Tuesday night in the City of Brotherly Love, the hard charging Philadelphia Flyers had to ask if anyone got the license plate number of the truck that hit them in the third period of a 5-2 loss. Rumors are circulating that it was wearing a vanity plate reading "Birthplace of Aviation", but this is unconfirmed.
The "never give up, never surrender" attitude of the Blue Jackets held them in good stead as they have, for all intents and purposes, owned the Flyers this year after winning the season series 4-1-0. And a big part of the reason Columbus has been able to beat the Flyers has been the play of goaltender Curtis McElhinney.
"I felt pretty comfortable," McElhinney said after the victory over Philadelphia. "This is a difficult building to come into, but it's certainly a fun place to play. I think we've had some good games with Philly so far this year."
He suffered a concussion in a game against the Ottawa Senators early in the season and then was forced to come back from the injury a bit too early in place of injured starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. The end result of this was less than stellar play by both him and the team last autumn, but he's been working on his game and the team is playing better in front of him.
With Bobrovsky injuring his groin January 21, McElhinney went from being the backup to being the starter and has been pretty good between the pipes lately. He is 8-3-0 in his last 11 games and has better positioning and control of his rebounds. McElhinney has a 2.80 goals against average and a .916 save percentage this season in 23 games.
"I think the big thing was just turn the page and move on," he said of getting past a not-so-good middle stanza on Tuesday evening. "I think the important part was that we kept it simple in the third and we got rewarded for some simple plays towards the net."
Against the Flyers, McElhinney tied his career best in stopping 42 shots on goal, set in 2010 when he faced 48 shots while playing for the Anaheim Ducks. His economy of motion in net is reassuring to the players in front of him that have traditionally played not as well if Bobrovsky is not in net. The guys were also more disciplined in front of him, taking only two penalties.
"Curtis made some big saves for us in the third," said Blue Jackets head coach Todd Richards. "It starts with your goaltender. He made some plays for us. And there were guys that cashed-in on the other end, obviously had to make plays, too."
A few of the guys wearing Flyers orange must have felt like they were robbed by McElhinney making timely, point-blank saves. Chief among those had to have been former Blue Jacket Jakub Voracek left feeling incredulous after a lunging save on the doorstep of the goal in the second frame.
"It feels good," McElhinney said of the win. "Obviously anytime you head out on the road and you can take two points from another team in their building, it feels great. This being the first game for our road trip, it's certainly a nice way to start it out."
With Bobrovsky possibly returning by the end of the month, as Richards said on Monday, McElhinney can possibly cement the seed of a new contract with his play over the next few games. With six games to play in February and 12 days until the trade deadline, the time to make a lasting impression is now.
The Blue Jackets return to action on Thursday as they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins.
