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Post Battle #77: All of the goals

March 28, 2018, 6:13 PM ET [9 Comments]
Paul Berthelot
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Final Score: Blue Jackets 7 – Oilers 3

Game Summary

You would be forgiven if you turned that game off after the first 10 minutes. I know I was certainly considering it. The Jackets could not of had a worse start to that game. Sergei Bobrovsky was not sharp, turning the puck over behind the net to Connor McDavid. The Oilers star as he does, was lighting it up, he had a hand in all three of the Oilers goals, and 10 minutes into the game the Jackets were down 3-0.

At this point myself and I think many others were thinking tonight is not their night, pull Bobrovsky, take the L and let’s move on to the game in Calgary on Thursday. The Blue Jackets however did not let that start be the story line. They came roaring back with an unheard of seven unanswered goals, and showed why they will be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs.

Thomas Vanek has easily been one of the best pick-ups by any team at the trade deadline. He has 13 points in 14 games with Columbus including a hat-trick against the Oilers.










Three goals are they very different looks. That first goal was a total fluke. The Jackets were down those three goals and just needed to get some pucks on net and their feet under them. Vanek does that and somehow it bounces around and goes in. The second one, really nice tip, the third one, I have no idea what Kris Russell is doing there, if he gets out of the way this is probably an easy stop. If that wasn’t enough Vanek also set up Bonne Jenner for this weird highlight reel goal.




The initial pass Vanek makes here is spectacular. He puts the right on a tee for Jenner, and Boone just misses it. The puck somehow bounces around back to Jenner and he is able to bat it in. Great job by Jenner to stick with the play and not give up on it even after he whiffed.
The Jackets second line wasn’t the only one having fun. The top line got into the action scoring twice. Artemi Panarin had one, scoring on the rebound from a Zach Werenski shot.




That was Panarin’s 26th goal of the season and 70th point. He has cleared the 70 point mark in each of his three seasons in the league. Panarin was also not done there. He set up Markus Nutivaara on a really nice royal road pass.




Panarin had the Oilers eating out of his hand all night. Here he draws three defenders to him, and sees Nutivaara somehow has a step on Connor McDavid. All Panarin has to do is get the puck across and it’s a tap it. Panarin did just that and Nutivaara has his sixth goal of the season. Between those goals you had Cam Atkinson also hitting a milestone. Atkinson scored his 20th goal of the season, the fifth consecutive time he has done that.




Cam gets a lot of flak for his play this season and the contract he signed. At the start of the season some of that was deserved as Atkinson was not contributing very much, and then he got hurt and missed a month. Since returning from that injury he has been awesome and absolutely worth what he’s being paid. In 29 games since returning he has 14 goals and 26 points. That is second to only Panarin on the Jackets. His 117 shots over that time frame lead the team and are third in the NHL behind only Alexander Ovechkin (127) and Tyler Seguin (121).

Stat of the Night




Stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Hockey-Reference.

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