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Nice Bounce Back

February 5, 2021, 9:36 AM ET [6 Comments]
Thomas Townsend
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Lots of good things happened in last nights game....

Roslovic scored his first in the Union Blue (wish I could say 'in front of the home crowd')
Laine too put the puck in the net
Cam scored his 200th regular season goal
Oh, and the CBJ got a regulation victory!

I started to write down all the things that were not so great about the game last night like...

Struggles with in-zone coverage
Surrendering a PP goal (again)
Allowing the Stars to mount a comeback (that ultimately came up short)

But then I thought about it. This is a Dallas Stars team that were Stanley Cup finalists just a few months ago. Maybe these are not CBJ struggles, but Stars strengths. There is significant talent on skating for Dallas. Columbus adjusted in game 2 of this series to address mistakes in coverage against Pavelski, but were then victimized by Radulov. It is a tough matchup for anyone. This two-game-set was a split. And while a split at home is nothing spectacular, this is a Dallas team with the opportunity contend for the Cup.

With that 2 points the CBJ play leap frog in the division and find themselves 2nd in points and 5th in winning percentage. Points are what matter in the standings, but eventually winning percentage will decide the division as everyone catches up in games-played.

Next week brings CAR to town in a back-to-back on Sunday (3 pm) and Monday (7 pm). That is followed up by a trip back to CHI-town for games on Thursday and Saturday.

Don't look now but the CBJ may have had a C all along. Mikhail Grigorenko has quietly amassed 5 points in 12 games with limited minutes. Last night he assisted on Bjork's goal, which was mostly Bjork's work but, his other points have mostly been on lower lines:

Tuesday v. Dallas
Goal assisted by Robinson
Assist on a goal by Kukan

Jan 23 v. Tampa
Goal assisted by Stenlund and Gerbe

Jan 18 v. Detroit
Assist on goal by PLD

While his scoring has been inconsistent, so has his playing time as he is averaging around 13 minutes per game. His higher minute games were early in the season. He averaged over 15 minutes per game in the first 5 of the season.

He is a guy to continue to watch... along with Tex (of course).

Scoring

While the CBJ are not lighting up scoreboards they do average 2.58 goals per game. They have scored 3-or-more goals 6 times this season (4-1-1). When scoring less than that they have struggled (as expected) with a 1-3-2 record.

Interestingly, the CBJ have had exactly 0 multi-goal scorers in any game this season. Seventeen different Jackets have scored and everyone on the current roster has a point. Output has not been high, but at least it has been balanced. The team leaders in goals (Bjork and Tex) have 4 each. The league leaders have more than double that amount.

I am confident that scoring will increase on this team with the addition of Laine and Roslovic. Laine can create space for others to score, similar to the effect that Panarin had. The fact that 17 players have found the back of the net this season speaks to the ability of this team to find secondary scoring.

The next four games will be telling. Both of these teams trail Columbus in the standings, however CAR is only 1 point behind and has a significantly better winning percentage (.750 v. CBJ's .542). Skating away with 6 points could point to the CBJ contending for this division. Less could point to problems other than rostered players (more on that at a later date...if necessary).

Good Luck and Go Jackets!
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