Columbus Blue Jackets race past Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 takeaways
Auston Matthews summed it up perfectly.
After watching the Blue Jackets floor the accelerator in a 6-2 blowout of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena, the visitors' captain gave credit where due.
“Neutral zone was the Autobahn for them tonight,” Matthews said. “They just came flying through.”
Yes, the Maple Leafs finished a back-to-back that started Monday in Toronto with their rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yes, their legs were a little slow. Toronto also started third-string goalie Dennis Hildeby instead of Joseph Woll or Anthony Stolarz, not to mention a decision to dress enforcer Ryan Reaves over center David Kampf on the fourth line. All of that was true, but none of it takes away from what the Blue Jackets accomplished with an eye-opening victory.
They're 3-3-0 despite a slew of early key injuries, but performances like this send a message about what this team still has in reserve.
Here are three takeaways:
Columbus Blue Jackets hot on offense
After Johnny Gaudreau’s tragic death in late August, the Blue Jackets lost key forwards Boone Jenner and Dmitri Voronkov to shoulder injuries in the preseason. As if that wasn’t bad enough for their offensive potential, playmaking winger Kent Johnson’s hot scoring start came to a screeching halt with, you guessed it, another shoulder issue in just the fourth game of the season.
Those types of losses are supposed to sink NHL teams quickly, and the Blue Jackets have learned that lesson more than any other team in the league the past two years. So, what gives with their scorching hot offensive start continuing?
They’re averaging four goals a game on 24 goals in the first six games, including six each in their three victories. It’s a balanced effort too, paced by three goals each from Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinakhov, Sean Monahan and Mathieu Olivier.
Olivier?
Yeah, keep reading.
Columbus Blue Jackets' Mathieu Olivier has scoring touch to go with brawn
Olivier has been promoted from the Jackets’ deputy enforcement officer to their new “sheriff” after Erik Gudbranson’s shoulder surgery Monday took him out long-term.
That’s the role that helped the burly power forward crack into the NHL on a full-time basis a couple years ago with the Blue Jackets, but he’s starting to show there’s more to his game than a pair of cinder block fists. Those mitts can also be silky at times, which the Maple Leafs learned the hard way.
This was the first two-goal game of Olivier’s NHL career to give him three goals in six games. He scored five, total, in each of the past two years.
Olivier's first tally Tuesday put the Jackets up 3-0 in the first period, his second made it 5-0 in the second and a headlock of Ryan Reaves in the third fulfilled his sheriff duties for the evening too. It wasn’t surprising to see the Blue Jackets’ new Johnny Gaudreau inspired donkey hat, awarded by players to the "Donkey of The Game" atop his head after the game.
“Obviously, people have their own opinions of what type of hockey player I am, and that’s fine,” Olivier said. “I think personally you always have to believe that you’ve got more, and that you can continue to build your game – and this summer, for me, I really wanted to take a step in the offensive aspect of the game. I tweaked a few things here and there ... and so far, it’s been working.”
Justin Danforth thrives at center ice for Columbus Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets’ coaching staff, led by head coach Dean Evason, juggled the 12 forwards to create four new line combinations. It was prompted by a 3-1 loss Saturday to the Minnesota Wild, when only the top line gained traction against a sticky, frustrating defensive team.
The biggest moves involved Yegor Chinakhov shifting to Adam Fantilli’s line and Cole Sillinger moving from center of the third line to left wing on the top line with Monahan and Marchenko. The move that made the biggest impact against the Maple Leafs, however, was moving Justin Danforth to Sillinger’s former role on the third line, skating in the middle with Zach Aston-Reese and Olivier as wingers.
Danforth is a natural center who’s versatile enough to play any of the three forward spots for any of the top four lines, but his favorite is center. His speed, quickness, tenacity, playmaking and scoring touch all come into play more when he’s at center ― which is where he forged a unique path to the NHL with the Blue Jackets. Evason likes what he’s seen from Danforth in three games since returning from offseason wrist surgery — including his goal and two assists against Toronto for the first three-point game of his NHL career.
"I’ve been in the game for a bit," Evason said. "I’m pretty secure with him being a really, really good center iceman, and a really good penalty-killer and a really good, hard-nosed player who has a skillset that’s going to score.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 3 takeaways from Columbus Blue Jackets' rout of Toronto Maple Leafs
