Coming into Monday night’s home game against the New Jersey Devils, the Columbus Blue Jackets were looking for offensive output after being shut out in their two previous outings. The Blue Jackets got the effort they were looking for, posting a season-high 46 shots on goal, but still lost 2-1 to the Devils.

In an effort to change things up, after falling in five of six games since the Stadium Series game on March 1, Columbus switched up their lines and brought goaltender Jet Greaves back up from Cleveland to start against New Jersey. The Devils scored twice, both in the second period.

New Jersey’s first goal came at 13:35 when Timo Meier skated past both Columbus defensemen and drove to the front of the net where he powered a short five-hole shot past Greaves.

Less than a minute later, Jesper Bratt scored on what was later called a “fluke” opportunity. Greaves went behind the net to play a puck along the boards. Just before it got to him, the puck hit a seam along the back wall and went off the heel of his stick to Bratt on the right goal line. He collected it and beat Greaves as the netminder worked back to the net.

“At the end of the day, it’s my job to stop it and keep the puck out of the net,” said Greaves after the game. “It’s too bad, but it’s part of the game. Bounces happen. Either way, you just have to handle them and respond and keep going.”

Mathieu Olivier scored for the Blue Jackets with 6:36 to go in the third period. It was part of a Columbus attack that saw 24 shots on goal in the third. When asked if his goal lifted a weight off the team’s recent scoring woes, Olivier responded, “I’ll be honest, no, I think I was just thinking more about the win. I think a win would have been better to lift that weight.”

Columbus head coach Dean Evason saw a lot of positives in his squad’s play against the Devils. “It was freaking awesome,” he said in describing the Blue Jackets efforts. “Did we get the results? No. Did we play the right way? Do we believe that this is the turning point? Do we believe that this is the one that, not only the period [but] the game, that turns us around and we’re ready to go forward? Yeah, 100 percent.” 

The Blue Jackets have two days off before welcoming the Stanley Cup-defending champion Florida Panthers to Nationwide Arena Thursday. Game time is 7:00 p.m.