The Columbus Blue Jackets find their way back into the win column by shutting out the defending Western Conference Champion Vegas Golden Knights 1-0.
The first surprise of the night came from the Knights deciding to start Malcolm Subban over Marc-Andre Fleury. Many fans drove over from Pittsburgh expecting to see their former netminder play against the Columbus Blue Jackets, as he did many times as a member of the rival Penguins.
Subban came into this game with a 0-4 record, and would continue to slide to 0-5 after tonights events. Not an offensive battle by any stretch, the Jackets once again found themselves in the midst of a classic west coast defensive showdown for the second straight contest.
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Sergei Bobrovsky played one of his best games of the season tonight, earning another shutout towards his franchise record. It’s a nice change of pace to see him performing well these past two games. Even though the Jackets didn’t come away with a victory both nights, it is refreshing to see the defensive side showing up.
The next surprise of the evening came with Artemi Panarin not playing tonight. He sat out with an undisclosed lower-body injury. His place on the top line was taken by Anthony Duclair, and Duclair came out firing with a great first period that should’ve resulted in two goals, or one goal, one assist. Unfortunately he came away empty handed, albeit after a great performance.
The only goal of the evening came from Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno, who scored his 8th of the season tonight. Seth Jones and Josh Anderson rounded out the score sheet with one assist each.
The early third period tally would be enough on a night where both teams couldn’t solve the other teams netminder despite both teams putting up nearly 30 shots each.