The Columbus Blue Jackets haven’t made the playoffs for the reason that 2019-20 season. This yr, the Blue Jackets are making a push to return to the playoffs. On Tuesday night, they made one other step towards the playoffs with a victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
While the team struggled early in the sport, Zach Werenski continued his stellar season with an epic performance, willing his team to a win, in response to Jeff Svoboda of BlueJackets.com.
The Blue Jackets were outshot 10-3 in the primary period, in what head coach Rick Bowness called “probably one in all the worst” since he took over as the pinnacle coach. They might manage to be down just 1-0 heading into the second, though.
On his first shift of the second period, Werenski took the puck from the center of the ice, making a three-on-two situation. He would move the puck over to Mathieu Olivier after making the defense commit to a side of the ice. Olivier put the puck past Dan Vladar to tie the sport. Lower than two minutes later, Mason Marchment sent a pass to Damon Severson, who then found Weresnki, who lit the lamp to take the lead. They might never give the lead back because the Jackets won 3-2.
“That he’s in a position to do this when things aren’t going good,” Bowness said. “’OK, take control,’ and he did. The entire team struggled in that first period; let’s not kid ourselves. So when that happens, you would like your higher players to take over and set the tone.”
It was the twenty fifth time this yr that Werenski has had multiple points in a game, which tied a franchise record. Further, his 77 points on the season are the fifth most in a season in franchise history.
“We know the way special a player he’s,” netminder Jet Greaves said. “The entire league, the entire world knows it now. It’s super fun to look at every night. You type of get used to it just a little bit and almost take it as a right sometimes, but at the identical time, he does things like that, and he just reminds us of how special a player he’s.”
With the win, the Blue Jackets moved to 38-22-11 on the season and into second place within the Metropolitan Division. They’re still just two points ahead of the playoff bar. They’ll face a fellow playoff contender, the Montreal Canadiens, on Thursday night.