The Blue Jackets look to bounce back from their first regulation win in a month, as they take on the Flyers tonight in Philadelphia. With just 12 games left on the calendar (including tonight), they have little time to get their game dialed back in.
Sunday night's game was a massive disappointment, for a variety of reasons. Of course, the outcome stunk, but it's the way they team lost the game that stands out in my mind. They were frustrated offensively, and never really pushed the Islanders until late in the third period, By then it was too little, too late.
Lets hope for a better effort tonight, as they take on another team hanging around and fighting for their playoff lives. The Philadelphia Flyers come into this game with 5 wins in their last 6 games-and they will have their hearts set on revenge.
The Opponent
These two teams meet for the second time in 10 days, with the Jackets taking a 2-1 shootout victory out of Philly back on March 14th. Since then, the Flyers are unbeaten. They went out west and swept their California trip, beating the Ducks, Kings, and Sharks on the road.
That leaves them with a record of 34-23-12 (80 points), just 5 back of the New York Islanders for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference-with 2 games in hand. This is a team that has flown well under the radar, but they are playing hard under first year head coach Rick Tocchet.
Up front, they are led in both goals (25) and points (60) by Travis Konecny, who has been a noted Blue Jackets killer throughout his career. He has 20 goals and 38 points in 32 career games against the CBJ. Both of those numbers are the highest he's produced against any team.
He's joined by Trevor Zegras (55 points) as the only two Flyers with more than 50 points. They don't get a lot of offense (26th in the NHL with 196 goals scored), but they find timely enough scoring to at least hold serve and stay in the race.
Where they win games is on the defensive side of the puck. The Flyers have allowed 207 goals (11th fewest in the NHL), and a big part of that is the stellar play of starting goaltender Dan Vladar. He's 23-11-7 this year, with a .908% save percentage and 2.41 goals against average.
Like Konecny, Vladar loves playing the Blue Jackets. He is 3-1-1 for his career against Columbus, with a .916% save percentage, 1.97GAA, and 1 shutout.
The Good Guys
Just like Sunday night, the Jackets are going to need everyone to do their job from whistle to whistle. This is a very similar team to the Islanders: they will want to score one goal, and then have no problem chipping pucks out of their end and sitting on it.
So, the most important thing tonight: no mistakes. The Jackets are going to need all 18 skaters and their goaltender to be on point, each and every shift. They have to stick within their system, be patient, and work a little bit harder than they did on Sunday night. These points are critical.
We will have to wait until a little later today to see if there will be any lineup changes. I would not be surprised to see some shuffling, with the lackluster way this team played for 55 minutes on Sunday. We'll update the article once we see what Rick Bowness is sending out.
Three Keys to Success
1. Get back to CBJ hockey. I thought the Jackets looked sluggish on Sunday. They were never able to generate any offense until the last 5 minutes of the game. They need to come out and play the way we know they can, right from the start in this one.
2. Earn some power-play chances. The Jackets did not get a power-play chance on Sunday night, and honestly that might have made the difference. They need to work harder, and keep their legs churning through their checks. That will force mistakes on the other side, and lead to those extra-man opportunities.
3. Greasy goals still count. Vladar is going to make the easy saves. The key with a goaltender that is this reliable: getting traffic in front of him, deflecting pucks, or banging in rebounds. Find a way to get a couple past him, and they will be in good shape.
This is the third and final meeting between these two teams this season. The Blue Jackets are 2-0-0 against the Flyers so far, winning 5-3 in their lone home meeting back on January 28th; then taking the shootout win from Philly 10 days ago.
Puck drop for this one is scheduled for just after 7:00 Eastern time. Tonight's game is an ESPN+/Hulu national exclusive broadcast, so you can tune in and listen to Steve Levy on the call. Let's go Jackets!