PREVIEW: Blue Jackets get right back at it, hosting Bruins

Saturday evening was a bad time to have a bad game for the Blue Jackets. 

Columbus just couldn’t catch up with San Jose for much of the night, and the end result was a 3-2 setback against the Sharks in a crucial game for the team’s playoff hopes at Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets did grind their way to leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but they couldn’t keep them, as San Jose scored early in the third and late in the period to win a game that was just as important to its playoff hopes. 

But on balance, the result was deserved, as the Blue Jackets weren’t able to get much going throughout the night. And when they did, they made mistakes that allowed the Sharks to counterattack in waves, with head coach Rick Bowness disappointed with his team’s energy and execution by the end of a third loss in four games.  

"We didn’t have our legs, it’s as simple as that,” Bowness said. “We just didn’t have our legs. What the guys have to learn is when you don’t have your legs, you try to simplify the game a little bit. And even though we didn’t have our legs, we’re still trying to make plays that just weren’t there. They had their legs, give them credit. They played a fast game, and we were caught in between all night.” 

The loss left Columbus in the final wild card spot and fourth in the Metro with nine games to play, but there’s little time to stew over the setback. Boston comes to town tonight for the second half of a back-to-back in Nationwide Arena, with the Bruins one of the teams the Blue Jackets are fighting with for positioning in the Eastern Conference race. 

Boston pulled three points ahead of Columbus on Saturday thanks to a home win coupled with the Blue Jackets’ loss, and the focus for the home team will be to find the energy that was missing 24 hours earlier. 

“The players are going to have to get a good night’s rest and rest tomorrow and come in and just play a smarter game,” Bowness said. “When you don’t have your legs and it’s clear, don’t complicate the game. You just magnify the problem when you’re trying to make some of the plays we were trying to make that aren’t there. That made matters worse.” 

The reality is, though, that teams aren’t going to have their best stuff every night in the NHL, but the key is how you respond when you don’t. The Blue Jackets weren’t able to get over the hump on Saturday, but a team that has worked its way back into the thick of the race expects to bounce back against the Bruins. 

“We’ve had a good run, and certainly when we’ve been that good and been pushing ourselves as well as we have over the last few months, when you don’t have it, it’s very frustrating for sure,” Gudbranson said. “But we have to soak it in for the next 30 minutes, the next hour, and you have to refocus and get ready for a huge game tomorrow, and we’re going to do that. 

“Everybody understands it probably wasn’t good enough tonight, and that’s why we came up on the short end. There’s a lot of character in this group, so we’re gonna refocus and come back tomorrow.”

Scratches: Dmitri Voronkov (upper body injury), Miles Wood, Egor Zamula, Damon Severson (upper body injury, week to week) 

Injured Reserve: D Brendan Smith (knee surgery, out three to four months as of Jan. 8)      

Roster Report: Bowness said Voronkov will not play after leaving the San Jose game with injury, while Greaves will likely get the start in the second half of the back-to-back. Any other potential changes will be discussed in Bowness’ pregame meeting with the media in the afternoon.  

This Day in CBJ History

March 29, 2000: The organization announces the formation of the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation, a grant-making public charity that will orchestrate the team’s community development and fund-raising programs.  

March 29, 2003: Geoff Sanderson has the first and only four-goal game in CBJ history, leading the way in a 6-4 victory at Calgary. Sanderson scores three straight goals in a 9:43 span of the second period to give Columbus a 5-3 lead, then adds an empty-net tally in the third. Sanderson also notches an assist as both he and Andrew Cassels (1-4-5) finish with CBJ-record-tying five-point nights.   

March 29, 2011: Maksim Mayorov scores the only goal of the shootout as the Blue Jackets take a 3-2 win vs. Florida at Nationwide Arena.   

March 29, 2014: Ryan Johansen’s power-play goal in overtime gives the Blue Jackets a 3-2 win at Carolina as the Blue Jackets zero in on what would be the second postseason berth in team history.  

March 29, 2016: 2015 first-round draft pick Zach Werenski signs an entry level contract with the Blue Jackets at the conclusion of his season at the University of Michigan. 

March 29, 2018: Pierre-Luc Dubois notches the fourth CBJ hat trick in 15 days, scoring three goals in a 5-1 win at Calgary. Cam Atkinson (March 15), Artemi Panarin (March 20) and Thomas Vanek (March 27) previously earned hat tricks during the span. With the win, John Tortorella surpasses Todd Richards as the winningest coach in franchise history with his 128th victory. 

