The Columbus Blue Jackets have completed a back-to-back series with travel Thursday and Friday night, coming out with 2 of a possible 4 points available.
First, there was a 6-0 shoutout at the hands of the New York Islanders, from the UBS Arena in Queens, NY. Andres Lee had a hattrick; while the other goals came from Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Josh Bailey, and Brock Nelson. Ilya Sorokin stopped everything from the Blue Jackets.
Back at home, the Jackets stunned the Minnesota Wild in a shootout. The final score was 3-2.
Yegor Chinakov opened the scoring on the power play with his 7th of the season; Jake Bean and Max Domi had the helpers.
Kirill Kaprizov, my Minnesota player to watch knotted his 30th of the campaign; Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala had the assists. Zuccarello potted the second and final goal of the Wild. It was his 19th of the year. Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman had the apples.
Zach Werenski evened the scoring with 32 seconds remaining, good for his 10th tally; Oliver Bjorkstrand and Gustav Nyquist had the assists. That makes him and Adam Boqvist the only defensemen with 10 goals each on the Columbus roster. The goal was also his 75th career goal, and 225th career point.
Chinny scored the lone goal in the shootout between the two teams, helping Columbus collect both points.
Elvis Merzlikins stopped 36 of 38 for a 0.947 save percentage. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 27 of 33 for a 0.818 save percentage.
With these games in the books, it splits the Jackets record for March, at home, and on the road to the following, including overall record:
March 2022: 2-2-2 Home Record (March): 2-1-2 Road Record (March): 0-1-0 Point Percentage (March): 0.333 Goal Differential (March): -8 Overall: 29-27-3 Overall Point Percentage: 0.517 Overall Goal Differential: -25
CBJ Three Stars
1. Zach Werenski— goal (10)
2. Yegor Chinakov— goal (7), SO Winner
3. Oliver Bjorkstrand— assist (21)
Rumor Update
We are down to the final 9 days of the trade deadline, and the Jackets market for Max Domi is heating up as we get closer to the deadline. Boston, Colorado, New York (Rangers), Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Toronto are in the hunt for his services. His cap hit is $5.3M, but Columbus can retain with all 3 slots open on their books. From my sources, Pittsburgh is leading the race, though the Avalanche are the dark horse with their prime core hungry to win.
New Jersey wants a goalie, and Joonas Korpisalo may fit the bill, though Vegas has been slowly entering the race for Lehner’s backup. Edmonton has been in on him since the summer. The price is still a second and a third.
The media is training Laine more than the Jakcets want to. The Islanders have been on him since US Thanksgiving. While in Winnipeg he made it public about his desire with wanting to be with Los Angeles. Don’t count out Florida and the Finnish connection and the number of former Columbus representatives in the organization.
More to come…