After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets victory.
1. These Blue Jackets might just be different.
Let’s not go super crazy here. The team is 3-3-0 on the young season, and there’s a lot more hockey to play. They’re decimated by injuries to the top nine forwards, which is bound to make an impact at times. There’s still a lot of players stepping up into key roles they haven’t had to perform before.
But there’s something about this team in the early going that has been missing in years past. Some of it is schematic – they're playing with a lot more structure than the past couple seasons, and they’ve been miles better at preventing teams from creating scoring chances.
And some of it is just the vibe – call it maturity, call it an aura, whatever you want, but there’s a different confidence about the team thus far.
It could be frustration from the last few losing seasons, it could just be young players coming into their own, and we can’t ignore the lingering impact of losing a brother over the offseason. Whatever the combination of factors is, this is a team that is starting to come together and believe it can be pretty good.
Tonight was a strong example of that. Good teams rebound from poor performances and take care of business, and that’s what the Blue Jackets did tonight after Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota. This was a comprehensive win, with Columbus being the better team from minute one to minute 60.
Remember last year, when the Blue Jackets took a 5-0 lead on the Maple Leafs only to need overtime to secure a victory after giving up five in the third? There was no hint of that ever happening Tuesday night, with the Blue Jackets calmly and coolly taking their 5-0 lead and getting to the postgame cannon blast and streamers without any trouble.
“(Saturday) wasn’t up to our standard, but I think our group responded really well,” Zach Werenski said postgame. “Everybody came back ready to play, had energy tonight, and I think that’s taking steps in the right direction for sure.”
2. Is this an offensive juggernaut in the making?
Again, not to get too crazy here, but give credit where credit is due. For the third time in six games to start the season, the Blue Jackets scored six goals in a game, and their 24 tallies thus far are a team record for the opening sextet of contests.
That won’t happen all the time – the early season in the NHL sees a lot looser hockey than you’ll get as the stretch run nears – but it’s a pretty darn good start. Against the Maple Leafs, 11 different players had points, including multiple from Justin Danforth (1-2-3), Mathieu Olivier (first two-goal game of his career), Sean Monahan (1-1-2), Kirill Marchenko (1-1-2) and Werenski (0-2-2).
In a fitting note for a team that now has 12 different goal scorers on the year, the production came from everywhere. The pregame chatter was about the reworked lines up top, but the so-called bottom six produced four goals (two from Olivier, one from Danforth and one from James van Riemsdyk).
“I think the best teams have depth scoring, so tonight me and Ollie had a couple, and you need that to win games,” Danforth said after the second three-point night of his career. “It was a fun game.”
As for Olivier, he received the postgame donkey hat in the locker room, and we’d have to assume it was largely for the two-goal effort but also for jumping in to tame Ryan Reaves when he went after David Jiricek for a perfectly executed shoulder check in the final few minutes.
