3 Takeaways From Blue Jackets’ 1-0 Overtime Win Over Rangers

The Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the New York Rangers 1-0 in overtime on Saturday night. Kent Johnson scored the game winner while Jet Greaves stopped all 29 shots he faced to earn his first shutout of the season.

Here are our three takeaways from the game.

Confident Kent

He’s back. Johnson continues to show that he’s back to his old self early in the season. It’s not just the goal. It’s in all situations.

Johnson’s regained strength is evident. He’s not being pushed off pucks as much. He’s back in positions to distribute the puck.

More importantly, Johnson is back to scoring timely goals. His overtime goal was a well-executed play on multiple levels.

Johnson came off the bench and joined the play. Zach Werenski, who played over 32 minutes, saw him and connected on the pass. Johnson did the rest and put one past Dylan Garand to seal the game.

One part of that play stood out to Johnson.

“Unreal pass by Z,” Johnson said. “Like I said before, the weight of that pass, it could go unnoticed. He just put that perfectly in my wheelhouse. It was great.”

Johnson says his game is in a good place. As to where his confidence is:

“It’s pretty, pretty good,” Johnson said. “Excited for more.”

Johnson struggled through most of last season because he dealt with a lingering injury that affected his skating. It also led him to lose a little weight.

“It’s night and day,” Johnson said. “You want to help your team win. It definitely feels good. Grateful for the opportunity here and for the boys. Great group. I couldn’t be happier doing it here with them.”

Head coach Rick Bowness sees a new level of confidence in Johnson.

“Far more confident kid,” Bowness said. “I think the confidence comes from he’s a lot stronger. We asked him to put the weight back on and get stronger during the summer and it’s shows that he put the time in over the summer.”

“When you feel stronger, the confidence comes. He’s another one of the kids that I talked to at the end of the year. You’re going to be given a chance to move up and play an important role on this team.”

“You’re a big part of where we’re going, a big part of the future and you want more responsibility. You’re going to get it. He’s taken full advantage of it. But it started last summer with his commitment to get stronger.”

Greaves Goes Save for Save

The goaltending battle on Saturday was a good one. Both Greaves and Garand were excellent. After a somewhat rocky start for Greaves, this was a game to get him back on track.

“It’s fun to be in games like that,” Greaves said. It’s awesome. You never know how games are going to go, but it’s fun to be in those. Garand was awesome down there for them. It was just doing what I can. The guys did a great job in front of me.”

Being able to flush out the past is a skill not every player has. Greaves appears to be showing some progress in that area being able to move forward past some tough losses.

“We’ve learned that every game is important,” Greaves said. “Every game matters, especially those division games. It’s great to get the two points. But I think the biggest thing for our group right now is finding our identity, finding consistency in how we’re playing. We’re not always going to have the results. Nobody goes (84-0) of course, but it’s just about being consistent in how we’re playing. I thought this was a great step tonight.”

Team Needed a Game Like This

Given the recent noise around the rants from Bowness and their recent results, the Blue Jackets needed a game like Saturday to show that they are heading in the right direction. Getting a shutout against a hot Rangers team was exactly the kind of result they were looking for.

Here’s Bowness postgame.

“We talked a lot about being gamers. We used the (Pat) Murphy quote from the Milwaukee Brewers the other day. ‘They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we’ve got a bunch of gamers. And the gamers won this week.’ We wanted to be gamers tonight. We were. Everyone contributed.”

And here’s Werenski:

“We talked about it all week. Whenever you give up seven in your home building, you obviously want to correct that. We had a few days to talk about it, watch some video, kind of get in the mindset that we’re going to try and win games 1-0, 2-1, whatever it may be. I thought it was great. Jet played outstanding. Some huge saves from him, but I just like the buy-in from everybody. I think that’s what we’re going to need moving forward.”

The Blue Jackets turn around and play the Minnesota Wild Sunday evening. They’ll have an immediate chance to finish the weekend above .500 which would make them feel pretty good about themselves should they be able to do it.