COLUMBUS, Ohio — They looked slow. They looked disjointed. Aside from a few flashes in the second period, they looked like an AHL team playing in the NHL.
In short, the Columbus Blue Jackets — for the first time in this young season — looked like the overmatched club that most expected to see this season.
The Blue Jackets lost 3-1 to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday before 16,876 in Nationwide Arena, but credit goaltender Daniil Tarasov (32 saves) for keeping it that close. It was a 1-0 until the Wild scored twice in the third period to push the lead to 3-0.
“It’s on all of us,” Blue Jackets Coach Dean Evason said. “If we’re not ready to play, it’s on me, it’s on the coaches, it’s on the players … yeah, there was one guy ready to go, and that was our goaltender.
“If (Tarasov) wasn’t ready to go, it would have been 6-0 after the first period. He was outstanding.”
It is, granted, a very small sample size. But the Blue Jackets, through the first four games of the season, played a high-energy, high-pressure brand of hockey that looked dramatically different from the slow-motion version the past two seasons.
But the first period on Saturday was particularly stinky.
For Blue Jackets fans, it was probably a chilling reminder of what the last two seasons have been like. For Evason, it was surprising, especially because he didn’t see any signs of malaise in the Blue Jackets’ practice on Friday, their pre-game skate on Saturday or their prep work.
“We would have lost our cool if we did,” Evason said. “We skated for 20 minutes (on Friday), so we weren’t taxed. Guys have played a lot of hockey, but who cares? It’s not that hard.
“We’re playing some guys more than they’re used to playing, but who cares? It’s early in the year, we’re in good shape. We’ll dive into it here tonight (and Sunday). We’ll dive in as a staff and try to figure out what went wrong, and hopefully it never happens again.”
The Blue Jackets have a ready-made excuse in the already overwhelming number of injuries this season.
They’ve got three prominent players — captain Boone Jenner, veteran defenseman Erik Gudbranson, and dynamic winger Kent Johnson — walking about Nationwide Arena in arm slings, all suffering long-term shoulder injuries. Another winger, Dmitri Voronkov, isn’t expected back until late next month, according to general manager Don Waddell.
As a result, the lineup card that Evason filled out on Saturday looked like it was more suited for the fifth game of the preseason than the regular season.
The top line — Yegor Chinakhov–Sean Monahan–Kirill Marchenko — was kept intact. Evason would be silly to change it after the way they’ve started the season, but it wasn’t nearly as solid on Saturday. Chinakhov did, however, score the Jackets’ only goal with 1:25 remaining.
Columbus goal!
Scored by Yegor Chinakhov with 01:25 remaining in the 3rd period.
Assisted by Sean Monahan and David Jiricek.
Columbus: 1
Minnesota: 3#MINvsCBJ #CBJ #mnwild pic.twitter.com/iAJo2iFqX8— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 20, 2024
The rest of the lines were dramatically altered, especially since Evason decided to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen given the circumstances.
Adam Fantilli centered the second line, flanked by Zach Aston-Reese, a waiver wire claim at the end of training camp, and Justin Danforth, who just returned to the lineup after missing all of camp following offseason wrist surgery.
Mathieu Olivier, heretofore a fourth-line winger, skated on the third line with center Cole Sillinger and rookie Mikael Pyyhtiä.
The Blue Jackets have not publicly lamented their injury luck early this season. And “next man up” is a common phrase in sports today, but let’s be serious. At some point, especially on a Blue Jackets club that doesn’t have much forward depth to begin with, the talent drain has consequences.
“That’s not something we’re even looking at, to be honest,” Fantilli said. “Obviously, Boone and Buddy are two leadership presences in the room and that’s hard to fill. But we have guys who are being given opportunities and with that opportunity comes responsibility.
“We have to be better. I’ll point the finger at myself first. I have to be better, and that’s in all five games (so far this season). I have to be a lot better.”
The Wild needed just five seconds of a five-on-three power play to take a 2-0 lead at 2:52 of the third. At 8:26, the lead grew to 3-0. On this night, it might as well have been 8-0.
Blue Jackets players are off on Sunday. They’ll return to practice on Monday ahead of a Tuesday game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Nationwide Arena.
They’ll be looking for a bounce-back, but it’ll take more than a strong outing against Toronto to clear this game off their reputations.
The Blue Jackets played way too many games like Saturday’s loss the last two seasons. They’d say the right thing after each of those ugly losses — “This is unacceptable,” or “This can’t happen again.” — but it happened enough times to make it seem, well, acceptable.
Under Evason, the players believe it’s different now. Every team deserves a mulligan. Let’s see where this goes from here.
“We have a standard now of how we have to play,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “We’ve done that for four games now, but tonight we weren’t there. We’re going to learn from it, move on and we’re not going to let it happen again.
“We didn’t work hard enough tonight. Everyone can do that. We lacked that from the start, myself included. It starts with me, trying to drive the play more. It just wasn’t there tonight.”
(Photo: Russell LaBounty / Imagn Images)
