As the Blue Jackets have won their last three games in a row, they’ve found something they were missing at times during the final quarter of the NHL season.
Their swagger.
Columbus has won three straight games going into tonight’s rematch vs. Washington, including Saturday’s 7-0 victory against the Capitals that kept their postseason hopes alive. With Montreal's overtime loss vs. Toronto later in the evening, the Blue Jackets can again stay in the race today with another win against the Caps.
Head coach Dean Evason talked to his team before Tuesday’s game vs. Ottawa about playing like they belong and playing with confidence, and the Blue Jackets have responded by finding their game.
“I think the more you complicate it, the more you think about all the different things and whatnot,” Sean Kuraly said after Saturday’s win over the Caps. “I think we’re just going out there and playing. We’re ready to live with whatever fate comes our way and just keep playing hard. We know we’re going to keep playing hard regardless of what happens elsewhere. Tonight was a good example, and we’re just focused on tomorrow now. It’s another really important one for us.”
The last three wins have been a stark contrast to the 4-11-1 stretch that put the Blue Jackets on the outside of the postseason race looking in, and a lot of the success might be attributed to that newfound confidence. It was hard to get good vibes going during that losing run, even though the team wasn’t playing poorly, and it felt like circumstances made it difficult to really get things going.
That’s one reason why Evason wanted to meet with his team and reinforce the message that they deserve to be there, and the results have followed.
“When you don’t have success – we were talking about, when we didn’t score a goal for two games, then you don’t think things are going to be positive, right?” Evason said. “It’s not as easy to play with that confidence or that edge that you need to play (with) in order to give yourself a better chance to have success.
“As we’ve talked about, we thought we were playing well, just we didn’t have the results at the end of it, but yeah, we need to play with that bite, obviously, every night.”
There was certainly no lack of intensity in Saturday’s contest, which featured 76 penalty minutes – almost twice more than any previous CBJ game on the season – and plenty of physical play. The Blue Jackets had no issue standing up for themselves in that one, but they know what was a shorthanded Caps team in Columbus will likely bring much more energy on home ice.
As much, the Blue Jackets think there will be a carryover from how Saturday’s game went when the teams meet in the District today.
“Probably,” said Adam Fantilli, who had a pair of goals in Saturday’s win. “It was a high-temper game. No team likes getting shut out, especially having that many goals scored on them. Same thing happened to us earlier this season with them. It felt good to play the way we did tonight, but we’re expecting a heavy one tomorrow.”
Know The Foe: Washington Capitals
Head coach: Spencer Carbery (Second season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 3.54 (T-1st) | Scoring defense: 2.77 (9th) | PP: 23.5 percent (12th) | PK: 81.7 percent (6th)
The narrative: You may have heard, but Caps star Alexander Ovechkin has set the NHL record for goals in a career. His 895th career tally last Sunday against the Islanders has been the perfect cap on an incredible regular season for the Capitals, who have clinched the top spot in the Eastern Conference for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Preseason expectations for Washington were low, but general manager Chris Patrick pushed all the right buttons and has assembled a team that hopes to add another championship to the Stanley Cup won in 2018.
Team leaders: Ovechkin’s record-breaking tally was his 42nd goal of the season, a mark that ties him for fourth in the NHL at age 42. He’s added 28 assists to give him 70 points, second on the team behind Dylan Strome, whose 26-51-77 line puts him among the league’s top 25 scorers. Aliaksei Protas is third on the team with 66 points (30 goals, 36 assists) and an NHL-best plus-40 rating, but he’s dealing with an injury that will keep him out. Former CBJ center Pierre-Luc Dubois (20-44-64), Tom Wilson (33-30-63), Connor McMichael (25-31-56) and John Carlson (5-46-51) all have topped the 50-point barrier.
With Logan Thompson out and Hunter Shepard playing Saturday, the Caps are likely to turn to Charlie Lindgren, the right-catch netminder who is 19-13-3 with a 2.74 GAA and .893 save percentage.
What's new: Ovechkin's pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record has been the biggest story in the NHL this season, and he got the record-breaking tally last weekend before taking a breather Saturday vs. the Jackets. With that out of the way, the Caps can focus on the postseason, but their regular-season success has been impressive, as they started 8-2-0 and haven’t looked back. Washington is just 3-5-1 in its last eight games, but the team’s focus has shifted to the postseason with the No. 1 spot in the East clinched.
Trending: You could say the Blue Jackets worked out some frustration Saturday with their win, as it snapped a five-game losing streak in the series vs. the Caps and improved the CBJ to 3-8-3 in the last four years against Washington.
Former CBJ: The Jackets’ first-round pick in the 2016 draft at No. 3 overall, Dubois was acquired from Los Angeles this offseason and has revitalized himself with a career high in points with the Caps. The team’s first-round pick in 2014, Sonny Milano, also has landed in Washington but has only played three games this season because of injury.