The Numbers Game

Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner is set to play in his 800th career NHL game, becoming the first CBJ player to reach that mark with the team. ... Columbus is 20-5-4 since Jan. 11 and leads the NHL in points percentage (.759) in that span, and the Blue Jackets are 9-1-3 in the last 13 home games. ... Zach Werenski has moved into fifth place in CBJ single-season annals with 77 points this year. With 21 goals and 56 assists – three short of tying the franchise record – he is third among NHL defensemen in goals and second in points. Werenski has points in 28 of his last 36 games (12-35-47) as well as 39 of the last 50 (17-49-66). He leads NHL defensemen in multipoint games (25, tied for 10th overall in NHL) and has tied Artemi Panarin’s team record set in 2018-19. ... Adam Fantilli has eight goals in the last 17 games and posted a 9-15-24 line in the last 23 games. He has points in eight of the last 10 games (3-7-10). ... Denton Mateychuk scored his 12th goal of the season Saturday to tie him for 12th in the league among defensemen. He is just the fourth CBJ blueliner to have at least 12 goals in a season, joining Werenski (four times), Seth Jones (twice) and Bryan Berard (12, 2005-06). ... Mathieu Olivier has 11 goals in the last 22 games, tying him for 12th in the NHL since Jan. 26. … Kirill Marchenko is second in the NHL with six shootout goals and has scored on 10 of 15 career shootout attempts, the best mark among all active NHLers and second best in league history (minimum 10 attempts). ... Charlie Coyle has 11 goals and 30 points in the past 29 games, while Cole Sillinger has a 2-5-7 line in the last seven contests. ... Fantilli (54) and Sillinger (33) tied career highs in points on Saturday. ... Jet Greaves is 12-2-2 in his last 17 appearances with a 2.23 GAA, as well as a 1.66 GAA and .929 save percentage in his last six games. ... Blue Jackets defensemen have scored 55 goals this season, the most in the NHL and a new franchise record. … Columbus has scored first in 44 of 73 games overall, tying Washington for the most in the NHL. ...  The Blue Jackets are 6-1 in shootouts this year. ... Jenner has 209 career goals, four behind Cam Atkinson for second in team history.  

Know The Foe: Boston Bruins

Head coach: Marco Sturm (First season)          

Team stats: Goals per game:  3.33 (9th) | Scoring defense: 3.07 (T-20th) | PP: 23.3 percent (9th) | PK: 76.7 percent (27th)   

The narrative: Boston had made eight straight playoff appearances and qualified 15 of 17 seasons before falling to a last-place finish in the Atlantic Division a year ago. It seemed like saying goodbye to such legendary Bruins as Tuukka Rask, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Brad Marchand over the previous few years meant Boston would be entering a rebuilding cycle, but Sturm has the squad holding a wild card spot going into tonight’s action in his first campaign in charge.   

Scoring leaders: Some of those familiar names are gone, but it helps the Bruins still have David Pastrnak, and the Czech star leads the team and is ninth in the NHL with 92 points, including 29 goals and 63 assists. The emergence of Morgan Geekie at age 27 into one of the league’s top goal scorers has been a big reason for the team’s success, as his 34 tallies tie him for 16th in the league. Pavel Zacha has been on a tear with four multipoint games in the last six, giving him 26 goals and 30 assists on the year, while gold medalist Charlie McAvoy leads the defense with a 10-45-55 line.  

In net: The Bruins sent both goalies to the Olympics in U.S. gold-medal winner Jeremy Swayman and former Blue Jacket Joonas Korpisalo, a bronze medalist with Finland. Swayman is 29-15-4 to tie for fourth in the NHL in wins while posting a 2.72 GAA and .908 save percentage, while Korpisalo is 12-9-4 with a 3.28 GAA and .891 save percentage and will likely start tonight after Swayman played yesterday. 

What's new: After a red-hot January that included an 11-2-1 record, the Bruins have had some ups and downs since the Olympic break, posting a 9-4-3 record after yesterday’s 6-3 win at home vs. Minnesota. Boston has won four of the last five and has points in seven of eight (5-1-2), with Pastrnak posting 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in that eight-game span. The Bruins have been susceptible on the penalty kill of late, too, allowing at least one power-play goal in the last five games.  

Trending: Boston captured the first game of the season series Feb. 26, a 4-2 victory in each team’s first contest back from the Olympic break. Columbus went 2-1-0 in the series a year ago but has struggled a bit in the series since 2021-22, posting a 3-7-3 record.  

Former CBJ: Korpisalo is just one of four former Columbus players in The Hub, as center Sean Kuraly (5-12-17) and defenseman Andrew Peeke (5-9-14) are regulars with the squad and blueliner Jordan Harris has played just six games while dealing with injury.