Through the team's first six games of the season, the Blue Jackets are 3-2-1. One of the reasons they are above .500 in the early going has been the play of their defensemen, especially at five-on-five.
According to moneypuck.com, the Blue Jackets' three defensive pairings, Zach Werenski with Damon Severson, Ivan Provorov with David Jiricek, and Jake Bean with Erik Gudbranson are all among the top-50 defensive pairings in expected goals percentage with at least 30 minutes of time on ice.
Expected goals percentage is the share of expected goals while that pair is on the ice. A 100% xGoals% would mean that 100% of the expected goals were from that player's team.
Werenski and Severson's pair ranks fourth at 69.4%, Provorov and Jiricek's duo is 19th at 58.7%, and the Bean-Gudbranson pairing ranks 49th at 50.9%. This means that all three defensive pairings are on the ice for more expected goals for the Jackets than against them.
The pairing of Zach Werenski and Damon Severson ranks 4th among all #NHL defensive pairings with at least 30 minutes of 5v5 TOI in xGoals%, per @MoneyPuckdotcom. #CBJ
— Coby Maeir (@CobyMaeir) October 25, 2023
Link to data: https://t.co/60wvmDhlyD pic.twitter.com/C9VfRyGWFw
The Blue Jackets are heavily invested in their defensive corps, as this group of six players has an AAV of $27,809,999, highlighted by Werenski's $9.583M AAV and Severson's $6.25M AAV.
Through the entire 2022-23 season, no Blue Jackets defensive pairing that played at least 100 minutes had an expected goals percentage above 50%, so it seems like the team's moves to add Severson and Provorov, in addition to a healthy Werenski, have paid dividends.
Columbus has allowed the 15th-most five-on-five goals this season, per naturalstattrick.com, which is a massive improvement over last season, where they led the league in five-on-five goals allowed.
One of the reasons the defensemen have been effective has been their success when jumping up into the play. For example, Jiricek started the play that opened the scoring in Saturday's win in Minnesota by doing just that.
This all starts before the replay does with #CBJs Jiricek (55) pinching down the right wing before he receives the puck at the left goal line where he finds Danforth (17) in front of the net, who scores on the rebound. #CBJ 1-0 #mnwild https://t.co/nFhbbcLWgv
— Coby Maeir (@CobyMaeir) October 22, 2023
Werenski and Provorov have also proven that they aren't afraid to create offense from the blue line, and they can because their partners have done a good job of covering for them.
Another example is Boone Jenner's goal against the Wild, where Werenski crashes the net.
#CBJ Jenner (4) goal pic.twitter.com/6lpJBUepDl
— Coby Maeir (@CobyMaeir) October 22, 2023
It's only been six games, and there have been some moments the players would like to forget, but the early returns on the Blue Jackets blue line have been extremely promising.
If they can continue to play at this level for the entire season, they are going to give the team a chance to win every single night, which in turn means they'll be competing for a playoff spot until the very end of the season.
