Live Blog: Columbus Blue Jackets Seek to Beat Bruins
January of 2010. That was the last time the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Boston Bruins. Tonight, the Jackets take on the Bruins on home ice, and will look to beat them for the first time in almost five years. For everything you need to know before the puck drops, check out our pregame here!
But it’s almost gametime, so let’s get down to business. Here are tonight’s projected lineups for the Jackets:
Boone Jenner – Ryan Johansen – Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell – Artem Anisimov – Cam Atkinson
Matt Calvert – Alexander Wennberg – Jack Skille
Brian Gibbons – Adam Cracknell – Jared Boll
And of course, Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Jackets.
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Pregame:
The best news going into this game is the return of
Matt Calvertand
Jack Skillefrom injury. With the injury bug a looming epidemic in Columbus this season, it’s nice to see two guys back on the ice for the Jackets, especially guys like Calvert and Skille.
In the Jackets’ recent loss to the Wings on Tuesday, one piece that was largely missing from the game was energy, and one guy who consistently brings energy to the game is Matt Calvert. Even when Calvert has a bad game, he’s always hustling and playing his heart out, so it’ll be nice to have both him and Skille back in the lineup tonight.
If they Jackets hope to beat the Bruins for the first time in almost five years, they’ll need all the energy they can get. Furthermore, they need to play smarter than they did on Tuesday. They need to find ways to get pucks to the net, get bodies in front, and create some offense. They’ll be facing Bruins backup goalie Niklas Svedberg tonight, so if they can create good screens in front and garner some offense, they’re likely to have a better showing than Tuesday.
On Tuesday, pretty much everything went wrong for the Jackets. Tonight, they need to find a way to get back to their game, and hopefully more things will start to go their way.
Without further ado, let’s get this game started! You know what to do: check back often and keep refreshing the page for live updates and analysis throughout tonight’s game. Go Jackets!
First Period:
20:00 0-0
The puck had been dropped, it’s game time!
17:30 0-0
Jackets have gotten the first two shots on goal, despite spending much of the first two minutes in their own zone to start the game.
15:00 0-0
After five minutes, the shots are now 3-1 in favor of the Jackets
14:52 0-0
The Jackets had some good, sustained offensive pressure, and the Bruins had to ice the puck to stop play.
14:24 0-0
The Bruins put the puck past Bob, but Prout came up huge! As the puck sat on the goal line, Prout got his stick behind the puck and shoveled it out, keeping the game tied at 0. Awesome save by Prouter!
11:00 0-0
Shots are 4-3 in favor of the Jackets. The Bruins have had control for the last few minutes; the Jackets need to get back to their side of the ice.
10:08 Jackets GOOOOOOAL! 1-0 CBJ!
JOOOOOEY! Johansen had a great breakaway chance, going all alone into the offensive zone, and though his shot at first appeared to be stooped by Svedberg, it squeezed it’s way back into the net. Jackets up early! 7 goals for Joey this season.
8:43 1-0
How is it even possible to have already lost 124 man games to injury?!? Only the Jackets….
8:28 GOOOOOOOAL! Make that 2-0!
NICKY! Nick Foligno scores one of his famous crazy goals, this time having it bounce off his back and land in the net! Jackets up 2-0! See what happens when you get bodies in front of the net and get the screen set up? Good things, boys, good things.
6:19 2-0
Is this the same team we saw on Tuesday? I like these Jackets better.
5:30 2-0
Jackets leading 8-5 on shots. I like that too.
1:47 2-0
The Bruins have closed the gap on shots, making it 9-8 Jackets. This period has flown by, with almost no stoppage time at all. We had, what, two commercial breaks? If that? There just hasn’t been much stoppage, other than the goals of course.
0:00 2-0
Jackets pulled ahead in shots at the end of the period, ending it 11-8. Overall, I’ll take that period for sure!
END OF FIRST PERIOD: COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS 2, BOSTON BRUINS 0
First Period Thoughts: Are we sure this is the same hockey team that played in Nationwide on Tuesday? Where was this team then? Tonight, the Jackets have played with heart, energy and grit, all of which they seemed to lack on Tuesday.
The defense was on top of things tonight. The only real scoring chance the Bruins had was the chance at 11:42, and Prout was on top of that one. Bob let the puck get through him, and as it sat on the goal line Prout shoved it away to keep what was then a 0-0 tie. It was a great play, and it shows the Jackets are on their feet tonight, which they weren’t on Tuesday.
As for the Jackets’ first goal, it was the result of a great neutral-zone takeaway by the Jackets, which sent Johansen down the ice on a breakaway, which he beautifully finished by burying the puck in the back of the net for a one-goal lead. That’s the kind of heads-up play I’d like to see them have every night.
The second goal was as much luck as skill, but it was the result of a nicely executed screen. When you get bodies in front of the net, the goalie can’t see, and you increase the chance that the puck will bounce off someone and go in. That’s just what happened in the Jackets’ second goal, where Jordan Leopold sent the puck bouncing off Foligno and in the net.
That’s also something the Jackets couldn’t do on Tuesday. It’s nice to see them getting back to the gritty, energetic game we’ve come to expect from them, but it’d be nice if we could see this team every night. This period was excellent, and hopefully the Jackets can pull off two more just like it.
Check out page two for live updates during the second period!