Columbus Blue Jackets excited by Waddell’s NHL trade deadline moves
The Blue Jackets are excited about the roster after the NHL trade deadline, adding Luke Kunin and Christian Fischer while keeping Ivan Provorov.
The challenges keep getting tougher for the Blue Jackets as games disappear from the schedule during their unexpected playoff push.
They’re getting tougher, too, despite absorbing more growing pains in a stinging 1-0 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night at Nationwide Arena. Aleksander Barkov won it for the Panthers (42-24-3) with a goal 29 seconds into OT to cap a power play that resulted from Kirill Marchenko’s delay-of-game penalty with 29.7 seconds left in regulation for accidentally tapping the puck out of play.
“Tonight, throughout the whole game — defensively, offensively — we were getting there (and) getting chances,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “They just weren’t going in. It’s on us to get one and get those breaks going our way, but the other side of it was (goalie Elvis Merzlikins) was outstanding all night and gave us a chance.”
An inability to score goals despite creating offensive pressure continued for Columbus, but the Panthers and former Blue Jackets star goalie Sergei Bobrovsky played big roles in that continuing. Despite another game without a scoring a goal, shut out for the third time in the past four games, the Jackets stood toe-to-toe with the defending Stanley Cup champions and clawed out a needed point to end a streak of four straight regulation losses.
Merzlikins made 27 saves in regulation before Barkov finally got one by him for the game’s lone goal in OT. Bobrovsky made 26 saves for his second shutout win of the season against his former team, while Jenner had an apparent goal for the Blue Jackets (31-28-9) overturned in the third on a coaching challenge that prompted replays showing he used a “distinct kicking motion” to score it.
“It happens quickly,” Jenner said. “I was just trying to find it and get a piece of it, and it went in. So, they looked at it and it’s a kick. What can you do?”
Florida outshot Columbus 13-5 in the first period, the Blue Jackets outshot the Panthers 12-7 in the second and both sides went 0 for 1 on power plays in the first 40 minutes with the game knotted at 0-0. Physical play also intensified as the first two periods progressed, including Blue Jackets power forward Dmitry Voronkov throwing his weight around.
Voronkov, who’s largely played a skill-based style while skating on the top forward line most of the season, picked up a roughing minor at 8:01 of the second by shoving Verhaeghe against the end boards following the Panthers forward taking a late jab at a puck Merzlikins already had covered.
Voronkov went off for his transgression, while Verhaeghe went to the penalty box for slashing. The game, meanwhile, stayed deadlocked at 0-0 until the Panthers finally cracked Merzlikins on their power play in OT that started late in the third. They don’t have long to feel the sting. Next up is a Metropolitan Division matchup Friday in Pittsburgh, where the Jackets hadn’t won in nearly a decade before edging the Penguins, 4-3, in a shootout Jan. 7 at PPG Paints Arena.
“Every point counts for us and matters,” Merzlikins said. “It’s important to get at least a point. Obviously, we wanted to kill the penalty, and turn around this game and have a huge win. That would’ve been awesome, but it is what it is. We have to forget about this game now and get ready, our focus, for (Pittsburgh).”
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