The Columbus Blue Jackets are starting to win a few games now. Most notably, they’re defeating solid playoff teams along the way. The latest example came Thursday night at Nationwide Arena.
The Blue Jackets used four different goal scorers to knock off the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 thus spoiling the debuts of Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick. Mathieu Olivier, Alex Nylander, Dmitri Voronkov and Jack Roslovic all found the back of the net. However, the star of the show was goaltender Daniil Tarasov.
Tarasov made 29 saves against the Oilers including a huge stop on Connor McDavid in the third period during a power play. This marked consecutive wins for Tarasov against the Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights. Not many goalies these days can claim that one on their record.
Overall within these wins, the Blue Jackets are showing some progress in their game. It’s certainly too little, too late for the playoffs. But they are showing that they’re no pushovers either. Where are they showing progress?
Goaltending
Both goalies have shown improvement in this recent stretch. Tarasov in particular is finding his form after coming off an injury to start the season.
In Tarasov’s last eight starts, he’s allowed three or less goals in seven of the eight games. Had his offense produced more, he’d have a better than 4-4-0 record to show for it. He’s allowed his team to stay in games.
Head coach Pascal Vincent talked about Tarasov’s play and how he’s come along of late.
“He’s a solid goalie, but he’s calm,” Vincent said. “I think his sense is really good. He’s got some poise but what I’m mainly impressed with him today, he took a shot in the neck in practice and he spent the afternoon at the doctor’s and he could barely move his head. And he told us, I want to play that game. And that’s a step for us. And I’m telling you, this thing is going somewhere at this point.”
“And these little things alleviate like training hard to get back to where we can have Tarasov saying no, I’m playing tonight even though we had a hard time with his head. There’s something happening with that team. I’ve said that for a while but it keeps growing. But the way we’re playing right now, it’s not by accident.”
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Tarasov says not only is he feeling better with each passing game, he’s enjoying himself out there.
“Every game in the last two months (that was missed) I miss it a lot,” Tarasov said. “Just trying to enjoy the game and get this game going. (I) just try and play as good as I can and getting better every day.”
Elvis Merzlikins has been good of late also when available to play. He’s allowed just two goals in each of his last three starts. There’s no question both goalies have elevated their games of late to produce better results.
Timely Scoring
The Blue Jackets got four different goal scorers on Thursday night. They also got at least one point from 13 different players on Monday night against the Golden Knights.
Contributions are coming from all over the ice for the Blue Jackets. Mot notably, Nylander is off to a historic start for the franchise. At least early on, the trade is paying dividends.
Nylander became the second player in Blue Jackets’ history to score five goals in his first seven team games joining Antoine Vermette. He also is tied for the lead in the NHL in goals scored in March with four.
Successful teams get scoring from all four lines. Olivier had a goal and a fight Thursday night. Cole Sillinger’s line with Nylander and Alex Texier has played better. The Russian line played well Thursday night. They are starting to show an ability to beat teams in different ways.
Improved Structure
This part especially showed itself Thursday night against the potent Oilers. They took away the neutral zone. Although the Oilers still had their chances, they couldn’t consistently get anything going.
The Blue Jackets are showing signs of an improved structure. They are in better position. They’re making better decisions. They’re going north on a more consistent basis. Their passing is better too.
Why is this all happening for the Blue Jackets? They’re more confident. And they’re applying the lessons being taught to them. We can’t forget this is a young team still learning the daily grind of the NHL.
“Our plan was to put them under pressure, no time, no space.” Vincent said of their approach against the Oilers. “Our defensive gaps and our D-men getting up into the play so when there’s a change of possession being tight on their forwards, they’ve been doing a real good job recently. But tonight was a real good test against the speedy team.”
Buying In
Perhaps the biggest thing to takeaway of late for the Blue Jackets is that the team is buying in to what is going on. There is no quit. There is tangible improvement. That only happens when everyone buys in.
Coach Vincent has spoken at length about what’s going on in the locker room. Both Sillinger and Sean Kuraly admitted in Pittsburgh that the room is more fun of late. Certainly winning is a big part of it. But there is more.
“When they start playing for each other, executing the system, all five guys on the ice at a time, it becomes a good system. It becomes a good team,” Vincent said. “Our transitioning game is really good right now. Our defensive gap is really good…I was impressed with the fact that we went out there on a mission to win a hockey game and we finished the game in the third period. But I thought we were pretty much textbook.”
Up next is another tough challenge in the Nashville Predators. Now we’ll see if they can start stringing wins together.