Rick Bowness makes his road debut behind CBJ bench (in Pittsburgh)
Elvis shines as the Blue Jackets post a 4-3 shootout victory over the Penguins
PITTSBURGH – The Blue Jackets had four full-time coaches since the mutual parting of waysways with John Tortorella ways in 2021. One of them, Mike Babcock, never even made it behind the CBJ bench to coach a game. He shouldn't even have been hired. The other three, Brad Larsen, Pascal Vincent and Dean Evason, coached 373 games between them.
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Rick Bowness, the Jackets' 12th full-time coach (14th if you count interims) in 25 seasons, took over for Evason last week. Bowness won his first two outings over two Western Conference bottom dwellers, Calgary and Vancouver, within the friendly confines of Nationwide Arena.
Saturday night, he took his pressure hockey on the road to the den of horrors known as PPG Arena.
Jackets fans are tied of getting beaten up with Pittsburgh Penguins in head-to-head stats. On the Jumbotron last night, they had this one: "Kris Letang has scored 14 goals against the Blue Jackets, more than any other defenseman in NHL history." What, exactly, does that mean? That message was framed with advertisements for concession-stand fare, including "lobster nachos" and "cheesesteak egg rolls," which are, of course, noted Western Pennsylvania delicacies. I hate Primanti Brothers sandwiches, mostly because they suck. And Wawa is better than Sheetz. But I digress.
Where was I?
Oh, yes, the den of horrors. Prior to Saturday night, the Penguins were 16-0-2 in their previous 18 ,meetings against the Jackets at PPG Arena. The last time the CBJ won a regulation game in this town was on Nov. 13, 2015, when Scott Hartnell and Brandon Saad accounted for the visitors' goals in a 2-1 victory.
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Enter Bowness, 70, who doesn't give a fig about what has happened with the Blue Jackets in the past. He doesn't care about the multiple third-period meltdowns or Elvis Merzlikins' godawful goaltending numbers or Pittsburgh-related streaks or anything.
He just wants his jackets to play aggressive, defensively sound hockey, he wants them to go forward with swagger and he wants to win.
On Jan 4, the Penguins came from three goals down to beat the Jackets in Columbus; Crosby scored the game-winner in overtime.
It was the third time this season the Jackets and Penguins have gone beyond regulation.
Saturday night marked the fifth time.
Man, it was a helluva game. Crosby once again pulled a dagger out of his hat – he scored with 61 seconds left in regulation to tie the game 3-3 – on a redirect that was assisted by Letang and Geno Malkin. If you are a Blue Jackets fan, you were ready to be leeched and bled at that point.
What did Bowness say on the bench?
"'We're all right,'" Bowness said. "'They made a good play. We'll respond. We're OK.'"
They were. The Jackets had a couple of chances in overtime, the Penguins had more and better – and Elvis Merzlikins was a wall. Merzlikins made 32 saves on the night including six five-bell stops in overtime, and not including the two stellar stops in the shootout (on Crosby and Bryan Rust).
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The shootout scorers for the Jackets were Kent Johnson and Charlie Coyle, and both were artful. There was a nervy moment when former Jacket Egor (he has removed the 'Y') Chinakhov, the Penguins' third shooter, beat Merzlikins with a snipe inside the far post. Coyle followed immediately with the game-winner.
"Elvis was really, really, really good," Coyle said, "especially in the shootout. Really, really, really good."
It's remarkable. Merzlikins has been in the wilderness for years and, for all practical purposes, he navigated himself into the woods. His numbers are awful. Evason didn't trust him at all, and leaned heavily on Jet Greaves. Thursday night, Merzlikins won his first game since Dec. 4. Saturday night, he was equally sterling.
"I liked how we responded after a bad first period," Bowness said. I liked how we adjusted and played a lot better in the second and third. The things I didn't like in the first, we can fix – there wasn't nearly enough passion in the game, and that's what I talked to them about (during the first intermission.)"
For most of Saturday night's game, he Jackets played with five defensemen (like they did in an OT victory in Utah last weekend, in what was Evason's last game before he was fired). Dante Fabbro left in late in the first period after a collision. He was seen post-game in the hallway with a crutch. He will be reevaluated when the Jackets return to Columbus.
"They sucked it up early," Bowness said. "Look at how great Elvis played. You do down to five D, you need big saves. Elvis was outstanding."
Zach Werenski played 29-plus minutes, Damon Severson 28-plus and Ivan Provorov 27-plus.
The Jackets are 3-0 under Bowness. Upcoming is a five-game homestead against some (largely) sturdy competition – Ottawa, Dallas, Tampa Bay, L.A. and Philadelphia.
I'll be dark for a couple of days as I make my way down to Florida to pop in on Columbus Crew training camp. I'll be working on a Bowness piece along the way. Stay tuned.
Michael Arace
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