What We Learned: VAN 5, CBJ 4 (OT)

VANCOUVER, B.C. - This game was in the bag.
The Vancouver Canucks had a three-goal lead, their fans at Rogers Arena knew it and to celebrate, they serenaded the visiting Blue Jackets with the ages-old sendoff, "Hey, hey, goooood-bye."
Seth Jones wasn't having any of it. The Blue Jackets' defenseman, wearing an alternate captain's 'A' on the left shoulder of his jersey, went up and down the bench during a late TV timeout, insisting it was still a winnable game.
The response was swift, sudden and stunning, as the Jackets scored three goals in 2:37 to tie it, 4-4, and force overtime. They wound up losing in OT, 5-4, but that point they earned in the standings was a big one.
"The mood got pretty low there at 4-1, with six minutes left or whatever it was, but that shows you there, don't quit playing until the horn goes," said Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, who had a goal and three assists to set a franchise record for scoring by a defenseman in a single season (54 points). "I went up and down the bench [saying], 'It's a winnable game.' We kind of felt it … We just had to believe, I think."

It's getting easier to believe in this team the way they played in March, going 12-3-1 in 16 games crammed into 31 days and putting themselves in a good spot with three games left in the regular season.
Columbus hasn't clinched anything yet, but it sure looks like the Blue Jackets are heading for their second straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They've done some special things in these past 31 days, and despite the loss, this game was one of them. This three-game trip to Western Canada was, too, earning five out of six available points and overcoming two three-goal deficits to do it.
"The pressure wears on you, [and] we do have a little bit of sickness going through the team," coach John Tortorella said. "That's the thing the last couple games. I just don't think our energy has been totally there, but I'm not going to [complain about] this team. They just got [five out of six points], and they come back in a huge way here, to find a way to get a point. I'm just frustrated we didn't have a chance to play in that overtime a little bit more, because I thought we would come through with a win."
Players felt that way too.
After rookie center Pierre-Luc Dubois scored on a power play with 3:58 left in the third, cutting the Canucks' lead to 4-2, they started to believe even more a comeback was possible. Despite being outplayed most of the game, despite former teammate Jussi Jokinen scoring a key goal and assisting on two others, they knew there was enough time left.
Columbus averaged 3.9 goals a game in its previous 15 games, and had just put up 12 combined in the first two games of the trip, defeating the Edmonton Oilers, 7-3, on Tuesday and Calgary Flames, 5-1, on Thursday.
This was possible.
Goalie Joonas Korpisalo headed to the bench for an extra attacker, the Jackets worked the puck into the Canucks' zone and Zach Werenski soon made it 4-3 with 1:37 left. Their confidence in a comeback was boiling over, and the same fans who sung so mockingly, just minutes earlier, got a little nervous.
There was good reason, too, as it turned out.
The Jackets kept the pressure on, with Korpisalo still on the bench, and then it happened. Cam Atkinson scored off a great feed from Jones and the game was tied, 4-4, with 1:21 left in regulation.
Three goals. Two-minutes, 37 seconds. One impressive comeback.
Overtime didn't go as well, obviously, with Alexander Edler ending the game 1:21 into it, but the Blue Jackets found a way yet again.
"We're trying to scrap away to get points," Tortorella said. "It's the third [game] of our trip. It seems like we've been on the road trip for about two months. I like the way we responded to find a way to get a point. I don't think in the past couple games a bunch of our minutes have been good, but we're still finding a way to get points here."
In the end, if they do clinch a playoff spot, that's all that matters.
Here's what we learned:
I: WHAT IT MEANS
The Blue Jackets moved up to 94 points and remain in third place of the Metropolitan Division, two points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins (96 points). The Penguins, who will play in Columbus on Thursday, defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 to gain a point on the Jackets.
The Philadelphia Flyers, who hold the Eastern Conference's first wild card, were idle. The New Jersey Devils, who have the second wild-card spot, defeated the New York Islanders, 4-3. The Florida Panthers lost 5-1 to the Boston Bruins and fell to five points back of the Devils,.
"It's a big point," Jones said. "Obviously, you want to win a game. You understand how big this game could've been, standings-wise, but you go into every game wanting to win. You're not going to [every time], but the way we got this point, we showed a lot of character."

II: ANOTHER RECORD FOR JONES
Thomas Vanek was asked about the depth of the Blue Jackets' defensemen and wound up making a strong comment about Jones, whom he's been teammates with for 16 games now.
"The six [guys] that are playing are great and they're anchored by 'Jonesy,' who's by far the best defenseman I've ever played with," he said, emphasizing the 'by far,' part.
Tortorella not only agreed, but said it means more coming from a teammate. He also issued a challenge.
"I want someone to show me a better defender on the back end in this league than that guy," he said. "Forget about the points and his speed and how he controls the pace of the game for us. I want someone to show me, on tape, a better defender than what we have there in Seth Jones, because there's not too many."
Right on cue, Jones delivered.
He scored the game's first goal to cap a power play with 6:05 left in the first period, delivered his pep talk in the third and then backed it up with assists on all three goals that tied it in that 2:37 span - all while playing through an upper-body injury that still, technically, has him listed day-to-day.
Jones' four-point game was a career-high and pushed him past James Wisniewski for the most points in a single season in Blue Jackets history. Jones has 54 points (16 goals, 38 assists) and Wisniewski had 51 points in 2013-14.
"It's cool," Jones said. "My teammates have found me this year, and when I've found them they've put the puck in the net. So, it feels good. It's a pretty cool accomplishment."
III: FAMILIAR FOES
If you gave this game a title, it could've been "The Vanek Trade Game."
All three players involved in that NHL Trade Deadline deal, which brought Vanek to Columbus, were on the ice.
Vanek played for the Blue Jackets, while Tyler Motte and Jokinen, who were traded to Vancouver, played for the Canucks.
Motte didn't have a point, but provided a distraction on a game-tying goal scored in the second by Darren Archibald, charging to the net as a pass option. Jokinen factored into the Canucks' second, third and fourth goals. The veteran forward set up goals by Nikolay Goldobin and Bo Horvat, and scored a goal to make it 3-1 at 5:14 of the third.
"It adds a little bit more motivation factor," Motte said of facing the Blue Jackets.
IV: THE STREAK CONTINUES
It only took a couple seconds after the Jackets' first power began. Artemi Panarin passed the puck to Atkinson, who sent it out top to Jones for a one-timer from above the circles.

