Next Day Review: CBJ vs BOS 1/2

This game had quite a different tenor than the last couple. Boston’s forecheck wasn’t quite as ferocious or as predatory as Toronto and Buffalo’s and so the Blue Jackets were able to get some air to breathe.

The result, though, is somehow much worse for the Blue Jackets, lead primarily by some bad bounces and rookie mistakes.

The Stats

While the Blue Jackets weren’t loudly dominated, they were still beat by the veteran Boston Bruins. A late first period surge and strong start to the third period couldn’t quite save them from some of the aforementioned big mistakes.

What the Blue Jackets should be happy about is that they were the ones doing the pushing, for the most part. Large sustained shot advantages over a period of time indicates that the Blue Jackets were setting up shop in the zone and dictating outcomes.

Here, we can see why it might have felt like the Russian line was quiet. They were largely matched up against the top defense and a strong possession line in Debrusk-Coyle-Marchand.

Maybe that explains some of Johnson-Sillinger-Bemström’s dominance. That line made hay against the bottom-pair of Boston.

Gaudreau-Fantilli-Danforth was done-in by their time spent against the heavy forecheck line of JVR-Frederic-Heinen in association with Bean and Jiricek. That defensive pair struggled against the forechecking lines of Boston’s “middle-six”.

Provorov and Severson generated their results primarily against the bottom half of the Bruins’ lineup.

The Tape

The Blue Jackets’ only goal.

The shift starts with Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko combining well to pressure Charlie Coyle into a neutral zone turnover. Then, another solid if unspectacular forechecking sequence from Kirill Marchenko. When Charlie Coyle wastes possession with an errant cross-ice pass, Kent Johnson jumps the zone early which leaves good space for Ivan Provorov, who also does well to recognize the opportunity, to join the rush.

Provorov then neutralizes the strong side defender and Kent Johnson tries to get a little too cute. Considering his handling, he could’ve improved the shot and taken it. Instead, he gets a lucky couple of bounces and finishes anyway.

Though Fantilli and Gaudreau ultimately had a tough game, I believe this clip shows the importance of having active defensemen who can help possession in the O zone.

Fantilli does great work in helping create puck possession in the D zone. Gaudreau makes a great play from the wall to give the puck to Fantilli with runway ahead of him. I think Fantilli could have made more of this neutral zone opportunity had he made some powerful crossovers or strides upon puck reception but avoiding Charlie McAvoy was probably the right choice.

Unfortunately, Erik Gudbranson chooses to plant at the blueline and make a mess of Fantilli’s delay play. Still, Fantilli manages to find Gaudreau who keeps the play alive. The puck filters back to Gudbranson who, once again, is stationary at the blue line and can’t make a play with the skilled players.

The interesting part of this clip doesn’t come until later and to be honest I don’t believe it shows it that well either way.

Cole Sillinger’s retrieval and early D zone work probably need improvement here. He chooses to play the net front and be slow to contesting the recovery when he didn’t need to be. I would’ve preferred a head check which would have allowed him to see coverage and let him know he could attack the puck (or cut off the passing lane to the intended target).

He’s laser focused on the puck and more information could have helped him avoid his awkward return to the middle and subsequent late checks.

Provorov works to get the puck out 1v3 and, all things considered, gets a good result from the situation. The Bruins recover and reload and Kent Johnson gets a stick on the next forward attacking pass.

Sillinger is a bit behind again on the breakout. I would have liked to see him one touch a puck to Bemstrom or Kent Johnson. His delay finds Severson who tries a risky pass through Pastrňák who makes him pay.

It’s in Pastrňák’s possesion that I find an interesting detail. Pastrňák constantly uses his body to shield the puck in possession.

Not all that interesting, I know, but it’s how he links it with his next move.

He positions the puck away from Kent Johnson who has to reach through to be disruptive. Once Kent Johnson has declared his reach, Pastrnak cuts through Johnson’s stick where it doesn’t have leverage.

