When you win a 6-2 game at the NHL level, sometimes that means you dominated the puck, and sometimes it means you got a couple of lucky breaks and took advantage.
For the Blue Jackets, it was the former on Friday night in Nationwide Arena. Columbus was all over visiting Boston in both teams’ first game back after the NHL’s holiday break, taking a 5-1 lead through two periods on the way to the win while having major edges in just about every statistic.
Columbus pulled away from the Bruins in shots on goal (33-25) and shot attempts (71-51) in the game and was good in all phases. The Blue Jackets were all over Boston at 5-on-5, posting a 15-4 edge in high-danger chances and a 3.28-1.16 edge in expected goals per Natural Stat Trick, and even better on special teams as they scored on all three power plays and stopped both Boston chances.
Add in the fact the CBJ stars produced like stars – top-liners Kirill Marchenko, Sean Monahan and Dmitri Voronkov as well as defenseman Zach Werenski combined for five goals and 12 points – and the Blue Jackets played perhaps their most complete game of the season in front of a sellout crowd in Nationwide Arena.
“I just liked our game,” Werenski said. “I thought we kept it simple. Our transition game was good. Our breakouts were good. We didn’t give them too much until the third period there. I thought it was a solid game all around.”
Now, the challenge becomes doing it again. A quirk in the NHL schedule means the Blue Jackets get the exact same team in a different venue tonight, as both teams hopped on flights to head back to The Hub to meet again exactly 24 hours later.
Suffice it to say the Blue Jackets can expect a fired-up Boston team tonight when the teams get back on the ice, and Columbus tried to start turning the page right after Friday night’s win.
“We went in and said, ‘It’s great. It’s a good win. We need to do it again,’” head coach Dean Evason said postgame. “We challenged the group. We have to be better on the road if we’re going to get to where we want to go. We have to start establishing ourselves as a road team that plays the same way, so this game tonight has to roll into tomorrow night.”
Indeed, the difference between the Blue Jackets at home and then away from Nationwide Arena has been stark. In fact, the team has exact opposite records in Columbus and on the road; the Blue Jackets are 11-4-3 at home and 4-11-3 in their white sweaters.
It’ll be a tall task to repeat the performance against the Bruins, but the opportunity is there.
“We have to be better on the road,” Monahan said. “It starts tomorrow, and we have a chance to do that. It’s a good challenge for us.”
Know The Foe: Boston Bruins
Head coach: Joe Sacco (First season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 2.62 (26th) | Scoring defense: 3.11 (19th) | PP: 13.4 percent (31st) | PK: 75.4 percent (25th)
The narrative: The Bruins have been one of the most consistently successful franchises in the NHL, making the playoffs 15 of the last 17 years, winning the Stanley Cup in 2011 and going to the Final in 2013 and ‘19 as well. But the retirements of such core players as Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have left some holes in the lineup that the Bruins are trying to fill with younger pieces, and this year has had its fair share of ups and downs culminating in the firing of head coach Jim Montgomery after a November loss to the Blue Jackets.
Team leaders: The two players at the top of the scoring chart are certainly familiar names, as David Pastrnak leads the way with 12 goals and 36 points, while Brad Marchand is next with a team-best 15 goals among his 31 points. Elias Lindholm follows with a 6-13-19 line, while Pavel Zacha has nine goals and eight assists and Charlie McAvoy leads the blue line with five goals and 11 helpers.
In net, Jeremy Swayman leads the team with 25 starts and is 12-10-3 with a 3.05 GAA and .887 save percentage. He’ll get the nod tonight after Joonas Korpisalo started in Columbus.
What's new: The dismissal of Montgomery – who led the Bruins to a historic 65-win season two years ago – did have an immediate impact, as Boston went 8-9-3 under the coach but is now 11-5-1 in 17 games under Sacco. The defensive side of the puck had seen the biggest improvement in the first 16 games, with Boston allowing just 2.50 goals and 23.3 shots on goal per game in that span, but the Blue Jackets put up six goals and 33 shots last night.
Trending: Columbus entered the season with a 1-5-3 record against Boston the previous three years, but the Blue Jackets have outscored the Bruins by an 11-3 margin in two games this season after last night’s win.
Former CBJ: Korpisalo went to Boston in an offseason trade and is 7-4-1 this season, while defenseman Andrew Peeke has six assists in 31 games.
