The Columbus Blue Jackets have been one of the surprising teams in the NHL this season, especially with their strong offense. They will look to keep their momentum going when they face the New York Islanders on Wednesday night.
Columbus is coming off a 6-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. While the game gained attention for Edmonton star Connor McDavid’s lower-body injury just a minute into the match, the Blue Jackets had plenty of exciting moments.
This was the fourth time this season that Columbus scored at least six goals, tying them with the Vegas Golden Knights for the most six-goal games in the NHL.
They have also set a franchise record with 33 goals in the first eight games, averaging 4.13 goals per game, which is the fourth highest in the league.
“We’re going to work every night, and we’ve done that up to this point,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “We’ve got to continue to do it.”
In Monday’s game, Mikael Pyyhtia scored his first NHL goal in his 27th game, Mathieu Olivier netted his fourth goal of the season (just one shy of his total from last season), and Kirill Marchenko had two assists, bringing his point streak to three games with two goals and three assists.
“I hope that we’re playing the way that we play, the standard that we set,” Evason said. “We’re trying to meet that every night, regardless of who we play and what their mentality is. We’re going to play hard every night, and we’ll see where we sit.”
Evason also moved Yegor Chinakhov back to the top line alongside Sean Monahan and Marchenko against Edmonton, and they combined for two goals and three assists.
Cole Sillinger was moved down to the second line alongside Adam Fantilli and Pyyhtia, and together they scored three goals and made three assists.
“That (top) line’s been so good with Chinny, Monny and Marchy, so it’s nice to put them back together, and honestly, if you put Cole Sillinger with anybody, it’s a pretty good line,” Evason said. “We felt very comfortable that would work.”
The Islanders faced the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night and lost 3-1, even though they had a significant advantage in shots on goal, 41-22.
New York forward Mathew Barzal, who scored the only goal for the Islanders against the Ducks, said the team had many good opportunities, similar to when they outshot the Detroit Red Wings 30-11 on October 22 but lost 1-0.
New York also had more shots on goal than their opponents in two other shutout losses this season.
“It’s just been kind of the same script for a lot of games this year,” Barzal said. “Just a lot of chances, outshooting a team. I feel like we were the better team (against Anaheim) and we come out the losing end, but it’s a long season, and we have belief that it’ll all even out down the road.”
The Islanders have only one regulation win in their first nine games and none in their five home games.
Semyon Varlamov is set to start in goal after Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves in the game against the Ducks.
Varlamov has played four games this season and has a record of 1-2-1, with a save percentage of .854 and an average of 3.72 goals allowed per game.
In his career against the Blue Jackets, he has a record of 11-5-2, with a .937 save percentage and an average of 2.18 goals allowed per game. He has also achieved four of his 41 NHL shutouts against Columbus.
