Voronkov finding a role that matches his size for Blue Jackets

For a full 10 seconds, it looked like men against boys during Saturday’s Blue Jackets game vs. the Carolina Hurricanes.

The man? Dmitri Voronkov. The hulking Blue Jackets wing collected the rebound of Kirill Marchenko’s shot with 8:24 left on the clock in the third period, then played a game of keepaway against Carolina’s Shayne Gostisbehere.

First, Voronkov grabbed the puck and curled behind the net. As Gostisbehere closed, Voronkov shrugged him off, spun away and drifted toward the corner, then turned to the veteran defenseman as if to say, “come and get it.”

As Gostisbehere closed on Voronkov in the corner, the CBJ forward curled back behind the net with the puck still on his stick. Gostisbehere closed and tried to shove Voronkov off of the puck, to little avail; the Blue Jacket finally skated out on the right side of the net and sent a centering pass back to Marchenko with 8:14 on the clock.

Moments later, Marchenko was clipped by a high stick that gave the Blue Jackets a four-minute power play while trailing 4-3, a golden opportunity set up by Voronkov’s innate ability to use his 6-5, 227-pound frame to its fullest capabilities.

“He’s big and he’s heavy, weight-wise,” said CBJ defenseman Jack Johnson, a big veteran himself who has had his share of battles with Voronkov in practice. “If you’re strong on your stick and you can tripod yourself, those guys are hard to move. You either have to be strong enough to do it, or you have to try to outsmart him. Guys like him are a handful, no question.

“Good on him for recognizing his strengths as a player and hanging on to pucks down low because that’s taxing on other teams. Even if nothing comes of it, teams have to exert themselves to play defense, so they don’t have enough energy to play offense.”

Voronkov is good for more than just puck possession, though. The 24-year-old second-year NHLer has scored in three straight games for the Blue Jackets, and they aren’t the typical netfront battle goals you might expect for one of the biggest players in the NHL.

Voronkov has scored twice on breakaways in the last three games, tallying against Boston and Tampa Bay, the latter with an excellent wrist shot that sailed by the glove of goalie Jonas Johansson. And then in the game against Carolina, Voronkov was at the top of the crease on the power play to tap a perfect pass from Kent Johnson past the outstretched leg of goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.

“He’s a smart guy,” fellow Russian and linemate Kirill Marchenko said. “He finds good spots on the ice. He is ready to play on one of the first lines. He can create offense, and he can score in different ways. It’s good for him, good for us, good for our line.

“He’s a really smart, really skilled guy, and we try to help him. Every guy on our line does a different job, and I think we have become really good together.”

The stats would agree. According to MoneyPuck.com, in the seven games since the trio of Voronkov, Marchenko and Sean Monahan has been put together, they’ve averaged 66.1 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 while outscoring opponents 7-1.

“We have a chemistry for the past year; we played together during the World (Junior) Championships,” Marchenko said of Voronkov. “I feel him. We have a good chemistry. Everybody knows on our line what we have to do for our best play. I really like this line, and I think it’s really hard to play against us.”

It’s that type of chemistry that head coach Dean Evason was hoping for when he put the trio together, with Voronkov’s size and skill complementing the do-it-all mentality of Monahan and Marchenko’s excellent shot. But Evason sees a chance for even more out of Voronkov, who has a 5-2-7 line in 11 games after missing the start of the season with an upper body injury.

“He’s a big man and he has a skill set,” Evason said. “We’re challenging him to play big every night, to be physical, to be in peoples’ faces. He’s committed to get to the net. There’s no issues there. He wants to be in front of the net. We talk about dirty areas and stuff, he doesn’t care about that. He’s getting there.

“But we need him to have a little bit of pushback when teams are pushing against us. He’s done that the last little while, and obviously he’s having success.”

Coming off an 18-goal rookie season that earned him votes for the Calder Trophy, Voronkov is solidifying himself as a unique player who can help the Blue Jackets win games. For those that know him, it’s a testament to his hard work – including an intense summer of work that helped him shed extra weight and get in better condition – and his trust in his ability.

“It’s good for him,” Yegor Chinakhov said. “He’s a good guy and a good hockey player. I like to see him smile every time when he scores."