Winning Thoughts: Blue Jackets finish this one off vs. the Oilers

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

BLUE JACKETS 5, OILERS 4

1. Maybe we should have expected a big night out of Mathieu Olivier on his bobblehead night.

Thursday night was the Blue Jackets’ annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night, presented by OhioHealth, and the giveaway was a lavender-clad bobblehead of the CBJ enforcer, with his fists ready to do damage against a disease that has touched us all.

Olivier was quick to joke after the game that the bobblehead didn’t even include gloves or a stick, but he was still happy with the result.

“I thought they did a good job,” Olivier said. “The fists were massive.”

And while Olivier has developed quite a reputation around the NHL with those fists, he used the gloves and stick to pretty good effect against the Oilers.

Olivier contributed two goals and an assist, helping lead his line to a three-tally night in the victory. Charlie Coyle assisted on both of Olivier’s goals and added his own goal off a feed from Olivier, and a line tasked with containing Connor McDavid more than held its own on the scoresheet. In fact, it was a difference maker.

“I think you need to have that kind of line on any winning team,” Olivier said. “That kind of shutdown line that can go up against their top units and liberate some work for the other lines on our team. Obviously, (Cole Sillinger), Coyler and myself, I think we’re three guys that take pride in doing that job.”

It was the second time in three home games that the line brought the offense, as the trio combined for 11 points Oct. 29 in a victory over Toronto. They won’t necessarily light up the scoreboard every night, but their dedication to playing the right way adds a fair amount of depth to the CBJ lineup.

Injuries, illness and other factors have led to some mobility in the Blue Jackets’ forward depth chart over the last two weeks, but head coach Dean Evason seems to come back to that trio whenever he can despite whatever might be going on in the lineup.

“They do the right things,” Evason said. “I think you guys have seen we’ve flipped the lines a little bit here and there, but that line has been pretty consistent here for a while. We do trust them defensively, but as they showed tonight, they were able to produce offensively as well.”

2. The Blue Jackets got some revenge for Monday night’s loss in Edmonton.

In many ways, it felt like deja vu all over again. For the second time in four nights, the Blue Jackets took a two-goal lead into the third period against the Oilers, only to see a high-powered Edmonton team push to tie things up.

Monday in Alberta, the Oilers did just that – and then some. A shorthanded goal in the final minute and Jack Roslovic’s overtime tally pushed Edmonton a 5-4 win, and you had to wonder how the Blue Jackets would respond to such a gut-punch loss.

The answer Tuesday in Seattle was strong, as the Blue Jackets battled their way to a taut shootout win. They then welcomed the Oilers to Nationwide Arena for a return engagement, and this time, Columbus held on as Edmonton pushed in the final minutes.

Were the Blue Jackets having flashbacks to how things unraveled just a few short days ago?

“You try not to,” Coyle said. “We all know what has happened recently, but I think when you start to let those thoughts creep in, you’re going to end up in whatever you’re thinking about. It’s just up to us to say, ‘Hey, let’s learn from it. Let’s turn it over and let’s get the job done this time.’ I think we were a little more in tune to what we’re doing.”

It wasn’t always pretty, as Edmonton had the momentum in the final minutes. Olivier’s second goal early in the third pushed Columbus to a 5-2 lead, but goals from Vasily Podzolkin and Leon Draisaitl cut the CBJ advantage to just one with over eight minutes to play.

To fans, they couldn’t help but think they might be watching a replay, especially considering the skill of McDavid, Draisaitl and the rest of the Oilers. To the Blue Jackets, no matter how hairy it got, it was just another chance to close out a game and get two points.

“I think our mindset was just that we’re never safe, so we have to keep going,” Olivier said. “We have to keep pressuring. Obviously they’re the best of the best players over there, so they’re going to put some heat on you, so I’m glad to find a way to get it done tonight.”

3. Adam Fantilli scores in bunches, and that was proven yet again vs. the Oilers.

The young CBJ standout is in just his third season in the NHL, yet he came into the matchup against Edmonton riding the eighth multi-game goal streak of his career.

And he wasn’t satisfied there. Fantilli made it three in a row with a tally late in the second period, taking a pass at the netfront from Kirill Marchenko – who became just the fifth CBJ player to extend a point streak to 10 games – and scoring past goalie Calvin Pickard to give Columbus a 4-2 lead.

Fantilli hadn’t scored in eight games before his tally Monday in Edmonton, which could have been frustrating, but he maintains he was happy with his game and how he was playing during the scoreless run. But he’s also not going to argue that it’s a heck of a lot more fun to score than not.

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I think it’s coming with a lot of team success, which is great, but I think I’ve been playing good this entire time. I think points are just starting to fall right now. I don’t think I’m changing much out there.”

Fantilli not only has goals in three straight games, he has a four-game point streak with a 3-3-6 line since being reunited on a line with Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov. The production is nice, but it’s also a reminder that if you keep doing the right things, positive results will follow.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily because he got put on that line,” Evason said. “I think we talk about reward all the time, and he was doing the right thing as far as his work ethic, as far as his attention to detail. That’s what we’ve asked him to do.”