COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Blue Jackets have managed to regain their footing after a slow start from the Olympic break, winning their third in a row by beating the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, 4-2, on Thursday night.
The win almost didn’t come after Gustav Forsling looked like he had the tying goal with 2:55 to go. But after a Blue Jackets challenge, the officials deemed that Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist interfered with goaltender Jet Greaves and overturned the goal.
Mathieu Olivier put the game away with an empty netter for his second goal of the night at 18:18. Greaves had 26 saves.
But this game was notable for another reason: it’s the Blue Jackets’ last one before the trade deadline.
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After losing their first two out of the Olympic break, they have won three straight and took seven points out of a possible 10 in the five games between the break and Friday’s deadline.
Now, all eyes are on the front office and general manager Don Waddell to see if he will make moves to strengthen the team’s chance to get to the playoffs for the first time in six years.
Ivan Provorov scored on the powerplay for the Blue Jackets at 5:08 of the first period when his point shot deflected off Panthers defenseman Dmitri Kulikov and past Tarasov. Provorov also denied the Panthers a goal early in the second when he got down into the crease after a puck bounced away from Jet Greaves and denied Panthers forward Tomas Nosek.
Olivier made it 2-0 at 10:58 of the second when he deflected an Egor Zamula shot by Tarasov for his 10th goal of the season.
In the third, Kent Johnson’s backhand pass to the slot found Boone Jenner, who beat Tarasov to give the Blue Jackets a 3-0 lead.
Florida clawed back within one in the third on back-to-back goals by Niko Mikkola and Sam Bennett. Forsling looked to have the tying goal before the Blue Jackets’ challenge led to the review and overturn.
The Panthers came into Thursday night’s game on an eight-game winning streak vs. the Blue Jackets.
It’s unclear what this year’s deadline, which is at 3 p.m. Friday, will look like for Columbus, but the Blue Jackets have to have last season in their minds a little bit.
They were in the playoffs by a point at the deadline, but they didn’t do much with the only additions being a waiver claim for forward Christian Fischer and a trade for veteran forward Luke Kunin.
Those moves did very little as they combined for no points in 13 games.
The lack of reinforcements played a role in the Blue Jackets having a nightmarish March last season in which they went just 4-9, recording only nine points and getting shut out four times.
Columbus missed the playoffs by two points with its dismal March playing a massive role.
The Blue Jackets ended Thursday with wins in 14 of their last 17 games. Only twice since hiring Rick Bowness have they failed to get a point in a game.
They’re still on the outside looking at the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
This isn’t to say they need to make a blockbuster move before 3 p.m.
However, to give themselves the best chance to get to playoffs for the first time since the 2020 bubble in Toronto, they should be trying to find more impact that they got a year ago.
Columbus played Thursday night without defensemen Zach Werenski (illness) and Dante Fabbro (lower-body injury). Werenski has missed three consecutive games.