Winning Thoughts: A memorable first victory in more ways than one

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

BLUE JACKETS 7, WILD 4

1. Kirill Marchenko proved to be the King of the Kirills on this night.

When it comes to goals and points – and, well, pocketbooks – Kirill Kaprizov has become quite a measuring stick in the NHL.

The Minnesota forward just signed the richest contract in the league and showed why Saturday night against the Blue Jackets, scoring a pair of power-play goals for the Wild.

Yet he still didn’t score the most goals in the game by a player named Kirill. That, of course, would be the Blue Jackets version of Kirill the Thrill, and Marchenko certainly did just that with his fourth career hat trick in the CBJ win.

Marchenko started his night by setting a Blue Jackets record for the quickest goal to start a period in franchise history, taking a pass from Dmitri Voronkov, swooping into the slot and wiring a wrist shot past goalie Filip Gustavsson’s blocker seven seconds into the second to give Columbus a 2-0 lead.

At that point, he was just getting warmed up. Marchenko scored his second goal with 1:12 left in the second to give the Jackets a 3-2 lead, as Zach Werenski’s shot off the leg of Voronkov bounced right to Marchenko in the shot for a quick finish. He completed the hat trick when he gave Columbus a 5-2 advantage on a 5-on-3 early in the third, ripping a one-timer home off a pass from Werenski.

Marchenko came up scoreless on eight shots on goal – many of them excellent looks – in the season opener vs. Nashville, and that meant he went into the lab at practice Friday. The Russian sniper said he worked on some technique issues with his shot before and after the team’s skate and felt better about it going into the game, and he proved it against the Wild.

“I wasn’t really frustrated,” he said of the game vs. Nashville. “I just know I will score if I have a lot of shots. It’s supposed to go in, just (with) averages and statistics. I don’t think about it. I work in the practice a little bit and go in next game and try to do my best.”

The hat trick was the fourth of Marchenko’s CBJ career, placing him third in the franchise’s all-time annals behind Cam Atkinson (six) and Rick Nash (five). Coming off a 31-goal season, Marchenko’s bona fides as a goal scorer are real, but what impresses head coach Dean Evason the most is what he does all over the ice.

A pure goal scorer when he arrived in Columbus – you might remember his 21-goal, four-assist rookie season in 2022-23 – Marchenko has developed into a formidable force in the NHL, someone who is hard to play against and puts in the work all over the ice to create his scoring chances.

“You could see at the end of shifts he’s tired,” Evason said. “We’re yelling at him to get the heck off the ice because he’s gassed, which is good because you know he’s working his butt off in order to not score goals but get after it and get after the puck. If he does that, then he gets rewarded with that kind of night.”

2. Boone Jenner’s milestone goal highlighted a night of noteworthy statistics.

Even in the 25th season of CBJ hockey, you can see things you’ve never seen before. Marchenko’s bang-bang goal to start the second set that franchise record, and the Blue Jackets reached a milestone as an organization when Adam Fantilli scored the team’s 5,000th regular-season goal in the third period.

On the individual front, Elvis Merzlikins’ 48-save performance was the second best of his career as far as stops go, but the individual mark that had the biggest historic impact came when Jenner took a pass from Charlie Coyle and iced the game with an empty-net goal.

The second the puck crossed the line, Jenner claimed a hallowed designation in the CBJ books. The goal was his 200th of his career, and now the 13th-year Blue Jacket joins Rick Nash (289) and Cam Atkinson (213) as the only players to hit the milestone mark.

After the game, the new dad reacted exactly as you might have expected – befitting of a captain, he was much more excited about the win than the nice round number of goals.

“It feels good,” he said. “(It’s) more important we got the win tonight than 200, but it’s No. 1 for my son, so that’s how I think of it.”

Young Tommy Jenner probably won’t remember the 200th goal – and it probably happened after his bedtime, anyway – but we’ll bet he’ll see the puck sooner rather than later now that Boone has landed back in Columbus.

The goal wrapped up a Jenner-like game for the captain, as he added two assists and finished plus-3.

“He’s obviously been here his whole career, and he’s our leader,” Werenski said. “It’s his first goal as a dad for him, so that’s exciting. The 200th goal is awesome. It’s a testament to how much he loves being a Blue Jacket and how much time he’s spent here. We love having him, so I’m happy for him.”

3. The Blue Jackets gave up four power-play goals, but it might not be as bad as it sounds.

Oh, there’s one more historic stat that we didn’t mention earlier – for just the second time in team history and for the first time in a road game, the Blue Jackets won a contest in which they gave up four power-play tallies to the other team.

(In a bit of a crazy coincidence, Vladimir Tarasenko was on the opposing squad both times, as he’s currently on the Wild and skated for the St. Louis team the Blue Jackets defeated Nov. 12, 2016, despite four PPG for the Blues.)

Yet I’d say it’s a bit too early to sound alarm bells about the team’s penalty kill. First off, the four power-play goals came on eight chances for the Wild, including a pair of 5-on-3 opportunities for Minnesota.

I can already hear your next question: Isn’t giving up eight power-play opportunities to the other team not a great idea? And of course that is true, but we will point out most of the penalties were a bit out of the ordinary. Three of the calls against the Blue Jackets were for clearing the puck over the glass, which does carry a two-minute penalty but is a bit more of random, unfortunate luck thing than a hook, a hold or a trip.

Another of the power plays was a result of Marchenko closing his hand on the puck, which you don’t see very often. Columbus also took a too many men on the ice penalty and was assessed a PK after a failed goaltender interference challenge on the first Minnesota goal.

Yes, you want to stay out of the box, but coaches are likely to be much more mad about penalties of laziness – the aforementioned stick infractions – or a lack of discipline. These were mistakes, yes, but mistakes that you likely won’t see repeated.

“They’re things we can clean up for sure,” Werenski said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit, but I like how we handled it.”

Evason agreed. The Blue Jackets ended up spending 11 minutes of the game shorthanded, and 16 of Minnesota’s 52 shots on goal came on power plays as well. Despite the fact the Jackets allowed the tallies on the PK, the head coach actually liked how his unit fared given how much it had to be on the ice.

“The bad thing or unfortunate thing is that our penalty kill was pretty good,” Evason said. “We made maybe a couple mistakes, of course, obviously, and they have some special players over there. Our PK is fine. Saying that with four goals probably sounds a bit silly, but yeah, we are fortunate enough to win when you give up four.”

4. This one goes out to Quinn Halstead.

OK, this piece is supposed to include only three notes, but Jenner's gesture after the game deserves some appreciation.

Quinn Halstead, the daughter of Blue Jackets assistant equipment manager Dustin Halstead and a AAA Blue Jackets 12U player, has been battling a brain tumor, undergoing treatments over the past few months as the CBJ season has gotten underway. The players have supported Quinn in multiple ways, including when the Blue Jackets and Penguins both wore "Quinn's Crew" stickers on their helmets during a preseason game.

After Saturday's win, Jenner took a moment to recognize her fight, announcing to the team the donkey hat that goes to the player of the game would go to Quinn.

"To have somebody do that is absolutely incredible," Evason said. "Quinn is going through a battle, and for them to think about her after a big win like that, that tells you a lot about our leadership group."