Final Score: Flyers 1 – Blue Jackets 4
Game Summary
The Blue Jackets came out guns a blazing against the Flyers. They pumped 13 shots, verses just four against, at former Jacket Steve Mason, they scored two goals and never looked back as they defeated the Flyers 4-1.
Scott Hartnell was back in the lineup to face his former team. He continues to torch his old team, further proving just how bad a trade it was for Philly. Hartnell scored the team’s fourth goal of the game and picked up two assists. Since coming over to the Jackets, Hartnell has played six games against the Flyers. He has two goals and five assists in those games. Compare that to R.J. Umberger who has just one point against the Jackets in six games.
Mason’s struggles against the Jackets continued. For whatever reason the Jackets seem able to get into his head and throw him off his game. Mason has only played six games against his old team as the Flyers have famously sat him in Nationwide Arena. In those six games Mason has allowed 19 goals and has an .891 save percentage.
At the other end of the spectrum Sergei Bobrovsky has been fantastic against his old team. Bob has faced the Flyers five times and has allowed just nine goals. He's also had a stellar .940 sv% in those games.
Fedor Tyutin and Dalton Prout both returned to the lineup. Tyutin missed six games after suffering an injury against Nashville. Prout had been a healthy scratch since his three penalty game against the Devils. He sat out the last four games. Getting Tyutin back is big. He's a top four defencemen on a team that sorely lacks good defencemen. He played 19:05 which was third among defencemen behind Jack Johnson and David Savard.
Brandon Saad was demoted to the fourth line, playing with Gregory Campbell and Michael Chaput. Saad has struggled recently. He last recorded a point against Pittsburgh five games ago and he's in the middle of a nine game goal scoring drought. This was defiantly a tactic by John Tortorella to send a message. It would not surprise me to see a healthy scratch in Saad’s future if he continues to struggle.
Alexander Wennberg had a very strong game. He played alongside Scott Hartnell and Nick Foligno. Wennberg picked up two assists and was very strong from a possession standpoint. He controlled play to the tune of 61.9% at even strength. That brought his season up to 50.39%, making him one of just eight Jackets to have a Corsi 50% or higher.
I've been seeing a lot of talk about how William Karlsson’s emergence makes Wennberg expendable or how Karlsson is going to have a better future than Wennberg. I think that kind of talk is crazy right now. I'm planning to do comparison of these two players in the near future stay tuned for that.
Nick Foligno broke out his slump having a two goal game. His shooting percentage is finally starting to come around. It’s up to 5.8% in all situations, about half way to his career of 11.9%. The goals are starting to come for him now, it was only a matter of time.
Stat of the Night
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