The Columbus Blue Jackets hot preseason continued at home Saturday night with a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Here are the takeaways from the Blue Jackets third straight preseason win:
  |
| Blue Jackets 6, Sabres 3 |
-
The big asterisk on this game was that the Sabres lineup consisted almost entirely of prospects and minor-leaguers. The main club arrived in Germany on Friday to take part in the NHL's Global Series.
-
Despite the lineups — Columbus was going with a full NHL lineup — the Sabres lead the game 2-0 late into the second period. James van Riemsdyk scored with just over two minutes left in the middle period to make it 2-1, and the Blue Jackets scored four goals in a span of 4:24 in the third to take a 5-2 lead. After Buffalo made it 5-3, Cole Sillinger iced the game with an unassisted empty-netter.
-
One of those four goals came from defenseman Jake Christiansen, who was jumping up into the play with frequency Saturday night and had six shots. The rest of the Columbus defense had seven combined. Christiansen is a borderline Columbus/Cleveland player, but has slowly progressed over his four years with the Blue Jackets organization and went from an undrafted prospect to someone whose NHL career still has days ahead of it.
-
Van Riemsdyk and Sean Monahan combined for three goals, including a pair from Monahan in his preseason debut. The Blue Jackets will need all the scoring they can get this season, so seeing the Blue Jackets veteran offseason additions put the puck into the net was (of course) a positive.
- Adam Fantilli scored his fourth goal of the preseason and continues to show why the Blue Jackets were elated when he fell to them a third overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. He looks to be ready to have a breakout season in 2024-25.