Jones hammered the puck through traffic, into the net, and just like that Atkinson's point streak reached seven games - the longest of the season by a Blue Jackets player. Atkinson added another point with his game-tying goal in the third and now has 43 points (21 goals, 22 assists).
He nearly had two more in the first period, but rung a shot off the crossbar on his first shift of the game and another off the post on a later shift. The sounds of puck hitting metal, without the goal lamp lighting up, had to feel good to Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko, who made his NHL debut.
Atkinson actually knows Demko from summer workouts in Connecticut.
"I shoot on [Demko] in the summers, so I know he's a great kid and a hell of a goalie," Atkinson said. "When I rang it off the bar in the first, or the first couple times I rang it off the bar, he looked at me and smiled, because in the summer I like to shoot high on him. He knew it was coming."
The Jackets also had a tipped shot by Sonny Milano hit the crossbard in the third.
"Wish those would've went in, but it is what it is," Atkinson said.
V: DEPTH DIVE
The Blue Jackets have four defensemen listed among their healthy scratches each game and they all could play a solid game if called upon.
There's so much depth that Taylor Chorney, a veteran acquired off waivers from the Washington Capitals, hasn't played a single game yet for Columbus.
"I don't think I've ever seen a team this deep, at least I haven't been on one," Vanek said. "We have [our] seven, eight, nine even ... [who] should be playing. That's unfortunate for them, but it's good for us, because the depth is crazy. I've never seen it."
They might have to tap into it, too.
Markus Nutivaara left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury and didn't return. Tortorella said it's a strain of some sort and Nutivaara will be re-evaluated in Columbus. Nutivaara scored four goals in the previous seven games and formed a strong two-way defense pairing with Ryan Murray.
"We had two periods to play when he left, so we had to manage it a little bit more, be a little smarter with our jumps and reads, as a whole, as a [defense] corps," Jones said. "I thought we did a retty good job of managing those minutes as five guys."
Jack Johnson, who's been scratched the past five games, is likely the first in line to draw back into the lineup if Nutivaara can't play Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.
VI: WHAT A MONTH
The Blue Jackets came into March looking to get themselves back into the playoff mix, sitting just outside the East's second wild card behind the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils.
After going 12-3-1 in 16 games, accruing 25 points in 31 days and rattling off a 10-game winning streak, they met that goal. Other teams started winning more, too, but Columbus is in good shape with three games left in the regular season.
The Jackets' 12 wins and 25 points are second-most in team history, behind only their 14-0-0 record and 28 points from December 2016 of last season, when they strung together a franchise-record 16-game winning streak.
VI: MR. CLUTCH
It took him most of the game to get going, not to mention a line shakeup by Tortorella, but Panarin cranked it up again when the Blue Jackets needed it most. Like Jones, the dynamic Russian left wing assisted on all three goals Columbus scored in the third period, including primary assists on the goals by Dubois and Werenski.
He also had a secondary assist on Jones' power-play goal in the first for a four-point game, all on assists, to set a new career high in assists (51). He's now tied for his career-high with 77 points (26 goals, 51 assists), which he set as a rookie in 2015-16 with the Chicago Blackhawks.
"I thought he struggled through most of the game tonight and basically was involved as a main guy in the last three goals," Tortorella said. "[He] just made some great plays. That's what you get. That's what [Panarin's] about. I didn't think he was good at all through the game, but then I thought he tried putting the team on his shoulders with some great plays there to get us the point."
VII: GO WEST FOR WINS
The month of March began with a three-game trip to California to play the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. It ended with this trip to Western Canada, which covered stops to play the Oilers, Flames and Canucks.
Despite being swept by the Kings and Ducks in a back-to-back to start their Western ventures, the Blue Jackets can attribute a significant portion of their playoff push to each Westward voyage.
They concluded the California trip with a confidence-building victory Mar. 4 against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center, beginning their 10-game streak., and then won the first two games on the Canadian trip - including their 7-3 comeback victory in Edmonton.
In all, the Jackets earned seven of 12 points between the two trips and flew home Saturday happy to get the final one in Vancouver.
VIII: NEXT UP
The Blue Jackets are off Sunday and will practice Monday, prior to hosting the Red Wings on Tuesday at Nationwide Arena (7 p.m. Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports Go, 97.1 FM).