The Blue Jackets finished off a nailbiter last night, downing the Nashville Predators 4-3 to extend their point streak to 11 games. The Jackets, who have gone 7-0-4 over that streak, have now played in twenty-one 1 goal games. Sergei Bobrovsky was his usual excellent self, making 32 saves in the win, including 13 in the 3rd period where the Jackets were outshot 15-7 by the Preds. One more stat of note before I get to the goal breakdowns: Brandon Dubinsky won 16 of the 18 faceoffs he took last night, helping the Blue Jackets finish with 61% of the faceoff wins. Now on to the breakdowns.
1-0 Columbus, 4:08 2nd Period – Fedor Tyutin from RJ Umberger and Jack Johnson
I don’t have much to add to this one, as it is a pretty routine goal, but I just wanted to point out the effort and great play by Umberger to make this goal happen. We have gotten on him a lot when his effort and play has been down, so it’s only fair to point out that he makes this goal happen. Fisher actually beats RJ to the puck, but Umby still manages to make a play on it back to Tyutin. Great effort.
2-0 Columbus, 9:39 2nd Period – Mark Letestu from Vinny Prospal and Dalton Prout
This is a fantastic goal that I watched on repeat at least a dozen times. Fantastic movement by the Blue Jackets players here. While Prout’s play to keep the puck in at the blueline shouldn’t be overlooked, this play really starts before that (the clip above doesn’t even really capture the start of the puck movement). The Jackets establish possession in the offensive zone, but move the puck to damn near every player on the ice, and they never really stop moving. Watch the clip again, but instead of watching the puck or the Jackets players, watch the Predators trying to defend them. Try to follow where each one ends up compared to where they started. They are all over the place, which is what makes this goal so beautiful to me. The Preds got so turned around that Letestu was just forgotten about, by everyone but Vinny, who makes an awesome pass that Testy finishes top shelf.
2-1 Columbus, 14:45 2nd Period – Gabriel Bourque from Roman Josi and David Legwand
See the 2:05 mark of the above video (will embed video when NHL.com fixes the video link – current video for this goal shows a save by Rinne on Nikitin).
This is a pretty standard deflection goal, with only one Blue Jacket player doing anything exceptionally bad. Brassard was a little bad in losing Josi when he moved towards center, but I really have no idea what exactly Letestu is doing here. Everyone else is more or less in postion, but Letestu for some reason thinks it’s a good idea to play a pass to a less dangerous area of the ice than to stay in the shooting lane in front of Josi. A ridiculous read by Letestu, that could either be read as him being afraid of blocking the shot, or gambling hard to pick off the pass hoping for a breakaway.
3-1 Columbus, 10:00 3rd Period – Nikita Nikitin from Vinny Prospal and Jack Johnson
(If this video doesn’t work see the 2:41 mark of the previous video – NHL.com really needs to get their crap together)
Another “why you don’t shoot when the fans yell shoot” example. Great passing here by the Jackets, and the extra pass from Vinny to Nikitin draws a third Predators penalty killer out. The real key here is Johnson being able to thread the box with his pass to Vinny. Once you spread the box out that far, then start putting passes through it, the panic sets in. Soon you have three defenders rushing out, and the defense outnumbered at the front of the net. All that’s needed after that is for the point shot to get through.
4-1 Columbus, 12:41 3rd Period – Derick Brassard from Mark Letestu and Vinny Prospal
Goals like this off the rush have been a rarity for the Jackets this season, even more so when one is defended quite well. Letestu and Prospal break out on a full ice two on one. The Preds actually have Mueller and Josi hustling back, Blum playing the two on one perfectly, and yet the Jackets still score. Vinny smartly crashes the net, yet Mueller is in position to cover him. Blum takes away Letestu, and all that is stopping Josi from negating Brassard is his handiness. If Brass was a right handed shot, Josi has his stick and that isn’t a goal. Instead the pass is perfect and Brassard buries his 5th of the year.
4-2 Columbus, 17:59 3rd Period – Chris Mueller from Rich Clune and Shea Weber
The prominent point here is the poor job by Dalton Prout. He has a step on Clune and a better angle. But he seems like he is a little gun shy about getting hit, so he swerves to try and avoid Clune. Clune busts his ass in there and just plain beats Prout. Also at fault is every other Blue Jacket on the ice. Every single one of them assumed Prout would get to the puck first (or if he didn’t that Clune wouldn’t beat him clean), so they are not defending anyone. Nikitin goes behind the net to be an outlet for Prout, while the forwards start to get into position for the breakout. This is likely due to the relaxation teams can find when up late. They had a three goal lead late in the 3rd period. It is completely understandable to relax a little bit, especially considering they have been in so many one goal games this season, with no time to ever relax out there.
4-3 Columbus, 18:46 3rd Period – Mike Fisher from Brandon Yip and Shea Weber
Major issue on this goal: watch the weak, lazy backcheck from Derek Mackenzie. He coasts into the zone and never once looks around to take anyone. He is in no man’s land, covering no one. He needs to look up and see which defenseman is jumping into the play. If he does this, then he is in position to pick up Weber and Erat doesn’t have that pass option. It’s a shame too, as everyone else does their job well to that point. Tyutin defends Erat perfectly, Johnson picks up Yip on the center lane drive, Jared Boll is in position to defend Fisher, and Artem Anisimov is wide covering Mueller (Nashville had four forwards on the ice with the goalie pulled). After Erat makes the pass to Weber, Boll leaves Fisher and Anisimov is a little slow to adjust and pick up Fisher (as he is more dangerous in that situation than Mueller). By the time Anisimov reacts, he is playing a two on one on that rebound. If he commits too hard to Fisher, then Mueller is wide open with an empty net. Watch Mackenzie again: still coasting back into the play, not picking up anything. Terrible effort from a player who needs to play extra hard to be an NHL player, especially disappointing at that point in the game.
These last two goals against really show where this Blue Jackets team stands. If they can continue to outwork their opponents, they can continue to be successful. However, if they take their foot off the throttle bad things happen. Now this obviously applies to most teams, but top teams have the talent to pull out games when they don’t have their best effort. As we saw early this season, the Jackets don’t have that. Fortunately, we’ve now seen 11 consecutive games where the Jackets have played hard from start to (nearly) finish, continuing one of the most fun stretches of hockey in Blue Jackets history.
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