Bob Returns, CBJ Is NHL’s Quickest to 30 Wins

Bob Returns, CBJ Is NHL’s Quickest to 30 Wins

by Grant Burkhardt, Photo via CBJ

This could be an oversimplification but the Columbus Blue Jackets will go as far as Sergei Bobrovsky can take them.

The NHL’s leading contender for the Vezina Trophy, The Bob, made the task of stopping flying rubber look easy again Tuesday night, turning aside 24 of 25 Carolina Hurricanes shots in a 4-1 Columbus win. The Jackets are the NHL’s first team to 30 wins and are joint-top of the Metropolitan Division, tied with Washington having played one game fewer than the Capitals.

Here’s what a tumultuous stretch looked like for the Jackets these past few weeks: The famous 16-game win streak came to an end, the team released goaltender Curtis McEhlenny after he surrendered a three-goal lead to the Rangers, and then Columbus lost two of three on a road trip without their starting goaltender.

“It’s so much fun to play in front of our fans…it’s all good.” #CBJ pic.twitter.com/Rsdpcnb7Dc

— ColumbusBlueJackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 18, 2017

Bobrovsky — who’d been out since last Tuesday because of an illness, returned Tuesday and with him normalcy returned, too. The Hurricanes rarely tested him or the defense, one that looked at ease after the rough stretch for the final two periods. 

Goaltenders are remarkable creatures. Many of them are full of superstitions and quirks that keep them zoned in during the game, and Bobrovsky’s mixture of bizarre pre-play mannerisms and in-game calm is so interesting to watch. It’s as if he’s amping himself up so he can lock into the game, almost the way a golfer waggles his club frantically before settling into the rhythm of the swing. In the run of play, Bobrovsky’s rhythm is contagious. When Bob’s locked in, Seth Jones and Jack Johnson play their best – both are having career years and Jones is an all-star. Those guys open up the attack, and the Jackets look like this year’s successful iteration of the Jackets. Without Bobrovsky, that fluidity and tempo goes away.

It would also be neglectful of me not to say that CBJ’s coaching staff – in barely more than a year, somehow – has created this system that gives the Columbus young guys so much room to create and chases so, so many opposing goaltenders. Carolina’s Cam Ward was gone in the second period after giving up four goals on 19 shots. I’ve lost count of how many times good goalies have gotten early exits from games at Nationwide Arena, where CBJ is 17-2-1 in its last 20 games. 

The system that John Tortorella has created is equal parts beautiful and suffocating and it looks nothing like anything the franchise has seen in its 16 years. The Rick Nash years were largely awful, ugly displays which seemed to almost completely lack skill or tactic. There was a dread in the fanbase early last season that perhaps the franchise was regressing, but the atmosphere has completely changed. The ice is tilted back in Columbus’s favor. This is your friendly reminder that the Jackets are the NHL’s youngest team, and the young guys seem free to use their natural skating and puck-handling abilities all over the ice. There’s a trust in youth here that seems specific, deliberate, and focused, and it’s paying off.

But as the fans saw over the past two weeks, none of that’s possible without the man in net. Bobrovsky’s the rock. He leads the league with 27 wins, and he’s in the top-five in almost every goaltending category. This season – so far a charmed one – nothing’s getting through him, which is to say that for the Jackets everything goes through him.

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