After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets victory.
1. This was a big win for the Blue Jackets.
In the course of an 82-game season, you can’t get too high or too low. No matter what happens, a rousing win or a crushing loss, there’s another game a day or two later on the schedule you have to focus on.
But, having said that ... when you get two points against one of the best teams in your division, in thrilling shootout fashion, with a rollicking holiday crowd behind you, yes, this one means a little more.
“Those ones are fun,” Sean Monahan said.
“It’s always super satisfying, any win, but especially a fun one to win in an overtime, shootout – definitely fun,” Kent Johnson said.
After all, sports are supposed to be fun, and you’d have to imagine all of the 17,000-plus in Nationwide Arena had a good time on New Year’s Eve.
It was a back-and-forth contest, and neither team ever led by more than a goal. Columbus took 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the first, Carolina came back to earn a 3-2 advantage through two, then the Blue Jackets tied the score in the third and won in the shootout competition.
With the win, Columbus goes into 2025 just two points behind the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. For the first time in a while, the Blue Jackets have hit the New Year with a chance to make noise in the playoff race.
This team has a lot of growth left to do, but the young players are rising up and the veterans are pulling their weight. Are you not entertained?
“It’s definitely huge,” Johnson said of the win. “They’re a good team. It’s a huge win in the standings – they all are – so it definitely feels good.”
2. The top line again led the way to victory.
Carolina is a hard team to play against. The Canes are one of the quickest and most aggressive teams in the league and they put pressure on you from the opening faceoff, constantly winning puck battles, going north and throwing everything at the net.
In a game like that, you’re not going to have the puck very much – ask any other team in the league about that – but you have to do enough to earn a victory.
On New Year’s Eve, the way the Blue Jackets did that was by having their top line carry the day. Kirill Marchenko had two goals, Sean Monahan assisted on all three CBJ tallies, and Dmitri Voronkov had the tying goal on a third-period power play before Johnson and Adam Fantilli scored in a shootout.
Often times, in a tough situation, your best players have to be your best players, and they were on this night – and that’s before we even get to Zach Werenski playing 30:07 and setting a franchise record with 11 shots on goal.
But when it comes to the goals, the top line got on the score sheet, and they deserve the plaudits they get.
“We smile and just play – don't think about it,” said Marchenko, who finished December with 19 points, second all-time for a calendar month in team history. “Just go on the ice and do our work, what we can do, and it’s a win for us. We don’t think, we just play.”
The NHL is the toughest, best league in the world, and sometimes you have to get a win by your best players shining through. And there’s little arguing how good the Voronkov-Monahan-Marchenko line has been, including the fact they’ve outscored the opposition 18-4 – best of any NHL trio with at least 150 minutes on the ice together – when grouped together this season.
“I think we’re just having fun, trying to play the right way, play with speed, using each other,” Monahan said. “I think we all have different aspects to our game and we’re using that to our strengths.”
3. The Blue Jackets were smart to practice shootouts in practice Monday.
Practice time has been few and far between during a busy December, but Columbus played Saturday and had Sunday off. When they got to the rink Monday, they finally had a chance to go through a full practice, and Evason likes to keep things light.
There’s often a competitive and fun aspect to practice under this coaching staff, and on Monday, that meant the Blue Jackets finished with a shootout competition.
It's almost as if the coaching staff knew another one was coming – perhaps because the Blue Jackets and Hurricanes already went to the skills competition during their November meeting in Nationwide Arena, with the CBJ coming out on top.
“So smart,” Evason said with a smile creasing his face. “Us coaches are brilliant, right? Thank you so much for mentioning that. I didn’t want to bring that up on my own because that would sound very arrogant for our coaching staff.”
Evason was joking, but the timing was on point. In the battle for the extra point, Elvis Merzlikins stopped three of four shots after practicing on Monday, while the Blue Jackets scored twice to get the win.
Both Johnson and Fantilli scored in the opening round of the practice shootout, so they were certainly ready. Johnson, in particular, came up huge tonight, extending the shootout in the third round by firing a forehand shot through the legs of goalie Pyotr Kochetkov before Fantilli’s winner.
Johnson is a bit of a wizard with the puck on his stick, and he felt ready to step up to the occasion. Kochetkov tried to go for an aggressive poke check on Johnson – just as he successfully had on the previous shooter, Damon Severson – but the CBJ wing was ready.
“It’s really fun, the shootouts,” Johnson said. “We had a shootout yesterday in practice, too. It’s fitting that we did that the day before. It’s always fun to get those. Marchy reminded me, this guy likes to poke check, so it was good to have in the back of my mind.”
