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The Columbus Blue Jackets have fallen to the St. Louis Blues in their home and season opener, by the final score of 5-2.
Pavel Buchnevich opened the scoring on the power play 5 minutes into the game with a booming shot over Columbus goalie
Elvis Merzlikins for his first of the regular season; Torey Krug had the lone assist.
Vladimir Tarasenko opened the second period scoring at 64 seconds in with his first of the year; defender
Justin Faulk and center
Robert Thomas had the helpers.
Columbus’ scoring in the came within 18 seconds a minute and a half after the Tarasenko goal.
At 2:21: Gustav Nyquist got the first Blue Jackets’ goal with his second of the year. This makes Nyquist the first player with multiple goals in the season. This is his 166th career goal
Johnny Gaudreau had the primary assist; warning his 400th of his career, even though it was his first assist with Blue Jackets.
Erik Gudbranson had the secondary assist for his 69th career assist. Nice.
At 2:39:
Sean Kuraly evened the scoring with his first of the year for his 39th career goal and 99th career point.
Mathieu Oliver had his first point as a Columbus Blue Jackets player. This counted as his 8th career point.
Eric Robinson had the secondary assist for his first point of the year and 58th of his career.
The Blues had 3 goals in the third period, with 2 coming in 20 seconds.
Ivan Barbashev was credited with the game winning goal for his first of the season halfway through the final frame;
Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich had the apples.
Jake Neighbours doubles the Blues lead just 20 seconds after Barbashev’s goal for his first of the season and second career NHL goal;
Nick Leddy and Schenn had the helpers.
Vladimir Tarasenko closed the scoring with 90 seconds with an unassisted goal for his second of the game and of the year.
Jordan Binnington had 23 saves on 25 shots against the Blue Jackets, having a 0.929 save percentage.
Elvis Merzlikins had 20 saves on 25 shots for a 0.800 save percentage in his first game of the season, missing the first 2 games due to illness.
Ryan O’Reilly was my player to watch for Blues, as he is their captain and entering a pending free agent. He was a -1 rating with a 43% face percentage in 15:42 TOI.
Johnny Gaudreau was my player to watch for Columbus, being in his first game against the Western Conference, where he has had the most experience. Johnny Jacket had an assist with a -1 rating; one shot on goal; and 2 giveaways in 23:05 TOI. 23 minutes was the second most ice time in the game behind Zach Werenski, and the most of any forward.
CBJ THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. Gustav Nyquist — goal (2); 18:56 TOI
2. Sean Kuraly — goal (1); +1; 3 hits; 35.7 FO%
3. Mathieu Oliver — assist (1), +1, 2 hits, 10:08 TOI
QuizMaker
What are your thoughts on the direction of the team? 79 games remaining. More to come. Next game is Tuesday against Vancouver.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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