The mighty Columbus Blue Jackets toppled the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 5-2 tonight at Nationwide Arena. The Jackets were the better team through two periods, carrying a 4-1 lead into the third, outshooting the Leafs 30-22, and out corsi-ing them 43-39 at 5v5 through two frames. The Leafs pressed hard in the third period, although could only manage to bring the lead down to 4-2 before Matt Calvert iced the game with an empty netter. The Jackets got balanced goal scoring up front, with Josh Anderson, Boone Jenner, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Nick Foligno, and Calvert finding the back of the net. Alexander Wennberg, Seth Jones, and Zach Werenski also chipped in two assists each. The win brings the Jackets up to 77 points on the season (topping last season already), and back even with the Penguins in the Metropolitan division.
Good: Putting in work around the net
The first two goals of the game came from some great work around the net by Josh Anderson and Boone Jenner. Even the fourth goal bounced in off Nick Foligno at the front of the net, and came shortly after Foligno nearly got a good chance in close. I love seeing this from the Jackets, and is a classic thing that teams and players need to do more of when the offense isn’t clicking. Crash the net, put pucks on net from everywhere, work your ass off, and good things happen. They tend to happen even more when you are going against a subpar goaltender, as they are often slower to figure out screened shots, give up more rebounds, are worse at tracking rebounds, and slower to find tipped shots. So all of the things that crashing the net do for a team.
Great: His name is Joonas
[protected-iframe id=”7b7c6bb971a9efd9d7e849695b92c222-114320562-108054817″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/korpisalos-athletic-kick-save/t-283344680/c-49456503?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Holy crap that is a save. Korpisalo had a few other key saves early in the game (including another huge one of Komarov). If any of those end up in the back of the net, it would have made this a very different hockey game. He finished with just 2 goals allowed on 33 shots, outplaying former CBJ backup Curtis McElhinney (4 goals allowed on 34 shots). Both goals against were of the fluky/bouncy variety, but Korpi shook them off to stand tall as the Leafs pressed hard in the third period to get back in the game.
Amazing: All of the things on this goal
[protected-iframe id=”c65d4c0e6041f61ae45688aa7ef18af3-114320562-108054817″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/bjorkstrands-breakaway-tally/t-283344680/c-49457403?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Holy crap what a goal this is. Brandon Saad starts it off with the fantastic hustle to get back and steal the puck. Alexander Wennberg does a great job of kicking the puck up to his stick, drawing in all of Toronto’s players, and then feeding Oliver Bjorkstrand. Then you have Bjork making the great read to break in for the breakaway, and of course that finish. Oh what a beautiful finish.
Tweet of the Night:
Zach Werenski: 2 points
Leafs Big Three Rookies: 0 points#CBJ pic.twitter.com/o0ZJlfow2W— Buckeye State Hockey (@BuckeyeStHockey) February 16, 2017
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