The Blue Jackets ended 2015 by beating the league leading Dallas Stars 6-3 and hope to start off 2016 with a win against the second-place Washington Capitals tonight at Nationwide Arena.
“You don’t want to be a one hit wonder,” Cam Atkinson said. “It’s a chance to prove a lot of people wrong in this league. 2015 wasn’t so good for us, hopefully with the new year coming in we can prove to teams coming in what kind of team we are.”
The Jackets make no excuses for the turn their season has taken, but as the team has worked through this season, they’ve been provided few opportunities to work in an intentional way on fixing what’s not been working.
Everyone was thankful for Thursday and Friday this week as they provided the first opportunity for the team to have back-to-back practices since John Tortorella took over as head coach Oct 22.
The team hopes that, coupled with the Dallas win, those practices are something that buoy the Jackets on-ice tonight.
“You can draw (plays) up on the wall and talk about your team concept and that’s basically what we’ve had to do here for probably five, six weeks,” said head coach John Tortorella. “But to be able to instill it on the ice…you don’t have many opportunities to do that during the NHL season and we tried to take full benefit of it when we had the opportunity here.”
Tonight’s opponent should prove a valid test for what the team is trying to put in pace.
The Capitals bring the second highest point total in the NHL, and the Metro division lead, and the league’s fifth highest goal scorer, Alexander Ovechkin (21) to the ice tonight.
Tortorella said “Ovi” is the kind of player you can’t expect to stop, but you can try to “contain”.
“I’ve always respected him because he’ll take a hit and he’ll give a hit,” Tortorella said. “He’s not one of those guys that’s a superstar in this league and thinks he deserves special treatment. He plays the game hard he’s willing to take hits to make plays.”
For the Jackets, part of the plan to contain number 8 will be to stay out of the box. The Jackets have been shorthanded 47 times this season in home games, and have allowed a league low five power play goals against at home, but one third of Ovechkin’s goals have come with the man advantage.
The Jackets don’t want to have to put that 89.4% penalty kill rate (fourth in the league) to the test any more than they have to tonight.
“We talked about as a group that we have to stay out of the box,” Atkinson said. “If we limit ourselves to one or two (penalties) at the most we give ourselves a chance to succeed and win.”
The Jackets will have some slight tweaks in the lineup tonight as they seek to prove then can even the season series against Washington.
Matt Calvert left Tuesday’s game against Dallas and is estimated to miss four weeks with a sprained knee, and Tortorella said David Clarkson will draw in to the lineup.
David Savard, who was placed on injured reserve Dec 15 (lower body), has participated in recent team practices and is expected to be a game-time decision for the Jackets tonight, which could be a big help to the defensive unit.
“We want to be smart about it,” Savard said. “Sometimes if you come back to early it’s possible it can get worse.”
While goaltender Sergei Bobrovksy was activated off injured reserve, he remains day-to-day and will not dress for tonight’s matchup. Curtis McElhinney, who earned the win against Dallas on Tuesday, will start and will be backed up by Anton Forsberg – provided his gear arrives from the Lake Erie Monsters’ road crew.
QUICKLY
- Tortorella on the Campbell-Johansen-Foligno line: “I don’t know what you want to call it 3rd, 4th, 1st, 2nd line – we’ve tried to balance the lineup a bit. That line had a number of good opportunities the other night and we scored some goals.
- Atkinson remarked on the atmosphere in the building on Tuesday, including the execution of the players and the support of fans. The Jackets play 7 of their 12 games in January at home – and are 6-2-3 in their last 11 games at Nationwide. Building a solid home ice advantage is something the Jackets could afford to do.
LINEUP
Jenner – Dubinsky – Atkinson
Hartnell – Wennberg – Saad
Campbell – Johansen – Foligno
Clarkson – Karlsson – Bourque
Johnson – Murray
Tyutin – Prout
Falk – Connauton
McElhinney
Injured: Savard (game-time decision), Calvert, Goloubef, Hannikainen, Bobrovsky
Scratched: Bodnarchuk, Boll
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