Then, because he has eliminated KJ’s leverage, he can spin away and invert the pressure of the defense. If Kent Johnson still had his stick between his body and Pastrnak’s, he’d be able to push against his body and potentially close off Pastrnak’s next pass.Fortunately for the Blue Jackets, there wasn’t a defenseman at the point.

This detail, of controlling the defensive stick with body positioning, is something that is noticeable across the Bruins’ top players. Brad Marchand is constantly positioning in a way that is inconvenient for sticks and I believe Pavel Zacha is picking up some of those maneouvers as well. Perhaps this sort of “deck stacking” is how he’s been able to break out next to skilled offensive players.

Notable Performances

Kent Johnson

The story of this game can’t really be anything else other than Kent Johnson. Unfortunately, I don’t have immediate access to passing data, but I’m sure he would stand out by any passing metric.

Even away from passing, Kent Johnson largely controlled play through his ability to win his line possession. He doesn’t have many poor puck touches and he’s doing a fantastic job sticking to checks and changing possession in the neutral zone.

Ivan Provorov

Provorov had what was probably one of his better performances of the year coming off what could have been his worst.

While some of his performance can be explained by his easier deployment, some of it too is that he formed a fruitful partnership with Kent Johnson.

KJ often found Provorov as he jumped up the ice. Provorov has been good at jumping into the play all year but his activation was much better utilized by a good neutral zone player who is willing to go East-West.

Cole Sillinger

Alongside Kent Johnson’s ascension has been Cole Sillinger. He seems to have unstuck himself from the development mud. He’s skating faster and getting engaged in wall battles where previously he was too far behind to even make contact. Establishing a productive partnership with KJ and playing alongside a resurgent Emil Bemstrom appears to be just what he needs to find his game outside of the netfront.

The Russian Line

I wouldn’t say it was an altogether poor performance from these three, but they seem to have lost some of the juice. Largely, I quite liked Kirill Marchenko’s performance. I thought Dmitri Voronkov showed some of what he’s got as well.

Chinakhov used his skating as great pressure but didn’t quite seem as engaged as we’ve seen when he’s at his best. He still needs to improve some of his stick positioning and anticipation but he seemed even a bit further away than usual.

It didn’t surprise me at all that these players looked the best when Kent Johnson and Jack Roslovic were moved to their line while Chinakhov was in the locker room. Perhaps the hits/injuries were affecting his game.

Adam Fantilli

I didn’t think Adam Fantilli was poor necessarily. He was intense and using his skating to make life hard on Boston. I think he did a good job of driving possession and a -3 at 5v5 was unkind to his performance as a whole.

He did, however, look a lot like a rookie in this game. He has a dynamic shot but got a little too tunnel visioned at shooting off-the-rush. He challenged players at the wrong times, on both sides of the puck, and didn’t always keep his feet moving inside of those challenges.

With the puck, he makes too many one and done decisions. His playmaking is inefficient. He’s often pushing the pace, and is right to do so given his skillset, but when it comes time to move the puck his mental map often isn’t correct. We see this in the easily defended passes he throws from the wall and in the entry passes into defenders sticks.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it now. His having these flaws means he’s got much more room to improve. Perhaps with some linemate stability we’ll see more connection come April.

Charlie McAvoy-Mason Lohrei

This duo was big, active and disruptive, especially in neutral zone sequences. Each defender was adept at killing plays off-the-rush and that gave the other an easy time retrieving pucks and getting breakouts started. When the pair was together, they drove results on the ice.

This pair, in particular, effectively neutralized some of Fantilli’s most dangerous rush offense and prevented the Russian line from getting on the forecheck.

If the Blue Jackets want to mimic some of Boston’s team structure, it’s easy to see why they may have been interested in a rangy defenseman like Lohrei.

There are some defenders in the upcoming draft that might paint a similar picture not to say anything of overall impact (Sam Dickinson, Artyom Levshunov, Anton Silayev, Jesse Pulkinnen to name a few), though I imagine C remains the focus of the high quality draft capital. Maybe Phillip Broberg can offer a similar impact if his game can be reclaimed?