-called hard area of the ice in front of the net, and he has the hands to finish in a variety of ways.

The two goals tonight moved Voronkov to 17 on the season in just 32 games, one short of his rookie mark of 18 a year ago. He’s been good in all situations, notching his team-best seventh goal this season on the power play when he tipped Marchenko’s pass by Jarry from the top of the crease just 3:20 into the game, and adding a 5-on-5 goal in the third when he buried the chance that got the Blue Jackets back into the game.

Not bad for a fourth-round draft pick, eh? The Blue Jackets have struck gold with Voronkov, who appears to be a major piece of the equation going forward.