The Columbus Blue Jackets have had a difficult time with home openers.
It’s gotten comical in recent years, blowing a late lead in 2015 (a tremendous collapse) and completely losing control of the game last year. For whatever reason, the opening night experience has not been kind to the Blue Jackets, but they solved a lot of those problems with a convincing 5-0 win over the New York Islanders on Friday night.
We saw flashes of brilliant hockey in the first 40 minutes. John Tortorella used all four lines and, with the game largely decided at 5-on-5, was able to get everyone involved right away. The second line scored, the third line scored, the top line scored, the power play scored. Oh, and Sergei Bobrovsky opened the season with a 29-save shutout.
It was a good night.
Here are five observations from the win:
Good for the kids
The Blue Jackets dressed four rookies in the opener and had seven team debuts in their lineup. It was a pretty green group, but it seems as though these kids are ideal fits for “safe is death” straight-ahead hockey. Sonny Milano buried an Oliver Bjorkstrand pass just 1:07 into the game for his first NHL goal, Pierre-Luc Dubois turned a high-slot wrist shot into the first goal of his career (with his family in attendance) and the Blue Jackets also got quality minutes from rookie defenseman Gabriel Carlsson. Tortorella was eager to see how the young players in his lineup would respond to the stage of opening night and their NHL debuts, and he liked a lot of what he saw.
Avert your eyes
It’s hard to get a read on the Islanders. They have a tremendous player in John Tavares. They traded for Jordan Eberle and he was invisible tonight. Why was Jason Chimera in the lineup? Woof. Cal Clutterbuck continues to be utterly worthless and I feel bad for Doug Weight that he has to play him. But the real culprit tonight was goaltender Thomas Greiss, who may have had better luck if the puck were a basketball. The second goal, from Cam Atkinson, was preventable if Greiss doesn’t watch the puck dance through his crease. The fourth goal, from Zach Werenski, came seconds after Greiss spit up a rebound into the slot for no reason. The Dubois goal was icing on a crappy cake of a night for Greiss, who was then lifted for Jaroslav Halak. That's far from a badge of honor.
The power play
Zach Werenski said between periods that the addition of Artemi Panarin adds a different look to the Blue Jackets power play. Opposing teams started to figure them out in the second half of last season and their power play cooled off, but adding a dynamic weapon like Panarin forces penalty killers to pick their poison. Do you want to deny the Werenski point shots and distribution up top? Or do you want to take away options for Alexander Wennberg operating on the half wall? Panarin darted all over the offensive zone on the power play and it confused the Islanders. So far, so good for a slightly re-worked unit that got a serious upgrade over the summer.
Depth, Perhaps
The Blue Jackets used their four lines and three defense pairs tonight, but what stood out was their top nine forwards. All three groups were able to generate offense and the Dubinsky line (with Dubois and Matt Calvert) was arguably Columbus’ best, dominating puck possession at 5-on-5 and scoring one of the team’s five goals. The fourth line of Hannikainen-Sedlak-Dalpe showed energy and forechecked well but didn’t fare well in possession, Nick Foligno looked solid in his first game of the year at center, and the Murray-Carlsson duo was steady.
Need for Speed
Adding Panarin and (another) infusion of youth invariably meant the Blue Jackets were aiming to get even faster this season. It’s one game and opening night usually produces a book’s worth of takes, but they looked quicker as a group. That’s not just to say they were fast off the rush; the Blue Jackets tracked down pucks, created turnovers disrupted the Islanders’ game by being a step ahead. If that’s the game they’re most comfortable playing, it’s a good sign.
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