The game had gone to a shootout, but what was taking so long?
Trailing 2-0 in the third period, the Columbus Blue Jackets had mounted a spirited comeback to tie the New York Islanders at Nassau County Coliseum. A power play goal by Mark Letestu had shifted the game’s momentum in favor of Columbus, and the visitors registered the game-tying goal after a terrific rush down the right side by R. J. Umberger and some strong net presence by Nick Foligno, who scored his first of the year to make it 2-2.
In the overtime, a spectacular save by Sergei Bobrovsky on Frans Nielsen with the Islanders on the power play preserved the tie. As he had been so many times last season, Bobrovsky was an absolute rock in goal for the Blue Jackets, and ultimately, he was rewarded with the win.
Which leads us back to the shootout. What was taking so long?
Well, apparently, the zamboni sweep, which is supposed to scrape loose snow away from the middle of the ice so shooters can work their stick handling magic was – let’s say – less than successful. Think trying to vacuum your carpet with the filter more clogged than 315 South at 7:30 in the morning. Cam Atkinson, who scored the eventual game-winning goal in the shootout, said it was obvious to both teams the zamboni driver needed to make an encore appearance.
“I know both benches were pretty much complaining about the surface,” said the Columbus winger. “So, I think the zamboni was going back out there, but I don’t think the driver was too happy about it.”
By eyewitness accounts, it was Blue Jackets associate coach Craig Hartsburg who first alerted game officials about the less-than-perfect snow sweep. It didn’t take long after that for referee Paul Devorski to order the re-sweep, and the shootout was finally set to begin.
And a thrilling shootout it was. Atkinson finally ended it in the fourth round with some nifty, almost sleight-of-hand stick handling that had Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov zigging when he should have been zagging, which is exactly the point. Or, in this case, two points for Columbus, which earned its first win of the year. (We’ll never know if Atkinson’s move would have been successful before the second zamboni sweep, but let’s give coach Hartsburg an assist anyway.)
It was the kind of victory very reminiscent of the types of games the team played during the second half of last season, when it made that furious playoff push. The template was pretty simple: Sergei Bobrovsky would give Columbus a chance to win, and the Blue Jackets would seem to will their way to victory with a mixture of relentless hard work and opportunistic scoring. Is Saturday’s win, so reflective of last season’s success, a sign this team, this franchise is learning how to win? Atkinson has no doubt.
“Absolutely,” he replied. “I think if you’re down a couple of goals, good teams find ways to win, and that’s what we did. You know, I feel like we’ve talked a lot about last year, and we were the same way once we found our stride. We could’ve been down a goal or two, but we just found a way to just stick with it and got the job done at the end of the night. It’s nice to get the first win, that’s for sure. And our whole team was going Saturday, including obviously Bob.”
Head coach Todd Richards also believes there may be some parallels from last year’s strong second-half results and the win Saturday, but he had a more tempered perspective.
“It’s going through the process of learning how to win games; we found that out last year,” Richards explained. “We finally understood what it took to win a game. It’s game two, and we found a way to win, which is the big thing coming out of that game. But the true test will be now can we sustain it…did we really learn how to win games and keep ourselves in games and give ourselves a chance to win?”
The answers will keep coming for the Blue Jackets, game after game. And those answers will be as clear as the ice at Nassau County Coliseum Saturday.
After the re-sweep, that is.
