Oh, and he was feted throughout the last homestand as he passed the 1,000-game milestone, with friends and family packing Nationwide Arena for what turned into a week-long celebration. Why not add a trio of hat trick pucks to the silver stick and other gifts he received?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t happen often, especially for me,\u201d Coyle said of the hat trick. \u201cI love when we win. We just want to win in here, and it seems like it\u2019s kind of a new guy depending on the night. No one really acres who it is. We get the two points we came here for, and everyone is happy. Tomorrow it\u2019s gonna be a new line, someone, whatever, but we\u2019ll just have to play the right way and it\u2019s going to work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a player who says he doesn\u2019t love the limelight, Coyle sure has had a lot happen over the past week to force him into it. But it\u2019s also clear that even though he\u2019s in his first season with the Blue Jackets, his personality, work ethic and dependability have won over the locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sick of talking about that guy,\u201d Zach Werenski joked. \u201cIt\u2019s been the 1,000th game, the ceremonies, now tonight. No, honestly, he\u2019s been incredible, and I really can\u2019t say anything else. I feel like I\u2019ve said it all. He\u2019s one of the best teammates I\u2019ve played with, and obviously what he does on the ice, he plays the right way. I think he leads by example. It\u2019s nice to see him get the four points tonight and three goals, but it\u2019s everything else away from the puck that he does that\u2019s so important for our group.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the scoring was nice, Werenski\u2019s point about what Coyle brings on the defensive side rings true. He\u2019s centered the Blue Jackets\u2019 shutdown line throughout the season, spending most games matched against the opposing team\u2019s top trio. That was the case again on Friday as head coach Rick Bowness didn\u2019t have the last change but tried to get Coyle, Mathieu Olivier and Cole Sillinger out against Connor Bedard\u2019s line throughout the night.<\/p>\n
Coyle ended up skating 8:13 of 5-on-5 play against Bedard, and the Blue Jackets had a 9-5 edge in shot attempts, a 6-1 advantage in scoring chances and 5-2 edge in shots on goal per Natural Hat Trick.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive Charlie\u2019s line a lot of credit,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cHe has those three goals, (but) you see the job he did defensively? That\u2019s just as important. That helps us win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. The Blue Jackets are making a habit of playing from ahead under Bowness, and it\u2019s paying off.<\/p>\n
This has been a strength of the Blue Jackets for much of the season, as Columbus has scored the first goal in 17 of the last 22 contests and 32 of 53 games overall, which has allowed the CBJ to place fourth in the NHL in time spent leading games. But it\u2019s been particularly notable since Bowness took over, with the Blue Jackets taking a 1-0 lead in seven of eight games; they\u2019ve won all seven of those contests and lost the only time they allowed the first goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even know that, so I appreciate you sharing it,\u201d Werenski said. \u201cYeah, obviously when you can get off to a lead early in the game, it\u2019s definitely a bonus. I think playing from behind, you can sometimes end up chasing the game a little bit. For us to get in front, (we\u2019re) just establishing our game, getting to the game we want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coyle did the honors on this night, as he buried the rebound of a Werenski shot with the Blue Jackets on the power play in the final minute of the first period. But as Bowness noted, having an early lead is good, but the one that matters most happens when the clock says all zeroes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to come out hard, and give the guys credit for that, they are,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cBut the most important thing is the end when we have to make sure we have one more than they have at the end of the game. We\u2019ve done a good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. The Blue Jackets again held a third-period lead, limiting what the Blackhawks were able to generate in the final frame.<\/p>\n
When you score first and hold a lead, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re going to be ahead in the third period, and that means you\u2019ll have an opportunity to close out games. Columbus\u2019 struggles finishing out games the first half of the season were well-documented, but they haven\u2019t reared their ugly head in a while, with the Blue Jackets again finishing things off Friday by taking a 3-2 lead into the final period and not allowing a goal to the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n
The key, players and coaches alike have said, is just sticking to the same style of play that put them ahead in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t really changed much,\u201d Werenski said. \u201cWe just stick to our game plan. Bones is talking a lot, staying positive, just telling us to keep on the pressure and keep on the attack. I just think as the year has gone on, we\u2019ve matured more as a group and are finding ways to close out games now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Columbus was outshot 9-3 in the final period against the Blackhawks, but the good news is that they didn\u2019t allow Chicago many grade-A scoring chances to even the score. Per Natural Stat Trick, at 5-on-5 in the final period, Chicago had a single high-danger scoring chance.<\/p>\n
Bowness liked the way his team defended with the lead, but added the next step for the Blue Jackets is to keep generating offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t put enough pucks on net in the third, so we\u2019re gonna be preaching that,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cWe want to play on our toes, we want to after them, but it was a solid game. We didn\u2019t give up much in the third, so that\u2019s a good thing, but we still want to generate a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oh, and he was feted throughout the last homestand as he passed the 1,000-game milestone, with friends and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-444842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}