Three Keys to a Columbus Blue Jackets Victory over St. Louis

The Columbus Blue Jackets make the short trip to St. Louis to take on the Blues at 8pm tonight.

After two losses in a row at home the Columbus Blue Jackets look to rebound tonight on the road against the St. Louis Blues. Similarly to the Jackets, the Blues are off to a less than stellar start, but by no means a horrendous showing. The Blues are 2-3-3 through their first eight games.

After adding Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak, Patrick Maroon and David Perron, the Blues expected to get out of the blocks better than this but, like the Jackets, there is plenty of season left to turn it around.

The Jackets could use a little time away from home after spending the last ten days in Central Ohio. A quick roadie might be just what the doctor ordered to get this team rolling. That, plus these three keys, will lead to a Jackets win.

#1 Where are you Power Play?

Columbus Blue Jackets

The Jackets haven’t scored a power play goal since Jimmy Carter was President. Or at least it feels like it.

Columbus is 0-14 in their last 14 power play attempts and all the power play unit shuffling in the world isn’t going to fix that. The team consistently is losing the opening draw and starting from behind. They saw a few good looks against the Coyotes but to pull out a win tonight, they need to score on the man advantage.

The team not producing 5v4 is not only rough on the scoreboard but kills any momentum the Jackets have during the game and throws it over to their opponent. They need to get on the board tonight with a power play goal.

#2 Korpisolid

There has been a ton of talk about the perceived deficiencies in Sergei Bobrvosky’s netminding and too much of the blame is being shoveled on the two time Vezina winning goalie. Fans wont get to use Bob as a scapegoat tonight as Joonas Korpisalo will be in net for the Jackets.

Korpi is 2-0-0 in his two starts but has a save percentage under .900. Korpi has to play better tonight against a St. Louis squad that has a loaded offense that includes Vladimir Tarasenko and a red hot Ryan O’Reilly.

#3 Stop Missing the Net

The Jackets offense has come to a halt over the last few games and it isn’t due to a lack of shots. It’s due to a lack of shots on net.

The Tuesday night broadcast of the Jackets loss to the Yotes highlighted the abundance of shots that the Jackets took against Chicago and Arizona that never found the net. The Jackets are just too spiradic with their shot placement or are trying to be too cute and go for too many deflections.

Tonight, the team needs to just put pucks on the Blue’s goalie and crash the net hard and put away the rebounds. Let Pierre-Luc Dubois, Boone Jenner, Josh Anderson and company get some greasy goals in front of the net. They are worth the same as highlight reel goals.

Puck drops tonight in St. Louis at 8pm. Let’s see if the Jackets can take care of these three things and get back in the win column.