The Blue Jackets are back in the win column.
Thanks to a three-goal third period that included Johnny Gaudreau and Erik Gudbranson notching their first goals of the season, the Blue Jackets came from behind to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Thursday at Nationwide Arena.
With the win, the Jackets snapped their two-game pointless streak and four-game losing streak while improving to 4-4-2.
Welcome Back, Kirill Marchenko
After watching the team's previous two games from the press box as a healthy scratch, Kirill Marchenko highlighted a solid first-period effort from the Jackets with his first goal of the season.
This play starts with #CBJ Gudbranson (44) keeping the puck in before moving the puck to Sillinger (4) down the wall. Sillinger then finds Voronkov (10) at the right hashes who then finds Marchenko (86) who doesn't hesitate to rip a shot past Tomkins' (90) high-glove side. https://t.co/uRD8o0KRhR
— Coby Maeir (@CobyMaeir) November 2, 2023
Pascal Vincent has made it crystal clear that he's not afraid to scratch the team's promising young players (ex. Kent Johnson), so Marchenko, like the rest of the team, is going to have to earn his ice time. He did so on Thursday.
Kent Johnson Benched
After a rough sequence on the power play, Johnson didn't play in the final 14:03 of the game and amassed just 8:45 of time on ice. According to hockeystatcards.com, he recorded the worst game score among Blue Jackets at -1.43. Tonight was not his night and it'll be interesting to see if he's in the lineup on Saturday in Washington.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Columbus Blue Jackets on 2023-11-02:#CBJ pic.twitter.com/UAJ5fxNG93
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) November 3, 2023
A Bounce-Back Win
After a disappointing second period where the Blue Jackets posted just 0.06 expected goals at five-on-five according to naturalstattrick.com, the entered the third down 2-1. However, Columbus showed its intangibles and fought back to win, recording 0.83 five-on-five expected goals which was more in line with the 1.12 five-on-five xG they registered in the first period.
The Blue Jackets should be proud of this game because was a hard-earned victory. Will it provide momentum into Saturday's contest against the Capitals?
