Each weekday this season, BlueJackets.com will post CBJ Today, a look at news, notes, analysis and fun stuff from around the Blue Jackets world. It’s everything you need to know if you’re a fan going into the day.
The Daily Buzz
A bit of a cloud lifted on the Blue Jackets on Wednesday, as Columbus rebounded from its pair of losses in Detroit with a much better effort to take a 3-1 win at Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. Columbus will practice again by the bay this afternoon while getting ready for Thursday’s rematch in Amalie Arena.
A Savy Tally
Maybe it was just meant to be.
John Tortorella said Brad Shaw called it. David Savard said he and his teammates were joking about it.
And upon his return to Amalie Arena for the first time in nearly two years – a long stretch that included a grand total of zero goals – Savard lived up to his end of the bargain.
His goal in the last minute of the second period not only stood up as the winning goal in Columbus’ 3-1 victory, it was Savard’s first goal of any kind since his famous — at least among CBJ circles — goal in Game 1 of the 2019 playoffs against Tampa Bay. That tally was a huge one, as it sparked the Jackets’ third-period comeback in what would become not just an opening win but a sweep of the powerful Lightning.
That goal came on April 12, 2019, but Savard’s previous regular-season goal was March 30, 2019, when he tallied in a win at Nashville.
So add it all up and maybe it was meant to be.
Video: CBJ@TBL: Savard hammers home a one-timer in the slot
“Shawzy called it before the game,” Tortorella said of his defensive assistant coach. “He said Savy was going to score.”
“We joked around yesterday a little bit, me and Jonesy and Z, so it’s kind of funny that it happened in this building,” Savard sad. “I think it was nice to finally get one.”
But think about it. Not only was it the Jackets’ first appearance in Amalie Arena since that playoff series, it was exactly two years since Savard’s previous goal. And he tallied it with an extra attacker, which made the celebration extra sweet considering he had five teammates to enjoy it with on the ice rather than the usual four.
“I think a lot of the guys were rooting for me to get one soon, but it was just a good feeling,” Savard said. “It was a big goal at the time to go up 2-0.”
The goal came when Patrick Maroon was about to be whistled for what would have been Tampa Bay’s only penalty of the game. With the period break upcoming, the Blue Jackets didn’t push it, content to wait in their own zone until the right opportunity to attack came and ticking down the clock to push more of the penalty time into the third period.
But they wouldn’t get that far. Finally, the Blue Jackets got the puck up the ice, with Nick Foligno pushing it up the right wing. The captain fed it to Alexandre Texier with speed, and Texier cut inside one Tampa defender to get into the right circle.
From there, it was a simple, short pass to Savard — it couldn’t have gone more than 10 feet — but it was the perfect feed as Savard was teed up for a one-timer, quickly ripping the puck past Curtis McElhinney before he could move over.
Savard — an offensive defenseman early in his career who had 11 goals in 2014-15 and eight in 2018-19 — had been getting closer and closer to ending his 100-plus-game drought, but it sure did come at the right time in Tampa as the Jackets got a key win.
“It definitely felt good,” he said. “It’s been a while, but it is what it is. It was a big goal at the time. It’s always fun, but it’s a big win for us. That’s all that matters.”
Some New Contributors
We spoke in this space yesterday about potential lineup changes, but I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t see four of them coming.
The Blue Jackets swapped out nearly a quarter of the skater lineup for this game, putting Liam Foudy and Zac Dalpe into the forward group in place of Ryan MacInnis and Riley Nash while also slotting Dean Kukan and Mikko Lehtonen into the defensive corps in place of Michael Del Zotto and Gabriel Carlsson.
Each of those four players who went in have their own story. Kukan, for example, has been in and out of the lineup all year — just as he has been his entire career — but got to play his 100th career game Tuesday night. His defensive partner, Lehtonen, made his CBJ debut and played in his 10th NHL game after coming over from his native Finland this year to play with Toronto, then was traded to Columbus earlier this month.
Foudy is a big prospect for the Jackets who started the year on the squad but went down to AHL Cleveland to get some playing time and his confidence back. And then there’s Dalpe, the 31-year-old veteran who hadn’t seen NHL action since playing one game — Nov. 15, 2018 — during the 2018-19 season.
Video: Pregame: Foudy (3/30/21)
They’re all good stories, but I must admit a certain attachment to Dalpe’s. I covered his two seasons at Ohio State from 2007-09, back when the second-round pick was a highly-skilled offensive threat who some saw as a potential NHL standout. Instead, he came a tweener, someone who could fill up the net at the AHL level but never quite found top-six minutes in the NHL. Going into last night’s game, he had played 141 NHL games with five different teams over nine seasons, totaling 12 goals and 25 points.
He’s a great guy who has dedicated his life to the game – I can say the same about his brother, Ben, a former CBJ front office intern who is now a video coordinator with St. Louis – and so it was pretty cool to be able to see him return to the lineup last night, especially since he said his youngest son at 2 years old would finally get a chance to see him play at the NHL level. Zac also has battled injuries the past few years and admitted at times he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get back.
Video: Pregame: Dalpe (3/30/21)
“I always worked hard when no one else was watching, and I’m just excited to get this opportunity,” he said. “31 years old, still knocking at the door to play in this league, it’s not just me that’s gotten back from the injury but it’s been my family and my close friends. I’m equally excited for them to watch as I am to play.”
So how did everyone do? Lehtonen and Kukan had a solid game as a pair, limiting the Lightning’s scoring chances, and Lehtonen in particular showed good poise on the puck in his first game with the team. The team’s fourth line of Dalpe, Foudy and Eric Robinson might have been the most consistent forward line on the night, creating a few chances, using their speed to make things happen in transition and providing energy.
It takes all 18 guys pulling on the rope to beat a team like Tampa Bay, and those players on the fourth line and third pair did their jobs on this night.