Blue Jackets' Adam Fantilli opens up about grandfather's recent death, describes 30th goal as "him giving me a lucky bounce"

Columbus Blue Jackets rookie Adam Fantilli opened up about the recent death of his grandfather after scoring his 30th goal of the season in Tuesday's 3-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Fantilli missed team activities for the past two days to attend his grandfather’s funeral in Canada. He returned to help Philadelphia score the game-winner in the third, when a pass from Kirill Marchenko deflected off his leg and slipped past goalie Samuel Ersson."

Fantilli said his late grandfather, whose favorite team was the Flyers, might have helped create that fortunate bounce.

"Yesterday, I flew back to Toronto and I buried my grandfather," Fantilli said after the game.

"His favorite team was Philly. That’s going to sound like I’m joking when I say that, but I swear his favorite team was Philly. Coming back, I’m pretty sure that one was him, just giving me a lucky bounce there."

With his 30th goal of the season, Fantilli joined an exclusive group as just the ninth player in Blue Jackets history to reach that mark. At 20 years old, he is the second-youngest Columbus player to score 30 goals in a season after Rick Nash, who tied for the NHL lead with 41 goals at age 19 in 2003-04.

Adam Fantilli praises goaltender Jet Greaves's performance

Jet Greaves has been a revelation for the Columbus Blue Jackets over the last week, stepping up in the absence of injured starter Elvis Merzlikins. Greaves has been outstanding in his last three starts, giving up only one goal and recording two shutouts along the way.

"He might be the hottest guy in the NHL right now," Adam Fantilli said. "He has one goal against in the last three games, and it's (Alex) Ovechkin. That's pretty good. There's not much else you can say."

Over his last 11 periods played, Greaves has faced 115 shots and turned aside 114 of them for an absurd .991 save percentage. Recalled from the AHL last Thursday after Merzlikins' injury, Greaves has won all four of his NHL starts so far, conceding just three total goals and already securing his first two career shutouts.

“It’s been a lot of fun. It’s always great to be playing important games this time of the year."Greaves said.

With one game left in the regular season against the New York Islanders on Thursday, the surging Blue Jackets are battling for the final Eastern Conference wild card playoff spot.