Passing the halfway marker of the first period, center Yegor Sharangovich opened the scoring with his 12th goal of the season. Fabian Zetterlund had the primary assist. Erik Haula got the secondary helper.
Johnny Gaudreau evened the game with two seconds left in the first period for his 15th goal of the year. Patrik Laine and Adam Boqvist had the helpers on the powerplay tie maker.
With just seven seconds into the second period, winger Jesper Bratt had his 21st tally of the campaign from John Marino and Ryan Graves.
Minutes later, Adam Boqvist evened the game for his first goal of the season. Captain Boone Jenner and defender Gavin Bayreuther had the apples.
Ryan Graves got the winning goal with 1.4 seconds left in regulation on a low range snap shot for his sixth of the season from Michael McLeod and Ondrej Palat.
Nico Hischer was my player to watch for the Devils, given he is the captain and without Jack Hughes. The first pick from the 2017 draft had one shot, hit, and block shot with a 44% success rate in the faceoff dot in 16:27TOI.
Vitek Vanacek stopped 31 of 33 shots for a 0.939 save percentage.
Adam Boqvist was my Blue Jackets player to watch as he went head to head with his brother. In sibling games, one tends to get up to try to out perform his family member. Boqvist had his first goal of his shortened season, and his 11th assist. This gets him to career goal 18 and assist career 45 in game 150 for an average point per game of 0.42.
Elvis Merzlikins was the starter in the final second loss, allowing three goals on 32 shots for a 0.902 save percentage.
CBJ THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. Adam Boqvist -- goal (1), assist (11)
2. Johnny Gaudreau -- PPG (15)
3. Patrik Laine -- assist (18)
Reaction
1 - Point Four, Come On! The extra point was right there and available, play the full 60 minute game. This screams quitting. If this entire team runs only through Werenski, then this team needs to protect him with more enforcers. Sign Reaves. Get Binnington. Being this bad can’t be every night. This is clearly bad on accident, and it had stuck.
2. Brothers - Adam Boqvist stepped up big time against his brother Jesper. In milestone career game 150, the former eighth overall draft pick had a multipoint game.
3 Goals Against - The Devils defensive pairing of Ryan Graves and John Marino had a goal and two assists.
4. Gavrikov. First game without Him shows how weak the defense is. It is eroded. It’s ECHL caliber. Boston still the leader in the race for his services
5. Excitement - if you were looking for quick goals, this game had them. Johnny Hockey with 2 seconds left in the first; Jesper Bratt seven seconds into the second; and Graves with 1.4 seconds left in the third. These type of goals in the fans out of the seats, even if it’s a holiday game.
6. Puck Control - 10 takeaways and 5 giveaways by the Blue Jackets. Where’s the discipline and hunger for the puck?! Possession drives play.
Rumors on
Vladislav Gavrikov — Boston first, nothing imminent at this time. Could be before the end of the week. Still look at the Kings, Leafs, Oilers, Wild are the dark horse. Pittsburgh has been looking, but don’t see them.
Gustav Nyquist — could be moved to a playoff contender; postseason return guarantee
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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