The Columbus Blue Jackets were hoping a weekend getaway to Washington and Philadelphia could finally put an end to a long winless streak. Instead, there remains more questions than answers for a team who looks lost on the ice.
The Blue Jackets lost both their games over the weekend. They dropped a 4-3 decision to the Washington Capitals and then a 5-2 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers. The losses gave the Blue Jackets a nine-game losing streak which tied their franchise record.
To say the Blue Jackets have issues might be the understatement of the season. We’ll touch on some of those issues that came up this past weekend. However the bigger takeaway here is what all of their issues are pointing to. It’s bigger than what we see on the ice. Yet we may not know the full scope of what’s happening on the inside.
Many Issues, Few Answers
Let’s start with each individual game and build up from there. In Washington Saturday, the Blue Jackets had a decent start. They played a 0-0 first period. Then to open the second, Johnny Gaudreau scored to life a small monkey off his back. He beat Charlie Lindgren to score his second of the season and first with a goalie in net.
One game after being benched late in the third period, Gaudreau played one of his better games this season. Coach Pascal Vincent used the word tremendous to describe Gaudreau’s game. It was the Gaudreau they were used to seeing.
However the good times didn’t last very long. They last exactly 1:38. That’s all. It took Sonny Milano just 98 seconds to erase the Blue Jackets lead.
The Blue Jackets never led for the rest of the weekend.
The Capitals scored three unanswered in that second period to take a 3-1 lead. They held on in the third to win 4-3. The Capitals didn’t play that well all things considered. It was good enough to beat the Blue Jackets though.
Then on Sunday, the Blue Jackets were 1-1 after the first period. In the second, it took the Flyers just 1:11 to take the lead they’d never give up again.
First major issue for the Blue Jackets. They can’t stay tied or in the lead for long stretches. If it was one common theme to fix, the team could do that. Here’s Vincent on the breadth of mistakes costing his team.
“It would be a lead if it was the same kind of mistake,” Vincent said. “But it’s not. It’s always something different. So it’s just awareness.”
The Blue Jackets have several issues happening at once that eventually all need addressed. This leads to the second major issue and one that should sound off all the alarms.
Players have admitted never going through something like this ever in their career. Full stop.
“I’ve never seen or been a part of this before, ever in my life,” Werenski said in Philadelphia. “I know it sucks. It sucks for us. It sucks for coaches, sucks for management, sucks for fans. Sucks for everybody. Those 3-4 lapses in a game are killing us right now. And you gotta try and stay positive because we’re not far off. But at some point, it’s just gotta get done. We have to find a way to do it now.”
Werenski admitting it’s brand new for him is just one example. Gaudreau said something similar in Washington about this current slump.
“Probably not (to) this magnitude, no. But I am getting a lot of chances. I feel like I’m making plays out there. They’re just not going in. I feel like I’m doing the right things. Sometimes you go through slumps and this one happens to be a little longer than the past.”
When prominent players are admitting this is new for them, something just doesn’t feel right. This leads directly into three other issues that are major warning signs for the Blue Jackets.
Three Other Major Issues
The first thing is if the Blue Jackets knew what the root cause is, they’d start to address it. It hasn’t happened yet. But it’s not just one thing. It’s several things rolled up into one.
At the heart of the matter here are critical mistakes and puck management. Let’s give an example of this.
The Blue Jackets are on the power play Sunday in Philadelphia. They trail 2-1 so they have a chance to tie. Damon Severson has the puck in the zone on his backhand at the left point. He chases the puck down, quickly gets it to his forehand and sends a pass Adam Fantilli’s way.
One major problem. The pass was off target by a wide margin. Fantilli tried to track it down only to have the Flyers’ defender knock it not only out of the zone, but then also past a diving Severson. The result was a 2-on-0 goal by Ryan Poehling that made it 3-1. That became the eventual game-winning goal.
A badly missed pass led to the deciding goal. Sound familiar? It should. As Ivan Provorov said in Washington, it’s the same movie over and over again.
Next example. Alex Ovechkin’s goal in the second period Saturday. Three Blue Jackets chased Dylan Strome below the goal line. Ovechkin was left wide open in the slot. Strome’s pass got to him and it was easy from there. It opened up a 3-1 Capitals lead they never relinquished. Critical mistakes at the worst times.
Let’s now expand on this. Everyone makes mistakes, even on the good teams. It’s part of the game. Good teams limit their mistakes. Good teams also have players they can lean on to get them through rough times.
Do the Blue Jackets currently have that on their roster right now? Do they have that player or two they can lean on in the midst of this slump? Gaudreau would certainly come to mind but he’s had a rough start to the season. Boone Jenner scored again on Sunday and played his usual Jenner-like game. But it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the skid.
Patrik Laine would normally come to mind. Except he wasn’t there in Philadelphia to help his team. For the first time in his career, Laine was a healthy scratch. Laine has struggled this season since coming back from a concussion. Here’s what Vincent had to say about the decision. It was a hard conversation to have.
So again the question at hand is, who can the Blue Jackets lean on to get them out of this slump? As it stands, they don’t have that player who can carry this team on his own. Their best players are struggling with a couple exceptions. This is where the leadership has to come together and find a solution to this to get everyone back on the same page.
This leads to other major issue number three and one that isn’t getting enough attention yet. How are the young players handling this? The Blue Jackets are again one of the youngest teams in the NHL. Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Voronkov, Yegor Chinakhov, David Jiricek and more. You know the names. They’re all going through this slump too.
What are the leaders on the Blue Jackets doing to help the young players get through this? Fantilli said it best recently. He hates losing. He doesn’t want to make this a norm.
The last thing anyone on the Blue Jackets need is for this losing to get to a point where the young players get used to this. But in the midst of a franchise-tying nine-game losing streak, there should be immediate concern that this could fester. It could creep into the room. It could effect players away from the ice. These are things that need to be immediately addressed to keep everyone in line and on the same page.
So while there are plenty of issues on the ice, including a horrific power play, the issues are big enough that they could expand to off the ice as well. That’s where things could get ugly if not treated soon.
A Fix Won’t Happen Overnight
Vincent admitted that issues will be dealt with one at a time. It’s for that reason that a fix to everything won’t be quick and won’t be an overnight thing. Here’s Vincent from postgame on Sunday speaking on potential changes to the power play and more.
“What do we have to lose, right? So we’ll be looking at everything. I don’t know if it’s minor tweaks or a big change. But we’ll be looking at every possible solution.”
It reiterates the fact that answers have not been found by the Blue Jackets. It’s going to take time to figure each issue out in order for this team to start heading in the right direction again. Fans have long run out of patience waiting for progress.
These Blue Jackets have talent. They’ve also had good moments this season. So on one hand, it’s confusing that this collection of talent can’t figure anything out. On the other hand, there are numerous issues they’re dealing with both on and off the ice that has them at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with seemingly no end in immediate sight.
The Blue Jackets may decide to make changes. There could be big changes. No matter what they decide in the near term, their current issues will still be present to deal with.
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The Blue Jackets need to hit the reset button fast. They get a day off Monday after playing seven games in 11 days. They get a practice on Tuesday in advance of their home game against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks. They can’t change the past now. But they can start taking tiny steps to make the future better. It’s their only option knowing a fix won’t happen overnight.
The Blue Jackets issues are larger than the mess on the ice. It potentially means another season in which the playoffs could be out of reach before Thanksgiving.
When is enough, enough? The time is long overdue for a solution. Instead, these issues to continue to happen. Something has to give. Otherwise we may have to start asking harder questions straight to the top. The issues are too much to just ignore at this point.