Post Battle #26 vs Montreal Canadiens   (Blue Jackets)

Final Score: Canadiens 2 – Blue Jackets 1

Game Summary

This was a game the Blue Jackets needed to win. The Canadiens are missing Carey Price, easily their best player. Mike Condon has been solid as his replacement you have to find a way to score more than one goal on him. The Jackets had plenty of chances just couldn’t bury them.

Brandon Saad was guilty of this more than once. He had some ridiculous wide open net chances, and he couldn’t finish them. Saad was second on the team with three scoring chances in the game. I'm not trying to fault Saad but it would have been nice if he could have scored on one of those chances.

Figures it would be Max Pacioretty to get the game winner. It has always felt like he has killed the Jackets, and thanks to Aaron Portzline on Twitter, he confirms this hunch.

Nick Foligno finally got another goal. He hadn’t scored since October 16th vs Toronto, a span of 20 games. I haven’t been making a big deal out of the drought because for the most part this has just been a shooting percentage blip. Most of his underlying numbers have remained consistent.

Foligno also got into a fight with Nathan Beaulieu. What caused the fight was Foligno kneed Tomas Fleischmann along the boards. Beaulieu came off the bench to fight Foligno. The hit didn’t look that bad to me, he did lead with his knee but only slightly. It wasn’t called a penalty on the ice so I don’t expect any supplementary discipline to come. Here’s the hit if you missed it.

Someone who should be receiving supplementary discipline is Alexei Emelin for his hit on Matt Calvert. Emelin received a five minute major and a game misconduct for blindsiding Calvert. The hit itself wasn’t that bad, the issue with it was the puck was nowhere near Calvert. If Calvert had the puck it may have just been a two minute minor. Here are two great gifs on the hit. Puck is nowhere near Calvert when the hit is delivered.

I mentioned this morning how this was a homecoming game for Michael Chaput and completely forgot to mention David Savard, who is also from Quebec. David Savard is from St. Hyacinthe which is about 45 minutes outside of Montreal. He grew up there and played his Junior Hockey in the QMJHL for the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Moncton Wildcats. He had a solid game against his hometown team. He played big minutes on the backend, and had an above average 52.78% Corsi at even strength.

Stat of the Night

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot

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