Hot and cold would be one way to describe this team. They follow short stretches of poor play with short stretches of strong play. After two losses in their last two games they Blue Jackets responded with a good game and picked up a win against the Dallas Stars.
It was a full team effort with the Blue Jackets getting contributions from the regular scores, Anthony Duclair scoring his sixth of the season, Artemi Panairn picking up another point and some contributions from players who have been quiet. Alexander Wennberg picked up a primary assist on Nick Foligno’s fifth of the season.
Here on tonight’s Three Things.
Power play
It finally happened; the Blue Jackets scored a power-play goal. In the midst of a 0-21 drought, it felt like the Blue Jackets might never score again on the power play. It wasn’t anything fancy, just back to the basics. The Jackets won a faceoff. Boone Jenner went to the net. Anthony Duclair shot it, and with the screen, Ben Bishop couldn’t see it.
A lot of muck and grind to this goal from Boone Jenner. A Boone Jenner special if you will.#CBJ pic.twitter.com/DdZfExOtbU
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) November 7, 2018
The goal was initially charged to Jenner but later changed to Duclair. When things aren’t going well sometimes going back to the simple play is what you need. Get traffic and get shots.
Bobrovsky
The power play may finally be turning the corner and so too is Sergei Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky had a great outing in relief in Detroit. Had a great start against the San Jose Sharks, followed by a clunker in Los Angeles. He rebounded from the game against the Kings will a real nice start tonight. He looked like the usual Bobrovsky, making big-time highlight reel saves. Bobrovsky stopped 27 of 28 shots the only blemish being a Jamie Benn power play goal in the third. This is what the Jackets need to see from their number one net-minder and will need more showings like this if they want to get to where they want to be.
Aggressive Goalie Pull
It’s always fascinating to see what other teams around the league are doing. When your focus is on one team, you can miss cool/interesting things other teams are doing. We saw something like this early in the season with the Florida Panthers using five forwards on the power play. The Stars we saw are not afraid to be aggressive with the goalie pull.
With 5:29 left in the third period coming off a Blue Jackets icing the Stars pulled Ben Bishop. It was a bold move, but they needed to score two goals. This move allowed them to get Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and John Klingberg out on the ice and give them some extra space to maneuver. They were able to get some good pressure, but ultimately the move didn’t work as the Blue Jackets sealed the game with an empty-net goal from Ryan Murray.
