Jackets Finding Chemistry

After the 9-4 shellacking against Buffalo on Wednesday night, the Jackets rattled off two consecutive wins this weekend. First, they doused the Flames on Friday night by a 3-1 margin in a hard-fought game. Sunday was a more wide open, back-and-forth effort, but they found a way to beat the Kings 6-5 in OT. Though these games were vastly different, is it possible that the Jackets are finding chemistry?

As far as the forward lines go, that certainly seems to be the case. When Patrik Laine returned from his most recent stint on the IR, he was thrust right back onto the top line with Johnny Gaudreau and Boone Jenner. They weren’t inherently bad, but I think everyone noticed that line taking a step back when veteran winger Gustav Nyquist was pulled off of it.

With Laine returning, while the top line was producing points – the team was struggling, going just 1-3-0 over that span. A loss like the one they suffered last Wednesday will do a lot of things to a team. Most importantly, it forced the Jackets to change the look of their lineup to try and reset things. So far, it seems to be working.

Nyquist was back on the top line for Friday night’s game; while Laine found himself on a newly formed second line, alongside Jack Roslovic and Yegor Chinakhov. Rookies Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko make up the third line along with second year center Cole Sillinger. The only line that stayed the same is the team’s checking line – Eric Robinson, Sean Kuraly, and Mathieu Olivier.

After two games played, every one of these lines has produced at least one goal. Splitting Laine and Gaudreau apart has given this team two scoring lines, with Gaudreau’s line taking the brunt of the opposition’s top shutdown options away from Laine – who is thriving alongside Roslovic, breathing life into a player who has struggled heavily this season.

Having Laine in a secondary scoring role may be just what the doctor ordered – he has 4 goals and 7 points in a current 4-game point streak. Indeed, keeping him and Roslovic away from top line opposition could be vital to the success of both players. The latter was the first star of the game on Sunday night, after a 2 goal, 2 assist game against the Kings.

With teams scrambling to match up against two scoring lines, it’s freed up space for the new-found “kid line”; which gives us a glimpse into what the future could look like here. It could be fun:

This could very well be the top line for the Blue Jackets when this rebuild is all said and done. Here you have Cole Sillinger driving the net, creating traffic. Which frees up space for Kent Johnson, who holds onto the puck for just that extra half second … before finding a play-trailing Kirill Marchenko for an easy goal. I have a sneaking suspicion that this won’t be the last time we break down a goal by this trio.

Most importantly, the lineup is working. Before the season we’re all super excited to throw down line combinations and dream of what might work to make this team click. But until you see it in action, you never know if it might work or not. With a very young lineup, Brad Larsen seems to have uncovered a little bit of offensive magic; hopefully the effort keeps up consistently and this team can find some sustained success.

While the team is still an utter mess defensively and will probably lose a lot of games, at least we could lean on their ability to score goals and keep games close. Which, in reality, could be the best possible outcome for this season as the team lays a weary eye on next summer’s draft.