Winning Thoughts: Blue Jackets battle their way to a victory in Philly

After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets' victory. 

BLUE JACKETS 2, FLYERS 1 (SO) 

1. The Blue Jackets deserve the chance to sleep in Sunday after a hectic week of four games in four cities, with Columbus getting points in all four. 

Head coach Rick Bowness knew this was going to be perhaps the craziest week of the craziest month of the season. The Blue Jackets have a franchise-record 17 contests in March, and four of them came this week thanks to the rescheduled game from a January blizzard that meant the Kings visited Columbus on Monday. 

After that OT loss, the Blue Jackets hopped on a plane to Tampa for Tuesday night’s win, then went further south to the outer reaches of Miami for the overtime loss to Florida. Then came Saturday’s war of attrition against the Flyers, as what started as a relatively open game with tons of scoring chances each way turned into a physical, bitter confrontation as the night went on. 

But in the end, Kirill Marchenko scored his 100th career goal in regulation – he's just the ninth CBJ player to reach that mark – and then the only goal of the shootout. The Blue Jackets finished the week 2-0-2, extended their point streak to nine games and now have points in 19 of the 21 games under Bowness (15-2-4).

“We played a lot of hockey this week, we really have,” Bowness said. “But I give the guys a ton of credit. Listen, we just played three road games. We didn’t give up 20 shots 5-on-5 in any of the games. We outchanced the opposition two to one.  

The guys are playing their hearts out. They are. You have to give them a ton of credit because there’s no quit in this group. Yeah, it was a tight game out there. There wasn’t a lot of room, and they kept battling and I just love it.” 

As Bowness noted, the Blue Jackets turned in another solid defensive effort, keeping the Flyers without a shot on goal for an 18-minute stretch of the first and second periods and limiting Philadelphia to just 19 shots overall.  

Columbus also showed some gumption, as the game turned into a physical affair that featured numerous post-whistle scrums, as well as a fight when Adam Fantilli dropped the gloves in response to a hit on Damon Severson by Carl Grundstrom. There were also some major heart plays, including crucial backchecks by Conor Garland late in the third and Fantilli in overtime to prevent chances by the Flyers. 

Add it all up and the Blue Jackets returned home to Columbus with two critical points.  

“It’s awesome,” Marchenko said. “It’s really important for us and for the standings. It looked like a playoff game. Actually the last games, too. We play in like only one-goal (games), always in overtime and shootouts, and happy to win that because last games we lose in overtime. Now we change it. It’s nice.” 

2. Marchenko and Greaves came up huge in the shootout to earn the extra point in the standings. 

One got the sense the Blue Jackets were pretty tired of losing in overtime, as five of the previous eight games went past 60 minutes and Columbus won just one of them. Both teams also seemed fine with getting it to the skills competition – there was just one shot on goal in OT, by the Flyers in the dying seconds – which might be no surprise considering Columbus was 5-1 in shootouts going in and Philadelphia was 8-3. 

Once they got there, though, Marchenko was the only player to score. After Flyers goalie Dan Vladar denied Kent Johnson and Fantilli in the first two rounds, Marchenko swooped in with a chance to win the game and did just that, moving the puck to his backhand and flipping it home. 

Marchenko has now scored on six of seven shootout attempts this season, but this one was a little different. Throughout the season, he has mostly beaten goalies between the legs with a quick forehand shot, but a chat with former Flyers defenseman and current CBJ teammate Egor Zamula convinced him to change it up. 

“I told before in media, before the game, I go five-hole,” Marchenko joked. “I just want to give confusion for Flyers. Now, yeah, just switch it up. I talked with Zamula and he has been on this team for a while, and he told me they pre-scout you, every kind of game, and they know all of our moves in the shootout and we need to find something new.” 

On the other side, Jet Greaves made his stops look easy, getting a pad on Matvei Michkov’s opening try, waiting out Trevor Zegras’ backhand look and then gloving Travis Konecny’s forehand shot.

“Three super talented players on the other side, and they’re all super skilled in a shootout,” Greaves said. “Just doing what I can to keep it out. Fortunate to have the result go our way tonight.” 

“He was so calm in the shootout,” Bowness added. “That was pretty good to see. Very impressive.” 

3. The Blue Jackets’ penalty kill stepped up with a crucial stretch late in the second period and early in the third. 

As the game turned feisty late in the second, Columbus got itself in some penalty trouble. First, Cole Sillinger took a cross-checking penalty with 2:22 on the clock, then Severson was dinged for a pair of cross-checks against Denver Barkey after the rookie hit him into the boards late on the Philly power play. 

Add it all up and the Blue Jackets were shorthanded for 5:57 of continuous time, but they didn’t allow a goal and limited the Flyers’ 32nd-ranked PP to just five shots on goal in that span. Ivan Provorov led the way in the game with 5:07 of PK time, with Dante Fabbro right behind at 4:48. Charlie Coyle (3:46) and Sean Monahan (3:03) paced the forwards with Isac Lundeström (2:59) also doing important work.  

“I thought the kill did a great job,” Greaves said. “Special teams is so important in these games, and I thought the guys did a good job. There were a lot of shot blocks. I think we were getting it in the neutral zone and up the ice, and that shows a positive effort from the guys. It’s such an important time in the game.” 

After the game, Bowness was both pleased with how his penalty killers got the job done but also a little unhappy with the power-play imbalance – Philadelphia had four, Columbus one – in a physical game.  

“The PKers won the game for us really,” Bowness said. “They did. Especially that four minutes. I don’t understand why we’re always the team in the league that has the least amount of power plays. I don’t understand that. There’s a little lack of respect for our hockey club, and we’re going to change that and we’re going to keep pushing and we’re going to keep battling. Somehow, we’re going to have to draw some penalties. I don’t understand how every game it’s 3-1. So anyways, give the penalty killers a lot of credit because they won the game for us.”