It's amazing what confidence can do, and it appeared as Sunday's game went on, the Blue Jackets had acquired it in spades. Perhaps no player was more an example of that than Pierre-Luc Dubois, who had two points in the early going -- his first in 11 games -- and looked like a different player by the end.
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"I'll just give you an example with Luc," head coach John Tortorella said. "When Luc scored his goal, then he started making plays, starting carrying the puck around people and just looked so much more confident.
"It's a game that's in your head. It's amazing what happens when you gain some sort of semblance of confidence."
There has been a sense the Blue Jackets have been fighting a battle that is as much in their heads as it is in the execution and the X's and O's since the trade deadline. Whether it's dealing with expectations or fighting through bad breaks such as a shooting percentage that has fallen, Columbus has posted a 6-7-1 mark since making an aggressive move to improve the team at the trade deadline.
At times, the weight of a piano has seemingly been on the collective back of the team, and particularly on players like Dubois whose production has tailed off as the team has struggled as well.
Before Sunday's game against the Canucks, Tortorella was honest about the team's mind-set.
"I think the biggest thing we have to cross here now with a couple of weeks left is accept the pressure and try to enjoy being in it," the head coach said. "That's a lot of our conversation. It should not be a task of, 'Man, this is hard.' This is where you should want to be.
"We're still in the hunt here. We are still right in the middle of things here. I think that's the biggest thing guys are trying to help one another with."
Tortorella wanted to see his team come out and attack the Vancouver game, and by the end, they had done just that.
"I think so," Josh Anderson said after he scored two goals in the win. "I think it was good to play loose out there. That's what we talked about (Saturday) night (at a team dinner), so I thought everybody looked good tonight.
"We had no passengers tonight. Everyone looked good."
The "no passengers" line is one that was also crucially important. The team's first line of Dubois, Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson had saw all three members go six full games without a goal until Dubois' second-period tally snapped a personal 13-game scoreless streak.
Ryan Dzingel also got on the board for his second tally since coming to the Blue Jackets since the trade deadline. Anderson's two goals and Oliver Bjorkstrand's tally continued strong recent runs of play for each of those young forwards.
The team also got contributions from up and down the lineup. Markus Hannikainen played for just the second time since Valentine's Day and added energy, while Dean Kukan went in for the injured Scott Harrington and was solid as a rock on the blue line. Then there was Alex Wennberg, who had a season-high four shots on goal and an assist.
"I think if we're going to get in and do some damage in the playoffs, we're going to need everyone to contribute," Dzingel said. "It's huge that we had so many guys contribute on the board tonight. Even guys not on the board contributed, too. It was a good night for us, and we have to carry it over to Tuesday."
