Winning Thoughts: Werenski leads way in key victory over Flyers

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

BLUE JACKETS 3, FLYERS 2 

1. When the Blue Jackets needed Zach Werenski to take over, he did just that. 

As an ESPN broadcast spent much of its time extolling the CBJ defenseman for the Norris Trophy, he showed exactly why he deserves the honor early in the second period. 

Head coach Rick Bowness described a first period in which the Blue Jackets were outshot 10-3 as “probably one of the worst” the Jackets had played since he took over, but Columbus went ahead for good just 2:28 into the second thanks to the brilliance of Werenski. 

On the opening shift of the period, Werenski came up the middle of the ice on a 3-on-2 with Cole Sillinger on his left and Mathieu Olivier on his right. After driving the defense back, Werenski flipped a pass to Olivier, who rifled a shot past Philadelphia goalie Dan Vladař from the dot to tie the score just 44 seconds into the period. 

Less than two minutes later, Werenski did it himself, as an excellent passing sequence by Mason Marchment and Damon Severson allowed him to come down the slot before ripping a shot past Vladař’s glove.

Everyone in the hockey world has come to realize Werenski is one of the best players in the world, and Bowness surely had an appreciation for his talents as he coached and observed the league. But now that he’s behind the CBJ bench, Bowness has realized... 

“That he’s able to do that when things aren’t going good,” Bowness said. “'OK, take control,’ and he did. The whole team struggled in that first period, let’s not kid ourselves. So when that happens, you need your better players to take over and set the tone.” 

Werenski finished with 24:27 played in the tight affair, posting the goal and assist along with three shots on goal and a plus-1 rating. It was his 25th multipoint game of the year, tying Artemi Panarin’s Columbus record set back in 2018-19, and gave Werenski 77 points on the year, passing Ray Whitney (2002-03) for fifth most in team history. 

But his biggest contribution served in getting the Jackets going early in the second, as the Blue Jackets got back to their style of play the rest of the night after taking the lead. 

“We know how special a player he is,” goalie Jet Greaves said. “The whole league, the whole world knows it now. It’s super fun to watch every night. You kind of get used to it a little bit and almost take it for granted sometimes, but at the same time, he does things like that and he just reminds us of how special a player he is.” 

It also proved to be a huge win for the Blue Jackets, who moved two points clear of the playoff bar and into second place in the Metropolitan Division thanks to losses by Pittsburgh, the New York Islanders, Detroit and Boston.

2. Greaves’ also deserves a lot of credit for the win, as his play in the first period kept the Blue Jackets in the game. 

As Bowness noted, it wasn’t exactly a sterling start for the Blue Jackets, who couldn’t get anything going through the first 20 minutes. 

You could say they were lucky to be down only 1-0, and Greaves was a big reason for that with several key stops, including a breakaway denial of Owen Tippett and a penalty-shot stop on Noah Cates. 

“Jet did his job,” Bowness said. “He was fantastic. He gave us a chance to find our legs, find our game. Without him, that first period could have been a lot worse. But I give the room a lot of credit, they responded.” 

The penalty shot by Cates – which came when Kirill Marchenko was charged with hooking trying to backcheck on a breakaway on a CBJ power play – was the first that Greaves has faced in his NHL career. Cates came in with speed and tried to fire to the goalie’s blocker side, but the shot hit his stick and caromed harmlessly away. How’s this for some CBJ history – it was the 17th of the last 18 penalty shots that Blue Jackets goalies have stopped dating back to 2010.  

“For me, it’s just trying to be there when I can,” Greaves said of the moment. “I think the guys did a good job responding. We were in our end a lot in the first period, but I thought we defended pretty well and the guys were there. The response was great after that.” 

With 24 saves on 26 shots by the Flyers, Greaves is now 12-1-2 with a 2.24 GAA and .915 save percentage dating back to Jan. 11, and his last five starts have been even better – a 1.59 GAA and .934 save percentage. 

“Jet stood tall and kept us in the game until we found our game,” Werenski said. 

3. Marchment scored one of the oddest goals you’ll see to pad the Jackets’ lead in the third period. 

In some ways, everything went exactly as it was supposed to five minutes into the final period when the CBJ forward gave the Blue Jackets an insurance goal to make it 3-1. Marchenko got the puck deep, won a board battle and quickly fed Marchment in the left circle for a quick shot past Vladař, and Marchment immediately started celebrating the goal. 

The only problem was it wasn’t called a goal. Vladař certainly never saw it thanks to a screen in front – and because of how quickly the shot snuck by his ear, clanged off the back bar and ricocheted away – and the referee in the corner was in the same boat. 

Play continued, but moments later the horn sounded, as replay had showed the puck clearly went in the net for Marchment’s 13th goal as a Blue Jacket.

"I knew it was in, but no one believed me,” Marchment said. “It was kind of weird playing out the rest of the play knowing that it went in. It was weird but it was cool.” 

ESPN cameras caught Marchment on the bench after the goal asking the referee, “You didn’t believe me?” a few moments later. But believe it or not, it was a goal. 

“That’s what I said to him,” Marchment said before drawing a laugh. “He said no.”