Tag: Golden

After Saturday’s win over Los Angeles, the Blue Jackets had something that has been in short supply this season in the NHL.

Time off.

The marathon that is the league schedule has felt like a sprint at times this season, including when the Blue Jackets played 13 times in the first 23 days of December leading into the holiday break.

So when the team looked at the schedule and saw four full days off after its last game, head coach Dean Evason saw it as the perfect chance for a mental and physical reset before tonight’s game at Vegas.

“It’s not just that we’re off the ice and resting our legs and our bodies, it’s forgetting about the game for a little bit,” Evason said. “You get recharged and go do something else. We believe 100 percent that the mental end of it is as important as the physical end of it. You have that attitude that you’re fresh and mentally positive, then you’ll give yourself a good opportunity to compete and have success.”

The Blue Jackets didn’t practice either Sunday or Monday, giving the players two days away from the ice to recharge both the minds and the legs. So what did the players do with the time off? Some spent it with families if they’re around, while others got caught up on the life things that often fall through the cracks in the midst of a hectic season.

For wing Zach Aston-Reese, that meant picking up his dry cleaning and shopping for curtains for his home in New Jersey.

“I was doing adult stuff,” he said with a laugh after Tuesday’s practice. “It’s been good. It’s definitely nice to get away from the rink a little bit, just reset. We had a really good practice today. I think everyone was flying out there.”

The two practice days ahead of Wednesday’s flight that kicks off a four-game road trip allowed Columbus to home in on just about everything on the ice, from 5-on-5 structure to the power play and penalty kill to specialty areas like 3-on-3 overtime and a team shootout competition won by Luca Del Bel Belluz.

“We haven’t had a practice like this today with fresh bodies and all the bodies, so we want to work on everything,” Evason said Tuesday. “We’ll try to touch everything up. We’re doing video as well to refresh our memory of how we want to play the game structurally, so it’s been a nice little break as well as the practice time used in the right direction.”

Know The Foe: Vegas Golden Knights

Head coach: Bruce Cassidy (Third season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.39 (4th) | Scoring defense: 2.76 (9th) | PP: 28.3 percent (2nd) | PK: 78.2 percent (20th)

The narrative: The 2023 Stanley Cup champs are seemingly in the mix for a championship every year, making the playoffs six of their first seven seasons and on pace to do so yet again. The Golden Knights failed to repeat a season ago, losing in the first round to Dallas, but should be in the mix yet again with a veteran coach and an experienced roster – of the team’s top 14 scorers, 13 are age 26 or older – that knows how to win in the postseason.

Team leaders: Jack Eichel might be having the best season of his decorated career, as the now-28-year-old center is eighth in the NHL in scoring with a 16-48-64 line as well as a plus-27 rating on the season. Mark Stone adds 13 goals and 46 points in 37 games, while Shea Theodore is fourth among NHL blueliners with 44 points (six goals, 38 assists). Pavel Dorofeyev has a team-best 22 goals and eight in the last nine games, while Tomas Hertl has 19 on the year and also has scored eight times in the last nine. Brayden McNabb’s plus-29 rating ties Kirill Marchenko for the NHL lead.

Adin Hill leads the charge in net and is 19-9-4 with a 2.65 GAA and .901 save percentage, while Ilya Samsonov has a 2.78 GAA and .898 save percentage while going 12-6-1.

What’s new: The Golden Knights were a certified wagon through 40 games, posting a 28-9-3 record and leading the NHL in points percentage. But the last three weeks have been a struggle, with Vegas just 3-6-2 in the last 11 games. The good news for the Golden Knights? For a change this time of year, everyone is healthy outside of former Blue Jackets forward William Karlsson (more on him in a second).

Trending: This is the first meeting of the season between the two teams, with the Jackets and Knights having split the 12 all-time meetings with six wins apiece. Columbus is just 2-4-0 in Vegas.

Former CBJ: Karlsson has a 7-11-18 line in 38 games on the season but was placed on injured reserve last week with a lower body injury.