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After a 7-1-0 preseason, the Blue Jackets opened up the regular season in fine fashion with consecutive wins over the Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers.
There's always room for improvement, but their fast start is encouraging.
Some thoughts on what we've seen so far:
- In order for the Blue Jackets to be successful while dealing with injuries to Boone Jenner, Nathan Horton up front, they needed their young guys to step up. So far they have certainly done that. Of all the pleasant surprises on the team thus far, none have been bigger than Marko Dano. Just a year removed from being the 27th pick at the NHL draft, he already looks like an established veteran.
His stat line so far: one goal, one assist, six shots and a plus-24 shot attempt differential (30 for, six against) through two games, which leads the team by far.
He really couldn't have played better in his first couple games. It's still early, but I wouldn't bet on him going anywhere anytime soon.
- One thing that's really helped the Jackets so far is the play of their bottom-6. Ryan Johansen was late signing and didn't have much of a camp, obviously, so Todd Richards has limited his minutes in the first two games to make things easier on him. Johansen's played well having three points in those two contests, but he's not exactly in midseason form. If the bottom-6 can hold up for a little while longer, it should allow Johansen to get in true game shape and eat up some more minutes.
- The Blue Jackets were a much better possession team in the 2nd half of last season than the 1st, and they seem to have carried that over this year.
Through two games they're generating a hair over 60% of the shot attempts at even-strength in close situations. Small sample size, but encouraging nonetheless.
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