Three Things: Bemstrom Stays Hot, Blue Jackets Pull off Crucial Comeback

By Chris Pennington on March 1, 2020 at 10:19 pm
Boone Jenner
Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports
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If the Columbus Blue Jackets lose to the Vancouver Canucks...is their season...over?

Technically, no. But the outlook for Columbus making the playoffs at that point is catastrophically grim. 

Good thing they don’t have to think about that, though!

Thanks to the heroics of a few names, one being rookie Emil Bemstrom, the Blue Jackets pulled off a wild comeback in one of the most dramatic and exciting games of the year.

Here are tonight’s 3 Things.


Bemstrom Balling Out

Emil Bemstrom had a rocky start to his rookie campaign with the Blue Jackets, leaving his name in the conversation as a consistent bubble player, and thoughts of whether or not he had been called up to the NHL a bit too early.

Lately, he’s been proving that narrative all wrong. The first-year winger has scored four goals in his last five outings, putting fully on display his absolute rocket of a wrister. The kid can wire it, folks.

His game-winning goal tonight (his second in the past two contests) was the icing on a late third-period rally by the Blue Jackets, the third team goal in a five-minute-span to pick up a bit two points.

Abnormal Comeback

The Blue Jackets typically...don’t win games in which they need to come-from-behind heading into the third period.

Granted, most teams do not win games at a majority rate in which they were losing in the final frame, but it just has seemed this entire year that the Blue Jackets, no matter how much they scrape and claw, have not been able to take a game back as their own. On the year before Sunday night, they were 6-17-3 when trailing going into the third period, and an abysmal 3-10-0 at home in the same situation.

That narrative was shoved aside tonight. With four goals coming six minutes apart, the Blue Jackets effectively erased a 3-1 deficit to win in regulation. We should note the importance of the regulation win: As the Blue Jackets have been awful in overtime this season. 

Stayin’ Alive

The Blue Jackets have lost 11 of their last 13 games, but are still in a playoff spot. What a hockey world we live in.

Thankfully, they’re getting a lot of help from their Metropolitan Division friends who are also dropping games left and right. The Blue Jackets can’t keep relying on this, and tonight, they stepped up for the cause.

Currently, Columbus sits in the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and though they lack a few games in hand, are only two points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final spot in the division.

Who knows? Rip off a few three/four-game win streaks in these last 15 contests to go, and they could seal their fate for another trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Every game is a “must-win”, but tonight was a bit extra of that.

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