NEWARK, N.J. — Last season, the Blue Jackets seamlessly weaved three trade-deadline acquisitions into their lineup.
Thomas Vanek, Ian Cole and Mark Letestu blended in as if they had been around all season, and the Blue Jackets ripped off 10 straight wins on their way to a playoff appearance.
What’s happening this season, after four deadline additions, appears to be the opposite — despite escaping from an underwhelming performance Tuesday night with a big 2-1 shootout win over the injury-riddled New Jersey Devils.
This game did nothing to alleviate that issue, even though Cam Atkinson scored the game’s first goal just 52 seconds in and later scored the first goal of the shootout, which was clinched by Artemi Panarin’s goal in the second round.
The Devils, missing a lot of NHL talent, mostly controlled the game. If it weren’t for Bobrovsky making 16 saves in the third period — plus two more in overtime and on both of New Jersey shootout attempts — it could have been a much different story.
Even with the win, there are still concerns heading into a home-and-home set Thursday and Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won in overtime Tuesday and are two points ahead of the Blue Jackets.
The Jackets moved into the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with the win, but their hold on that spot was contingent on the outcome of a late game for the Montreal Canadiens at Los Angeles. The Penguins will hang onto one of the two wild cards regardless of the Canadiens’ result.
Despite Atkinson’s quick goal, they weren’t ready to go against the Devils, who were missing nearly half of their roster because of injuries, including top-liners Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri, plus top-pair defenseman Sami Vatanen.
The Blue Jackets were limited to four shots in the first period and endured a stretch of 15:48 between shots spanning the first and second periods. They also got burned while clinging to a 1-0 lead late in the second, allowing Travis Zajac to tie it with 3:00 left.