Jackets’ Jones robs Smith of hat trick
Despite what you may have heard, somebody actually did make a save at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.
It was Blue Jackets defenceman Seth Jones.
He’s the only reason Zack Smith did not go to bed with his first career hat trick later night.
“I saw the replay and he made a pretty nice kick save, or toe save, whatever you want to call it,” Smith said of a golden third period opportunity he couldn’t cash in a wild 7-6 loss to Columbus. “It was just a great, no-look, behind-the-back pass from (Derick) Brassard that I wasn’t really expecting, to be honest.
“I got a good shot off but Jones made a good kick save.”
In what might have been the sloppiest — and one of the more entertaining — games of the season, Smith had two goals by the 5:33 mark of the first period.
How do you not think about a hat trick after that?
“Try not to get ahead of yourself,” said Smith, who added an assist to his 10th and 11th goals of the season. “When you get a couple that early or even one, it’s nice. You just get a little more confidence and feel the puck a little more. You just kind of keep going to the net with your stick down and hopefully you’ll get that third one.
“I had enough opportunities after that to get that third one but I just couldn’t quite bear down.”
Enough opportunities is right. The wise, old man to my right noted that Smith looked like a “bonafide 15-goal scorer,” adding: “I mean, like, he could have had 15 tonight.”
STARTS AND STOPS
Erik Karlsson has to at least put the puck on net when he streaks down the left wing and fires a shot during 3-on-3 overtime. When it went high and wide, it allowed Cam Atkinson the breakaway with which he ended the game. “In the overtime, we make a mistake and they score on it,” coach Guy Boucher said. “That’s what this game is.” By “that” he meant a game of mistakes. And no game we’ve seen this season has had more of them ... The home scorers weren’t doing any favours for Mark Stone, who was credited with just one take-away — his league-leading 61st — through 40 minutes. Stone stripped Brandon Saad of the puck at centre ice moments before Smith opened the scoring at the 42-second mark. He also had a clear take-away in the fourth minute, just before setting up Fredrik Claesson with the clearest and best chance of his NHL career. Freddie made a decent move then shot wide ... The Senators are now 5-3-1 in January, which, given the list of opponents, looked to be their most difficult month of the season.
THINGS I THINK I THUNK
Nick Foligno didn’t take kindly to a little bump from Jean- Gabriel Pageau in the third. He responded with a slash and, as we could see by a close-up on the centre-ice sideboard, a stern warning ... With under eight minutes to go and trailing by a goal, Brassard has to shoot when he has the puck in the slot, not try to dish it towards the boards to Stone.
BY THE NUMBERS
Cody Ceci looked like he was in for a big day when he had two assists by the 5:33 mark. He didn’t get any more points, but he did finish with a plus-3 ... As tough the day was for Korpisalo, he made an outstanding stop off Kyle Turris with the score 4-3 in the second ... The attendance of 16,702 wasn’t bad, given the football options that were available on TV ... Turris took 28 faceoffs, which seems like an abnormally high amount. He won 18 of them.