The Blue Jackets knew they would get the Predators’ best punch Tuesday, and though it took about 56 minutes to land, they had to absorb a vicious right hook before earning a hard-fought decision 4-3.
Neither the players nor coach Todd Richards were particularly pleased with their performance in the final three minutes of regulation, as the Blue Jackets had built a 4-1 advantage but “relaxed” in the words of Richards. They controlled much of the play from the second period until the game’s waning minutes, at times overwhelming the Predators in the offensive zone and making life easy for themselves and Sergei Bobrovsky by cleaning up rebounds and keeping the puck out of harm’s way.
But even when there was a bump in the road, panic wasn’t an option.
Playing in a desperate situation of their own, the Predators had to salvage something out of a dreadful road trip through western Canada that saw Pekka Rinne get pulled in two different games. In order to head back to Nashville with something, the Blue Jackets stood in their way — but a late push wasn’t enough. Despite a white-knuckled dash to the finish line in which Chris Mueller and Mike Fisher scored 47 seconds apart to cut the Jackets’ lead to 4-3, Richards said the bench displayed confidence.
“We’re okay — that’s why we have a three-goal lead,” was the coach’s message as he called the team to the bench with 1:14 left in the third period. The Blue Jackets kept it simple in exhausting the final seconds off the game clock, getting the puck of their zone and forgetting about the empty net at the other end.
When the horn sounded and the clock hit 0.0 inside Nationwide Arena, the Blue Jackets (30 points) equaled the eighth-place total in the Western Conference but will sit outside the bubble due to tiebreakers held by the Phoenix Coyotes. Nonetheless, a 7-0-4 stretch has Columbus in the hunt and with a sizable chip on its shoulder.
Oh, right…the rest of the game. It was eventful.
Fedor Tyutin, Mark Letestu, Nikita Nikitin and Derick Brassard scored in the first 52:41 to essentially put it out of reach, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who thought Brassard’s tally would stand as the game-winner. Vinny Prospal picked up three assists – including the 500th of his NHL career on Nikitin’s goal in the third period – and was the No. 1 star of the game.
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