The Columbus Blue Jackets fell 4-2 to the Calgary Flames tonight at Nationwide Arena. It was a bit of an off affair, with the first half of the game flying by. The teams went nearly the entire first period without a goal (of course the Flames scored in the final seconds of the 1st period), and the first penalty (and only powerplay) wasn’t called until 8:52 into the 2nd period. There were a lot of icings however, mostly due to the Flames penchant for missing on the stretch pass. Who didn’t miss was Johnny Gaudreau, who buried one of the nicer finishes over Joonas Korpisalo for the game winner. That touches on the big story of the game, which is the loss of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Recently back from injury, Bob got in all of 89:10 between Tuesday and tonight before getting injured again. The Jackets picked up goals from Scotty Hartnell (who always seems to score after a scratch) and Brandon Dubinsky to keep the game close. Gaudreau’s snipe gave the Flames a lead they would never relinquish, with Sam Bennett scoring the insurance marker at 14:28 of the 3rd.
The Good: Ryan Murray and Seth Jones
Part of me feels like a broken record, constantly writing about how awesome they are. But another part of me is so happy they keep on giving me reasons to write about how awesome they are.
Both halves of the pairing picked up a primary assist tonight, they were stellar in all facets of the game, and tilted the ice in Columbus’ favor every time they were out there. The twosome played a combined 50:29 of ice time, and were absolutely destructive in possession. Per War-On-Ice, Jones was a +15 Corsi, while Murray was a +14. No other player for either team hit double digits (in the positive at least – Jack Johnson was a whopping -16). They were a big reason why Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and TJ Brodie were -12, -11, and -10 in Corsi tonight. Also remarkable: Jones and Murray were on for a combined 60 shot attempts for this game. The rest of the Jackets defense was on for 52 combined. They were the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, and it was awesome (Brandon Dubinsky, Cam Atkinson, and Boone Jenner were pretty good too).
The Bavslgkdjhklvnvgdakhnj: This Goal
Can’t even be mad losing to that goal. Everyone did pretty much exactly what you want them to, Korpisalo gave him almost nothing to shoot at, but Johnny buried it anyway.
The Depressing: Sergei Bobrovsky
Welp.
Bob is down again.
We will see what the injury is officially, but some of the early chatter has it as a re-injury of his groin. Hopefully he was pulled as a precaution, but this is the Columbus Blue Jackets and an injured player, so I am prepared for the worst. Not a great game and a half from Bob either, after getting lit up by the Capitals for five goals and a .815 save percentage, he gave up two tonight on .846 save percentage before exiting. With the season where it is, let’s hope the team keeps him on the sideline until that thing is healed right up and we can get back the Bobrovsky we know and love.
Quote of the Night: Jeff Rimer
“Coming around the boards there for Heineken. Hännikäinen! Ahhh. I can’t get that out of my head!”
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