The Blue Jackets have been on a solid run of late, winning two straight with a 6-1-3 record in their past 10 games.
Looking back through February we get a glimpse of the Blue Jackets playing the way they needed to play all season.
Starting with the February 13th game when the Jackets took on the Ottawa Senators at home, when the Jackets won 4-2 making it their second straight win in February. The Jackets held the 2-0 lead late in the second period and they seemed to have found a rhythm and started to display glimpses of the team that Tortorella wants them to be.
Let’s do a brief rundown: Brandon Saad scored the game-winner (his 20th of the season), Boone Jenner scored twice (give him 19 on the year) and Seth Jones chipped in with two assists to set a new career high in that regard with 20.
Moving on the Jackets lost to the Boston Bruins when they played at home at Nationwide Arena on February 16th. But the team still showed real talent and it was a close game down to the wire, with Loui Eriksson, in his 700th NHL game, scoring 33 seconds into overtime to break the tie they had all game. “The thing that pisses me off is we just give them a free one,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said after the Bruins game. “It’s frustrating,” he continued. “It’s a simple 3-on-3, man-on-man, and we just screw it up.”
“We have been playing with so much patience and I think playing in structure, (with) everybody contributing… but we just keep on going. I like our presence on the bench. There’s no panic there and we just grind away,” Tortorella said. “I thought we were the better team in the second and third period. So I just think we’re playing with confidence.”
And the confidence seems to be working because the Jackets beat the Florida Panthers at home on February 27th when then played here in the Arena District in downtown Columbus, OH. Brandon Dubinsky scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 4-3 win.
Even though they fell to the New York Rangers when they played on February 29, the Jackets seem to have stepped up their play a notch. We look forward to what March holds in store for them!
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