Another game dominated by the Blue Jackets at even strength where they leave empty-handed. Fun fact: the Avalanche went 3 for 3 on the powerplay. And I’m not talking about powerplay opportunities, but powerplay shots. They scored on every single powerplay shot. Not good. But hey, five on five the Jackets absolutely crushed the Avs. The best measure of who is controlling play is 5v5 close, whether you use Fenwick (69.8%), or Corsi (62.7%) or Shots For percentage (66.7%), the Jackets absolutely destroyed Colorado. But terrible goaltending and special teams can put that all to bed easily.
3rd Star: Semyon Varlamov
Varlamov is probably a little low here. He should probably the first star, all things considered. Without his contributions this game would have been a Jackets win. I understand it though, as he did give up three goals, but when a team gets so thoroughly dominated at even strength, how do you give top billing to a player who contributed to said domination (in a negative way of course). I dunno either. Anyway, yeah, Varlamov is good and probably should have been the top star.
2nd Star: Nick Foligno
Foligno was great. He works his damn ass off, just about singlehandedly did all the work on Ryan Johansen’s goal, put in the work in the tough areas to score one himself, and started really amping up the physical play when he laid out Jan Hejda. What has impressed me most about Foligno this season has been his consistency. He’s always shown flashes of skill and flashes of being a physical force. He just rarely ever seemed to have both elements going at the same time, but when he did, he looked like a stud. This year he’s had both elements going most nights, and last night they were really going.
1st Star: Matt Duchene
I love me some Matt Duchene. His skating is just not even real sometimes. I know that is barely intelligible English, but his skating does that to me. Duchene was solid last night, two assists, five shots, blah blah blah, but really, he wasn’t the best player on the ice. He as great on the powerplay of course, and he’s always electric, but he as still a negative in Corsi and shot differential, in spite of extremely favorable (75%) offensive zone starts. That’s not first star material, but alas points speak.
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Stud: Physical Play the Right Way
The Jackets got pretty physical in this game but hits actually meant something here. Generally speaking, hits are the most overrated statistic in hockey. More often than not, hits are a better measure of what team had the puck. As in, teams pile up big hit numbers when the opponent controls the puck the entire game. Well the Jackets dominated the play, but also dominated the hits battle, racking up 41 hits to the Avs 27. This was notable because there was a solid stretch of play where the Avalanche were visibly off their game. Go back and watch the entire shift leading up to Boone Jenner’s goal. The CBJ start throwing the body around in the offensive zone, and the Avs start trying to return the favor, they end up running around like crazy, and two guys are left alone in front of the net to bury the rebound. Colorado is not a physical team. They are a speed team. The last few years, they’ve pulled the Jackets into track meet style games and the Jackets just can’t keep up. Last night Columbus pulled the Avalanche into a slugfest, but couldn’t turn it into a win. However, it is very positive to see the Jackets force teams to change their style of play, something the Jackets have been guilty of too often in the past.
Dud: The Non-Bobrovsky Goaltending Situation
No can really argue that Curtis McElhinney, he of the .783 save percentage against the Avs, was anything more than “not good” in this game. But the problem is bigger than that, and is something that has concerned me since the offseason: the lack of goaltending depth. Last season the Jackets had an above average starter, above average backup, and above average third stringer. Letting Mason go and promoting McElhinney meant they now have a below average backup and Mike McKenna probably comes in as a below average third stringer. I understand the concept of a guy “winning” a job, but I am firmly of the belief that a player cannot and should not ever win a job with the big club from any other team. This is a concept that John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen have used with forwards and defensemen, but for some reason they just handed McElhinney the job without any sort of competition. Any number of veteran backups were available in the offseason for less than seven figures, and any one of them would have been a better combination than McElhinney and McKenna over these last few weeks. But yeah, .783 save percentage is effing terrible and you’ll probably never win if your goalie puts up numbers like that.
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