Renewed Blue Jackets face tough task vs. trending Penguins

After making a major midseason change, the Columbus Blue Jackets are showing their regeneration.

Columbus will try to improve to 3-0 under new coach Rick Bowness, who replaced Dean Evason, on Saturday in the season-series finale at the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The hiring of Bowness was a whirlwind.

He and his wife, Judy, were boating in Florida when Columbus general manager Don Waddell reached out. Quickly, Bowness was in the Ohio capital on Tuesday and skippered the club, which was last in the Eastern Conference, to a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames.

"I just love it," the 70-year-old coach said. "That's why I came back. That's what I missed the most. When I was out a year and a half, the thing I missed the most was the interaction with the players. I love that part of coaching -- working with the players and talking with the players and helping them get better."

The players seem to love it, too.

The Blue Jackets beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 Thursday and leapfrogged their way up the basement stairs, leaving last place in the East to the New York Rangers.

"It kind of feels like you're back in training camp or like a first day of school type feeling," said center Adam Fantilli. "Got a new coach. Everyone wants to play their best ... maybe give a little extra.

"He's very experienced. He's got 2,700 games in the NHL (and) has been in the league for 50 years. From what I can tell, he's a really good man."

It's a defense-first approach the rest of the way.

"You don't score your way into the playoffs," Bowness said. "You defend your way into the playoffs, and you get your offense from playing good, solid team defense."

Defenseman Zach Werenski leads Columbus in goals (18) and assists (33).

The Penguins' recent stretch of strong play -- banking 15 points (7-2-1) in their last 10 outings -- has slotted them into third in the Metropolitan Division behind the first-place Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders.

As usual, Sidney Crosby has been a crucial part of the success.

In a 6-3 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, the captain recorded a goal and an assist to snap a three-game point drought.

Leading the club with 25 goals, the 38-year-old Crosby reached his 19th 50-point season on Thursday, matching Washington's Alex Ovechkin for the most by an active player and sixth-most all-time.

Only Crosby (five goals) has hit the net more than Egor Chinakhov since the Penguins acquired the winger from Columbus on Dec. 29.

Skating on the second line with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin, Chinakhov has three goals and an assist in eight games and has shown chemistry with his Russian countryman.

"They've found each other -- you've seen a couple of goals with these guys just finding each other off the rush, they find each other in the zone," Penguins coach Dan Muse said of Chinakhov and Malkin. "Anytime you have new linemates, too, it takes a little while to see that chemistry build, but we've seen it starting to build in the right way."

A first-round draft pick (21st overall) by Columbus in 2020, Chinakhov has six goals and four assists and is minus-4 in 37 games between the clubs this season.

In a trio of one-goal outcomes, Pittsburgh is 2-0-1 against the Blue Jackets entering the final regular-season matchup between the teams.