Sillinger-nylander line stays sharp despite losing Johnson
Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent thought Kent Johnson was playing his best hockey before he suffered an unspecified upper-body injury.
Johnson's line with Alex Nylander and Cole Sillinger was the most productive line in the Blue Jackets' 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers Wednesday, recording six shots when they were on the ice compared to the Rangers' three.
Even with Johnson sidelined indefinitely, Sillinger and Nylander still led the most effective line for the Blue Jackets in their 4-2 loss to Carolina on Thursday.
Sillinger scored his second goal in as many games. His tally was assisted by Zach Werenski and Nylander. Nylander followed in the third period with his first goal in a Blue Jackets uniform off passes from Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic on a power play.
With Alexandre Texier in Johnson's place, that line was responsible for the team's first score of the game, Sillinger's goal.
No other Blue Jackets line came close to the 17 combined offensive chances Texier, Sillinger and Nylander had. This includes the top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic, on which the Hurricanes scored two of their four goals.
Vincent said Nylander is "playing really well" and Sillinger remained strong Thursday night. In Johnson's absence, Texier, Vincent said, competed hard.
But Vincent did not feel the Blue Jackets took advantage of every opportunity offensively against a consistent forecheck that gives teams around the league issues.
"It's the way they transition the puck," Vincent said. "There's a lot of rims. They play the board game quite a bit. And they've got some speed. When you look at their lineup, two words that
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come up very often are they skate and they compete. It's part of the makeup of their team."
While the team may have caught a break with Gaudreau, who left the second period of Wednesday's game after getting “clotheslined with my own stick,” Johnson has joined a long list of unavailable Blue Jackets that includes Patrik Laine (player assistance program) and Adam Fantilli (lacerated calf ).
But the combination of Sillinger and
Nylander could be finding an offensive groove anyway.
"Once we have the puck, we know what we can do with it," Nylander said. "We're all really skilled players and we both like to make plays and you're getting goals. So the mindset is just going in there and working as hard as we can to get the puck and then we go from there."
Hurricanes 4, Blue Jackets 2
Carolina 0 3 1 – 4
Columbus 0 1 1 – 2
First Period: None. Penalties: Severson, CBJ (Tripping), 15:01.
Second Period:1, Carolina, Teravainen 18, 0:53. 2, Carolina, Aho 23 (Skjei, Pesce), 8:19. 3, Columbus, Sillinger 10 (Nylander, Werenski), 9:56. 4, Carolina, Skjei 8 (Burns, Kotkaniemi), 16:30.
Penalties: Skjei, CAR (Holding), 14:22.
Third Period: 5, Columbus, Nylander 1 (Jenner, Roslovic), 8:41 (pp). 6, Carolina, Jarvis 19 (Martinook), 19:45. Penalties: Martinook, CAR (Tripping), 7:50; Bunting, CAR (Roughing), 13:12; Severson, CBJ (Roughing), 13:12.
Shots on Goal: Carolina 7-13-14, 34. Columbus 4-10-8, 22.
Power-play opportunities: Carolina 0 of 1; Columbus 1 of 2.
Goalies: Carolina, Martin 7-8-2 (22 shots-20 saves). Columbus, Tarasov 4-8-2 (34-30).
A: 18,390 (18,500). T: 2:24.
Referees: Brandon Blandina, Pierre Lambert. Linesmen: Ryan Galloway, James Tobias.