Never, ever, look past an opponent. On Thursday night, in Columbus, the Blue Jackets posted three goals in the opening stanza en route to a 4-2 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers. 
“I think we weren’t ready to play,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Our puck management, maybe our decision-making, and our execution weren’t there.”
No kidding.
“We played a solid 60 minutes and we’re seeing the team that is getting more confident,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “There’s no perfect systems, but when they start playing for each other, executing the system, all five guys on the ice at a time, it becomes a good system and becomes a good team.”
Daniil Tarasov made 29 saves in the win.
The Blue Jackets moved to 22-31-10 off their third win in four matches.
“We’ve made some mistakes in the past, but I think we learned the most when we teach ourselves how to win these games,” Columbus’ Sean Kuraly said. “These are good teams that are getting ready for [the] playoffs, and you’ve got to continue to learn the pattern that it takes to win these games.
“We exhausted the manual on what not to do. The only thing left was to do something different, and that’s what we did.”
The Blue Jackets buzzed the Oilers for three goals in the first, and left the Oilers skating in circles.
Zach Hyman trimmed the deficit to 3-1 with 71 seconds gone in the middle frame.
In the third period, Corey Perry cut the gap to 3-2 for the Oilers with a goal at 12:08, scoring off a tip in.
Columbus sealed the win when Jack Roslovic hit an empty net with 20 seconds left for the 4-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“This is a big win for us,” Olivier said. “Lately, we’ve been making some strides and been able to hold on to leads. That’s really good for our group here.”
Calvin Pickard made 30 saves in the loss.
Connor McDavid had an assist for his 100th point on the campaign.
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