Final Score: Leafs 6 – Blue Jackets 3
Game Summary
A weird start to the day, ended with the Blue Jackets extending their franchise worst start to 0-5-0.
Alexander Wennberg was placed on the IR (retroactive to October 9th) and Kerby Rychel was recalled from Lake Erie, where he took part in the morning skate. After the skate he was sent back down once it was determined that Brandon Dubinsky and Matt Calvert were good to play. I don’t think this affects the relationship between Jarmo and Kerby at all. I’d imagine Jarmo told Kerby before the recall were bringing you up just in case someone can’t go don’t expect anything. To Rychel’s credit he went back down to Lake Erie and had a monster game scoring two goals and an assist. He was then called back up and will be with the team in Chicago.
I liked what Richards did getting some new bodies in the lineup. I speculated after the Ottawa game that we would see Cody Goloubef and David Clarkson in this game and we low and behold we saw both of them. Goloubef came in for Kevin Connauton and Clarkson for Jared Boll. Goloubef was paired with Murray and looked fine. He played 17:49 which was fourth among defencemen. He also picked up an assist on the teams second goal. Clarkson didn’t look great but what he did was he allowed Todd Richards to actually play the fourth line and spread out the ice time. Clarkson played 11:10 in the game which is almost double the average ice time Boll has seen (6:40).
Even with the new bodies it still didn’t help. Toronto out played the Jackets right from the get go. They outshot Columbus in the first 11-6 and didn’t look back, finishing the game up 34-27.
The team is clearly shaken right now. You cannot start Bobrovsky tonight against Chicago; he needs a break after giving up 11 goals in the last two games. I don’t understand why Curtis McElhinney didn’t start this game. The backup is there for this reason to give your starter a break, especially when your starter is going through a rut like this. If they are tentative to start McElhinney they should bring up Anton Forsberg and have him start.
Congratulations to Scott Hartnell who, with an assist in the second and a goal in third, picked up his 599th and 600th career points. He becomes the 27th active player to reach that milestone.
Stat of the Night