As a wise man once said – well, Yogi Berra, at least apocryphally – it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
The Blue Jackets’ playoff hopes remain hanging by a thread, but at least they’re still hanging. Columbus has faced elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs each day since Tuesday, but the Blue Jackets have held on – twice through their own wins vs. Ottawa and Buffalo and again Friday with Montreal’s loss to Ottawa.
Those hopes could be extinguished either through a regulation loss today vs. Washington or a Montreal victory tonight in Toronto, but the Blue Jackets remain in the mix with four games remaining in their regular season.
It took a rally on Thursday night to keep the dream alive, and the Blue Jackets responded. Down 2-1 through 40 minutes against Buffalo at Nationwide Arena, Columbus rallied to earn a 3-2 win behind third-period goals from Zach Aston-Reese and Boone Jenner.
We’ll never quite know if there was a movie-script speech in the locker room during the second intermission or not, but it’s fair to say the Blue Jackets knew what was at stake when they took the ice in the final period.
“We knew what was at stake,” forward James van Riemsdyk said. “Obviously our season is on the brink and on the line, and with where we’re at, (we had to) just empty the tank as much as we can and do what we can do to keep our season alive.”
Added Jenner: “The spot we’re in, we needed the points. The third, no matter what happens the first 40, we had to go out and win a period, and I liked our resiliency to do that. We just stuck to it – win a shift and go on to the next.”
Columbus now has a chance to keep the pressure on the Canadiens, and there’s no better place to do it today than Nationwide Arena, where the team’s 53 points on the year (24-10-5 record) are tied for third all-time in franchise history.
With all the noise, the Blue Jackets have been able to put together two straight wins in the downtown arena, and a third would go a long way to keep the playoff hopes alive. It will take a full team effort to do it, but head coach Dean Evason likes his team's focus with the season on the line.
“We have to be desperate,” Evason said after the win over the Sabres. “You guys know the numbers better than me, but they’re talking about it in there. We’re more worried about what we’re doing. We played well enough and hard enough here to get two points. We need to continue to do that in the last four games.”
Know The Foe: Washington Capitals
Head coach: Spencer Carbery (Second season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 3.59 (1st) | Scoring defense: 2.72 (8th) | PP: 23.7 percent (12th) | PK: 81.6 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.
The Caps have dressed just two goalies this year and split the load between Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren, though Thompson is out at the moment with an upper body injury. Lindgren is 19-13-3 with a 2.74 GAA and .893 save percentage, while Hunter Shepard has been called up after a number of excellent seasons with the AHL affiliate in Hershey.
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. 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 3-4-1 in their last eight games, but the team’s focus has shifted to the postseason with the No. 1 spot in the East clinched.
Trending: Columbus lost all three contests to its division rival last year and is winless in two contests this year, including a 7-2 loss in Washington on Nov. 2 and a 2-1 overtime setback against the Caps in Nationwide Arena on Dec. 12. The Blue Jackets are just 2-8-3 in the series over the last three years.
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 best 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.
