What a difference a day makes, twenty-four little hours. Don’t be ashamed if you sang those words rather than read them. I was singing them as I was typing them. I can’t recall what commercial that little ditty came from but I do know how it applies to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Sunday the Jackets put forth their best 60-minute effort of the young season yet still lost to Edmonton, 3 – 1, despite outshooting the Oilers 40 – 14. Twenty-four hours later the Jackets played well again, though not quite as well as the night before, and managed to score six times on thirty-six shots against San Jose backup goaltender Thomas Greiss. What a difference a day makes indeed.

Brandon Dubinsky got the ball or puck rather, rolling early with his much-anticipated first tally as a Jacket just 0:43 into the first frame. Dubinsky won a one-on-one battle with Sharks Defenseman Dan Boyle behind the cage and fed the puck out to the point. Fedor Tyutin would get a shot through to the net and Greiss made the initial stop but the rebound lay just outside the crease where Dubinsky found it and enough open space to put it in the net.

Columbus wouldn’t score again the rest of the period but did a good job of limiting San Jose’s chances and time with the puck.

The biggest problem Columbus has had this year is continuing their strong play from one period to the next. It looked as if that trend might rear its ugly head again last night as it was the Sharks getting the better chances early in period two. However James Wisniewski struck on the PP at the 13:05 mark to give the Jackets a two goal lead.

RJ Umberger won a battle along the end boards and worked the puck to Derick Brassard. Brassard skated toward the side of the net. He then found Wisniewski sneaking in from his spot on the left point and fed him the puck for an easy goal.

Just 1:11 later Cody Goloubef scored on a blast from the right point to make it 3 – 0. It was Goloubef’s first NHL goal.

San Jose would make things interesting when Patrick Marleau beat Steve Mason with a wrister through some traffic 0:13 after Goloubef’s tally. That was probably one Mason should have had but his positioning was not ideal and he left an opening on the short-side for Marleau.

The goal seemed to energize the Sharks as they came close to drawing within one on a couple of different occasions before the end of the second period. But the Jackets would answer just 0:21 into period three on a goal by Nikia Nikitin. Again the hard work of the Dubinsky line on the forecheck created the opportunity. Dubinsky outworked his opponent in behind the net and Calvert was able to get a pass to Nikitin who pushed a shot on goal that eluded Greiss.

The Jackets would then tie a franchise record when Vinny Prospal and Mark Letestu would tally goals just eight seconds apart. The original mark was set all the way back in October of 2008 when Jakub Voracek and Nikita Filatov scored eight seconds apart in a 5 – 3 win over Nashville.

Joe Pavelski closed out the scoring with a PP goal for San Jose, breaking a 1 – 27 drought in the process.

Numbers of Note:

14 – The number of skaters who recorded at least one point last night. Only fourth liners Jared Boll and Colton Gillies along with Derek Dorsett and D Tim Erixon were held off the score sheet.

6 – That’s how many points the four highest paid forwards on the roster (Dubinsky, Brassard, Umberger and Foligno) accounted for last night. Dubinsky and Foligno each checked in with multi-point efforts. I wrote about Columbus needing more from these guys and for one night at least they delivered.

10:48 – Colton Gillies saw that much ice time last night and he was on the ice less than anyone else on the team. That means Todd Richards was able to roll all four lines which was a nice luxury in the second half of a back-to-back.

25:24 – Jack Johnson was on the ice for better than 25 minutes. That’s still a lot of ice time but it’s better than the 32-plus he was seeing with his defense partner, Wisniewski, and Nikitin both out of the lineup. With two solid pairings, Richards can do a better job of splitting up the minutes among his defensemen.

36 – The number of shots the Jackets had last night marking the second consecutive game in which they’ve topped 30. I wrote just yesterday that a better forecheck and more puck possession would lead to more nights of 30-plus shots and consequently more goals. That theory was proved correct just 24 little hours later.

Trivia Time:

We’ve already discussed who led the Blue Jackets in both goals (Geoff Sanderson) and assists (Espen Knutsen) in their inaugural season of 2000 – 2001, but who led Blue Jackets blue liners in scoring during their first season in the NHL?

Grabovski:

I've watched the replay several times now and much like the NHL I can't determine if Grabovski really bit Max Pacioretty or not. But let me ask all of you this: If you were in an altercation with another person and someone else unexpectedly grabbed you from behind with their arm covering your mouth, what would you do? Is it entirely outside the realm of possibility that you might bite down in reaction to being grabbed from behind?

I'm not condoning Grabovski's actions if indeed he bit him; I'm just bringing up the possibility that if he did bite down that it might have been a very common human reaction to the situation going on around him. I had someone pose the question of whether I would do the same thing in that spot and I honestly couldn't say one way or the other. I could see myself doing either.

At the end of the day I am not at all surprised there was no suspension. There wasn't enough on the video to determine what exactly happened and whether Grabovski intended to bite Pacioretty or not.

I apologize for veering off the Blue Jackets path but that was something I wanted to get out there.

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