PREVIEW: Blue Jackets face Devils in Black Friday matinee

The good news is that the Blue Jackets snapped a nine-game winless streak Wednesday in emphatic fashion, blowing out Chicago by a 7-3 score.

The better news is the way Columbus did it. The Blue Jackets got contributions from up and down the lineup, leaving a lot of players with smiles on their face as they woke up on Thanksgiving morning.

Twelve different players finished with points, and players who might have needed a pick-me-up got one. One game after being a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career, Patrik Laine got on the board with a goal, while Cole Sillinger tallied for the first time on the season and Adam Boqvist had a big game, notching his first two points of the year and finishing plus-4.

Add in some contributions from the usual suspects – like Boone Jenner’s two-goal night and Zach Werenski’s four-assist effort – and the Blue Jackets were able to romp their way to their biggest victory of the season.

“That’s huge for us – and huge for them,” Jenner said. “I think tonight was a team effort and everybody chipped in. You could see it throughout the game.”

Head coach Pascal Vincent echoed that message and said he was pleased with a lot of what the Blue Jackets did in the victory. He was not just happy after the game but after watching the film, noting that the Jackets’ tracking and reloads were the best of the season.

The difference between previous setbacks and the win? The Blue Jackets got some bounces and converted offensively.

“We played the right way,” Vincent said postgame. “We managed the blue lines. Our tracking was right. Our ability to create plays was coming from hard work. I felt we had those pieces of our games in the past, just we didn’t connect offensively, and today we did. So many good things happened today.”

Now, the Blue Jackets want to keep it going. The Blue Jackets maintained they were close to turning losses into wins in recent weeks, and the hope is getting a little luck and building a little confidence could lead to winning being as contagious as losing.

“It’s only one game,” Vincent said. “We know it, but it was a good game and it’s a good foundation for us.”

Know The Foe: New Jersey Devils

Head coach: Lindy Ruff (Fourth season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.47 (9th) | Scoring defense: 3.82 (29th) | PP: 37.7 percent (1st) | PK: 77.1 percent (20th)

The narrative: New Jersey took a massive step forward a year ago, jumping an NHL-record 49 points in the standings to make their first playoff appearance in five years, then beating the rival New York Rangers in the first round. Years of top picks paid off as the team’s young talent, led by Jack Hughes, made a big leap, and the hope this season is to take an even bigger step forward. It’s been an uneven start, though, as injuries to such players as Hughes, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier have made it tough on the squad.

Team leaders: Jesper Bratt remains one of the most underrated players in the league, as the 25-year-old Swede leads the way with 23 points on eight goals and 15 assists. Hughes got off to a red-hot start before missing five games with injury, and he remains one of the top scorers in the league with a 6-16-22 line in 12 games. Tyler Toffoli adds a team-best nine goals among his 16 points, while Dougie Hamilton leads the blue line with a 5-9-14 line.

In the net, both Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid are in the bottom 10 in the league in goals saved above expected per MoneyPuck.com. Vanecek has played in 13 games and is 7-5-0 with a 3.43 GAA and .886 save percentage, while Schmid has nearly identical numbers at 1-3-1, 3.46 GAA and .885 save percentage.

What's new: The Devils have been bedeviled by injuries, with Hughes recently returning to the ice but both Hischier and Meier out for the team’s last game, a 4-0 loss at Detroit on Wednesday. It was the fifth loss in six games for the Devils, who have been outscored 27-16 in that span. Perhaps even more alarming – the Devils have been outscored 42-27 at 5-on-5 this season, the second-worst goals for percentage in the league at even strength.

Trending: Columbus entered last season dominant against the Devils, posting a 24-7-1 since Metropolitan Division play began through 2021-22. But last year, New Jersey got its revenge, winning all three games in the series by a combined 18-4 margin, including 15-2 at The Rock.

Former CBJ: None

Roster Report

Projected Lineup (subject to change)

Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Kirill Marchenko
Dmitri Voronkov – Adam Fantilli – Patrik Laine
Yegor Chinakhov – Cole Sillinger – Mathieu Olivier
Eric Robinson – Sean Kuraly – Justin Danforth
Zach Werenski – Adam Boqvist
Ivan Provorov – David Jiricek
Jake Bean – Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin

Scratches: Alexandre Texier (illness), Andrew Peeke, Damon Severson (out approximately six weeks with an oblique injury as of Nov. 21)

Injured reserve/Injured Non-Roster: Jack Roslovic (fractured ankle, out four to six weeks as of Nov. 13); Daniil Tarasov (knee, week to week)

Roster Report: Texier missed both Wednesday’s game and Thursday’s practice with illness and will remain out, so the CBJ lineup is the same as it was for the win vs. Chicago.

3 Stats to Know

• Zach Werenski had four assists in Wednesday night’s win vs. Chicago, a CBJ record for a defenseman. He now has 10 assists this month, tied for the most ever for a Blue Jackets defenseman in a month. He’s now tied for seventh among NHL blueliners with 14 assists on the season.
• Johnny Gaudreau played in his 100th game with the Blue Jackets on Wednesday and is third all-time among CBJ players in assists (59) and points (82) in his first 100 games with the franchise behind Artemi Panarin (32-71-103) and Ray Whitney (32-64-96).
• Milestone watch: Gaudreau is nine points from 700 for his NHL career (233-458-691, 702 GP).

Who’s Hot

Columbus has won six of its last seven Black Friday contests. … Zach Werenski has nine assists in the last seven games, and his four-assist game Wednesday was just the third in the NHL this season for a defenseman. … After his second multigoal game of the season Wednesday, Boone Jenner has recorded at least 10 goals through his first 20 games of a season for the second time in his career (also 10 in 2021-22) … Ivan Provorov has tied a career high with a four-game point streak (1-3-4). … Both Adam Fantilli (10 points, tied for fourth) and Dmitri Voronkov (nine points, tied for eighth) are among the top 10 rookies in the NHL in scoring. … Fantilli is also tied for fifth among NHL rookies in goals (four). … Sean Kuraly has points in five of the last seven games (2-3-5). … Columbus ranks first in the NHL penalty kill percentage since Oct. 20, killing off 44 of 48 (91.7 percent) power-play chances over the last 17 games.

This Day in CBJ History

Nov. 24, 2010: Jake Voracek scores the game-winning goal in overtime against Rick DiPietro with an assist going to Kris Russell as the Blue Jackets post a 4-3 win at the New York Islanders.

Nov. 24, 2021: Elvis Merzlikins makes 36 stops as the Blue Jackets post a 3-0 shutout win over Winnipeg at Nationwide Arena.