This has been fun, right?
The Columbus Blue Jackets are 1-1-0 following their first road trip of the season through Minnesota and Colorado.
Dean Evason's club fought hard to the very end in last Thursday's opener at the Wild, coming up short 3-2. Then they hopped on a plane to Denver to face an angry Avalanche squad who lost their season opener 8-4 at the Vegas Golden Knights.
Knowing that and how good of a team the Avalanche are anyway, it was impressive to see the Blue Jackets jump out first offensively and never look back, coming away with the 6-4 win to spoil the Colorado home opener.
In the way-too-early, overreactions portion of the season, you feel good about this Blue Jackets team under Evason, as far as what you've seen to this point, and what's hopefully yet to come.
We're not putting the cart before the horse. This is still a transition year for the Blue Jackets in terms of their foundation learning to take the next step in winning games on a nightly basis and preserving leads late in games to close out those victories. But Saturday night was a good start following the many late last-season collapses we saw far too often and the two games, in general, were night and day compared to the starts we saw last year.
Against the Wild, Columbus converted on the power play, and another was nullified thanks to Minnesota's successful challenge for goaltender interference. Evason and his players won't settle for moral victories, but there had to be a good feeling after game 1 about how the team battled.
Columbus edged Minnesota in expected goals 1.6-1.5 at 5v5 per Natural Stat Trick. Zach Werenski scored late with the man advantage to pull Columbus within a goal and led the game with seven shots on goal on 11 attempts.
59 8 @FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/4BdD9Uwdd6
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) October 13, 2024
Kent Johnson scored and had two points, carrying over his preseason success and looking like the guy Columbus drafted with the fifth overall pick.
CAN'T STOP KJ @FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/fzUIFEuWAa
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) October 13, 2024
Adam Fantilli celebrated his 20th birthday in style with his first goal of the year.
Adam Fantilli birthday goal! #CBJ up 3-1 in Colorado! pic.twitter.com/GeUNYFA93y
— Bally Sports Columbus (@BallySportsCBUS) October 13, 2024
In the game against the Avalanche, who celebrated Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay winner Nathan MacKinnon pregame, Columbus scored first, kept adding to the lead, and finished the night with six different goal-scorers including another game of goals by Johnson and Werenski.
Thanks to the selfless pass by Kirill Marchenko, birthday boy Sean Monahan scored the empty-net power-play goal to seal the 6-4 win as the Avalanche were sent off by a chorus of boos.
To: Sean
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) October 13, 2024
From: Marchy
Happy Birthday!@FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/G1E8m3IPeI
Colorado held the edge in expected goals 2.31-1.65 per Natural Stat Trick, as Columbus fended off the late third-period push.
"It's obviously nice to keep a lead but to not sit back and just defend was exciting for us as a staff," Evason said after Saturday's win.
"We stayed aggressive. We didn't risk a whole lot. But we didn't shut down and just go into a shell and just try to defend and block shots. Our guys still played the game the right way. We still got a few things to correct out at the end there but for the most part, we were very happy with that area."
Columbus faces another tough test when it entertains the Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers tonight in an emotional home opener, as the Jackets will honor Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau.
