Three takeaways from Blue Jackets' 5-4 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers
In the unlikeliest of ways, given their current lengthy injury list, the Blue Jackets have strung together their best three-game stretch of the season with a 5-4 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
In the first game against the Flyers last Thursday, the Jackets lost defenseman Zach Werenski for the rest of the season, defenseman Nick Blankenburg for six to eight weeks and defenseman Erik Gudbranson for one game. They won anyway.
Saturday on Long Island, the Jackets and their new-look blue line led on multiple occasions before falling to the Islanders in overtime, but getting to overtime meant they still took a point from the game. And Tuesday, they stretched their point streak to three games with an overtime win, giving the Jackets five points of a possible six in their last three games, despite losing both defenseman Jake Bean and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins to second-period injuries.
Make no mistake, the Jackets are still 31st out of 32 teams in the league and have a long road ahead of them in the remaining 67 games of the season. But coach Brad Larsen has been pleased with his team's effort in the last three games, and that's more than can be said for the majority of the first 12 games of the year.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday's overtime win.
Blue Jackets' fourth line of Sean Kuraly, Mathieu Olivier and Eric Robinson makes impact
According to Natural Stat Trick, the fourth line, which was reunited in Sean Kuraly's return from an upper body injury, was the Jackets' second-best line by expected goals percentage. The third line, with Liam Foudy, Brendan Gaunce and Kent Johnson, led the way at 66.41%, but Kuraly, Mathieu Olivier and Eric Robinson were close behind at 62.56%.
Expected goals percentage measures what percentage of the expected goals generated with a given line on the ice were in favor of that line's team. Tuesday, Kuraly's line generated 0.72 expected goals for the Jackets and gave up 0.43 expected goals for the Flyers, a mark of a solid performance — particularly given that they played most of their minutes against the Flyers' top line.
Larsen doesn't expect his fourth line to be a major driver of offense, but when they are able to contribute on the scoresheet in addition to a strong defensive game, it's all the better for the Jackets. They got that contribution Tuesday, as Kuraly scored the game's first goal and Robinson scored early in the third period to give the Jackets a 4-2 lead.
"They were real important for me tonight, because I was able to kind of flip some matchups and some D-zone assignments," Larsen said. "Especially in the middle part there where it got a little rocky, I was able to use them. They were a real key line for me tonight. You get contributions like that, that’s huge offensively. I’m not relying on them offensively, but you get that, that’s big. It was great to have (Kuraly) back, in a lot of aspects, but their line was excellent."
Robinson's speed bothered the Flyers throughout the night, and Kuraly's combination of skating and physical play — he tied for second on the team with four hits — enabled the pair to have a successful night.
"(Robinson has) legs," Larsen said. "That’s one of his best assets, his ability to get on pucks, get on the forecheck. He really can put the fear in defensemen. When he kind of sinks in and gets going, he can get on that forecheck and help. I think it’s a good compliment with the line."
Despite injuries, Blue Jackets playing some of their best hockey of the season
With Bean and Merzlikins both suffering injuries Tuesday, the Jackets finished the game without eight lineup regulars; Werenski, Blankenburg, Adam Boqvist, Justin Danforth, Patrik Laine and Jakub Voracek round out the injured list. It's almost inexplicable, then, how a battered group was able to win the game, but it's clear that the Jackets are playing as well as they have all season at the moment, despite the players they're missing.
"For whatever reason, my first couple years here, we got hit pretty hard too, and it always seems to pull guys up," Robinson said. "The guys you call up have a lot of energy and we feed off that. Whatever it is, we’ve seemed to play some better hockey as of late, for sure."
Added Jenner: "You can’t make it up. It happens. Unfortunate. It sucks to lose them. I don’t know what the word is, but obviously, we just have to try to find a way, and we did."
"Finding a way" is an oft-used cliché among hockey players, who notoriously sum up every game as a matter of working hard, getting pucks deep and playing with consistency. But there may be no better descriptor to use for these Jackets, who have found a way to get at least one point out of their last three games.
"We’ve got five out of six points here in three games," Larsen said. "It’s a good stretch wit the amount of injuries that have piled up. They’re playing hard. We lost ourselves a bit in the second period there, especially the last 10, 12 minutes. But we gathered ourselves in the third. We only had them at, I think, three chances, and they scored on two. The rest of it was pretty solid. Guys are giving it. They’re playing hard."
Brad Larsen wants "more" from Jack Roslovic, who was a healthy scratch against Flyers
Center Jack Roslovic's ice time has declined over the last two weeks, going from a season-high 22:13 against the Avalanche on Nov. 4, to 17:56 the next night, to 15:53 against the Flyers on Thursday and 14:16 on Saturday, his third-lowest ice time of the season.
Monday's lines in practice gave the impression that Roslovic might be a scratch for Tuesday's game, and Larsen said he had a "candid" conversation with Roslovic prior to Monday's skate. Larsen confirmed Tuesday morning that Roslovic was indeed a healthy scratch.
"I think he’s crystal clear on why he’s out," Larsen said. "When he gets back in, he’s going to have to fight to stay back in, too. There’s a better version of him, and I know that. I’ve seen it. I watched it for 20 games last year at the end of the year.
"When he’s on and when he’s playing and he’s determined, he’s a really good hockey player. But like anybody, you turn the dial back a bit, your standard drops a bit, you’re just not as effective. We need everybody right now."
As Larsen said, Roslovic played some of the best hockey of his career down the stretch of last season, playing his way into the top-line center role after Boone Jenner's lingering back injury became too much to play through. But so far this season, despite regularly playing top-six minutes, Roslovic has just one goal and five assists through 14 games, and the turnovers that have played a role in him being scratched in the past have reappeared.
"I need more," Larsen said Monday.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets takeaways from overtime win against Flyers
