How tough was Tuesday’s loss in San Jose for the Columbus Blue Jackets? They lost on an overtime goal from a player who is still on their payroll, and they were beaten — yet again — by a goaltender who has pretty much owned them for the past four seasons.
Alexander Wennberg weaved through three Blue Jackets and scored at 3:11 of overtime to send the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets before an announced crowd of 10,376 in SAP Center. But it was the Jackets’ inability to beat Sharks goaltender Vítek Vaněček that was most frustrating.
And that’s nothing new.
Vaněček denied the Blue Jackets’ first 43 shots on goal and finished with a career-high 49 saves, improving to 7-0-0 with a .950 save percentage and 1.55 goals-against average in his career vs. Columbus.
The Blue Jackets’ only goal was scored at 9:17 of the third period when Kirill Marchenko buried a rebound off a Damon Severson shot.
“Their goalie made some unbelievable saves at the end,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason told reporters after the game. “I’m not sure how many chances (we had), but a lot of Grade-As that certainly could have changed the momentum or, obviously, the outcome of the game.
“Maybe (we could have had) more second or third opportunities, like we had in the third period. We got more rebounds, we got more whacks at the puck that maybe we didn’t get over (Vaněček’s) pad.”
Wennberg is playing for his fourth club since the Blue Jackets bought out his contract following the 2019-20 season — Florida, Seattle, the New York Rangers and now San Jose, with whom he signed a two-year, $10 million free-agent contract last summer.
But that’s not all the money he’s making. Wennberg is still on the Blue Jackets’ books — to the tune of $892,000 per season — through next season.
Wennberg wins it!
The Sharks forward goes end to end for the @SUBWAYCanada OT Winner 🦈 pic.twitter.com/XoJC3BGp6I
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 6, 2024
They defended him in OT like he was still on the payroll, too. Wennberg skated with speed into the neutral zone, cut between Jackets forwards Sean Monahan and Cole Sillinger just as he entered the attack zone, then skated wide of defenseman Zach Werenski for a clean look on goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.
Wennberg’s wrist shot from the left side of the crease beat Meralikins on his glove side. It was his second OT winner of the season (14 games), matching the total he scored in the first 712 games of his career.
“(Every loss) is frustrating,” Evason said. “How it ended … we didn’t play that rush very well on the three-on-three.
“They make a good play, but we could have corrected that. You should never be able to come through the middle of the ice like that off the rush.”
Tuesday’s game marked the fifth time the Blue Jackets had 49 shots or more on goal but still lost. Every Blue Jackets player in the lineup — save for Merzlikins — had at least one shot on goal. Severson and third-line center Justin Danforth each had six shots on goal.
Werenski played a career-high 31:26, while his defensive partner Ivan Provorov played 29:16, the fourth-most minutes of his career. With three days off before Columbus’ next game — Saturday vs. the Los Angeles Kings in Staples Center — Evason was willing to empty the tank.
Vaněček has now beaten the Blue Jackets with his third different franchise. He was 5-0 while with the New Jersey Devils, and 1-0 with the Washington Capitals.
“Vitek had a great game,” said Blue Jackets forward Kevin Labanc, who left the Sharks as a free agent this summer after eight seasons in San Jose. “We had 50 shots on net, and he only gave up one. He did his part. We didn’t do ours. That’s the way the game goes.”
The Blue Jackets have now dropped three straight after a modest four-game (3-0-1) point streak. They were challenged by Evason to get back to the hard-skating, aggressive system they played at the start of the season before suffering two lopsided losses last weekend, 6-2 to Winnipeg and 7-2 to Washington.
They did play better. Merzlikins, who finished with 26 saves, wasn’t under constant attack on Tuesday, and the Blue Jackets dominated the game by most metrics and measures.
But after a fast start to the season offensively, they’ve managed just seven goals in their last four games. They ran into a red-hot Vaněček on Tuesday.
“We did a lot of the things we talked about,” Evason said. “We kept the puck out of our net. We had a ton of great looks. We just didn’t score. But as far as how we played, we’re very pleased with that.”
(Photo of Alexander Wennberg shooting and scoring against Zach Werenski: Neville E. Guard / Imagn Images)
