So that's what we did when looking to talk about the Blue Jackets' come-from-behind, then come-from-ahead 5-4 victory against Washington on Tuesday night to kick off the second half of the season. Columbus trailed 2-0 and 3-2, tallied to take a 4-3 lead, then watched the Caps get an extra-attacker goal but still had enough time to get the game winner in the District.
It felt like the kind of no-passengers, everyone-pulling-the-rope win that can unite a team, and Voracek felt that as well. But his biggest take-home message from the game was how the Blue Jackets played a veteran, battle-tested, physical team and held their ground no matter what Washington threw at them.
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"There's gonna be games you're gonna lose, there's gonna be games you're gonna win, but what I like yesterday is we brought a physical game," Voracek said. "Especially in the third period, and we stood our ground, which was really important when I compare it to games like in Nashville where we got beat up and we lost. That's not pretty to watch, but yesterday they came at us and we stood our ground and we fought our battles, and it showed."
At the end of the game, Columbus had a 27-17 edge in hits in what was a physical, spirited game that threated occasionally to teeter over the edge in that regard. It never quite got to that point, but it is fair to say both sides were engaged for much of the game, and the back-and-forth nature of the game was a roller-coaster yet one the Jackets seemed to be able to handle throughout the contest.
"To come back from two down, 3-2, get ahead, they tie it late, and find a way to push through in regulation, I'm just happy for them because they poured a lot into that game physically and mentally," head coach Brad Larsen said. "They were engaged in that game. You could see obviously in the third period the emotion was ramped up a bit, there was more physicality, and our guys answered the bell as a group and that's real important."
As for that physical nature, Larsen has toed the line all year of wanting his team to engage opponents without going too far to make that happen. The first-year head coach thought the Blue Jackets hit that level of aggressiveness against the Caps and hopes his team can band together and keep it going when they get back on the ice tonight.
"I thought guys stepped up," Larsen said. "They continued to play physical. They came at us hard in the third, and we stood our ground. That was a good game for us in that aspect of sticking together."