COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week that was for the Columbus Blue Jackets:

Item No. 1: Why? How?

Before we put the Blue Jackets up on blocks and see what’s going on beneath the hood, let’s dispel a few theories that have begun to proliferate among segments of the angered and frustrated fan base.

They don’t even care!

If you think this 1-6-1 tailspin since March 21 doesn’t infuriate players up and down the roster, you don’t understand how NHL players are wired. Oh, to be a fly on the wall for the lengthy players-only meeting after a 2-1 loss to Winnipeg on Saturday. Columbus now sits two points out of a playoff spot.

If you think coach Rick Bowness and his staff didn’t spend hours on Sunday — an off day for the players — searching for ways to reignite the Blue Jackets’ offensively and get them back on their game, you don’t understand what has made Bowness tick during his five decades in the NHL.

“Stuff like this, it happens, and it sucks,” Zach Werenski said. “There’s no one who hates it more than the guys in that room.

“You know, we were so close and we were in such a good position, and now we’re on the outside looking in, but there’s still time to change that, and it starts with Tuesday.”

They just aren’t good enough!

A distinct possibility, perhaps, especially with their current injury woes. Maybe the late-season temperature in the NHL is just too much for these Blue Jackets to handle. That diagnosis can be made five games from now.

But how could you explain the 19-3-4 run the Blue Jackets went on right after Bowness was hired on Jan. 12? That’s not a two-week burner. That’s one-third of the season. It wasn’t one player carrying the load, it was coming from all directions.

They do care. They are good enough. So what the heck has happened to those Blue Jackets, who looked so deep and driven just two weeks ago?

1. Lights too bright?

Once the Blue Jackets played their way into a playoff position, the wheels fell off. You could make the case that the push to crawl up the NHL’s overall standings — from 28th to as high as seventh in the span of two months — has left their tanks empty.

But it feels like some players have imposter syndrome. It was easier to play with low expectations and easy to get motivated when it was Columbus against the world … but when the world is watching you and expecting big things, that can be a lot for some guys to handle.

They don’t play like themselves. They try to do too much at the wrong time. They stop working together and try to be difference-makers on their own. This is what Bowness means when he says players have gotten “selfish” in the last few games. This is what Werenski means when he says they’ve become “disconnected.”

“I don’t think the lights are too bright or the pressure is too high (in here),” Werenski said after Saturday’s loss. “We have a lot of guys who have played in the playoffs. I’ve been on big stages. It’s on us to help the younger guys who haven’t been in that position.”

Maybe Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Winnipeg was a step in the right direction — hey, it wasn’t as ugly as the 5-1 loss in Carolina on Thursday — but Blue Jackets don’t have time to gradually build back their games.

We’ve actually seen this before in Columbus.

In 2016-17, the Blue Jackets’ first full season under coach John Tortorella, they were cruising along into the springtime. On March 28 that season, they had the second-best record in the NHL, trailing only Washington.

Once the playoffs drew near, they seemed to realize how high they’d climbed and they got nervous. They lost six in a row. They completely lost their way, especially defensively. Tortorella was patient, but only to a point.

It wasn’t until a win in the regular-season finale that they could breathe again, but they never got back to their high level of play. They lost a first-round series to the Pittsburgh Penguins in five games, giving the Jackets 10 losses in 12 games to end that season.

2. Big losses

A year ago, defenseman Damon Severson was in the midst of a season-ending string of healthy scratches. Two seasons ago, right winger Mathieu Olivier was in and out of the Blue Jackets’ lineup.

But with Severson finished for the season following shoulder surgery last week, and Olivier out of the lineup with a fracture in his hand, the Blue Jackets have had to adjust more than most would realize, and they haven’t adjusted well.

Severson, in his third season with the Blue Jackets, was exactly what the Blue Jackets envisioned when they acquired him from the New Jersey Devils two summers ago. He was playing on the top pair, beside Werenski, when he went down on March 26 vs. Montreal.

In the five games that have followed, the Blue Jackets have had massive trouble getting the puck out of their own zone, and they’ve struggled mightily on the penalty kill (9 of 16, 56.3 percent).

Further, Werenski has played with both Dante Fabbro and Denton Mateychuk, while second-pair defenseman Ivan Provorov has played with Mateychuk, Egor Zamula, Erik Gurbranson and Fabbro. Yeah, Bowness is trying to make it make sense back there.

“Severson has played 22-23 minutes a night for us this year,” Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell said. “When you take that out of your lineup, especially a veteran player at this time of the year, you miss that. We’re having a hard time making that first pass right now.”

Olivier is known across the NHL as a fighter, but he’s appreciated on many more levels in Columbus. He’s become one of the Blue Jackets’ best forecheckers, and certainly their most feared.

The Blue Jackets’ third line — with Charlie Coyle between Cole Sillinger and Olivier — has been their best line this season, and certainly their most consistent. With Olivier out, it’s lost its way, especially Coyle.

When that line dumped in the puck from the neutral zone, it always tried to pitch it into Olivier’s right corner, making opposing defenseman decide between absorbing a hit and making a play with the puck quicker than they wanted.

That’s how turnovers are born, and turnovers grow up (quickly) to be scoring chances. So much of that has evaporated with Olivier out of the lineup.

In a brief chat with The Athletic over the weekend, Waddell said three times that “injuries are not an excuse.”

But two things can be true: the Blue Jackets miss Severson and Olivier, and they have not handled their absence well.

3. Werenski and Marchenko

It might be unfair to call out only two players when, in fact, there’s an up-and-down-the-roster slump occurring in Columbus these days. But Werenski and Kirill Marchenko have been the Blue Jackets’ two biggest weapons all season, and they aren’t fully firing right now.

Werenski hasn’t been himself since winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics. He has continued to produce at a level most NHL defensemen would gladly accept — 1-15-16 in 18 games — but that one goal is a problem on a goal-starved club.

“I don’t think anyone’s playing me differently,” Werenski said. “I can play better for sure, especially offensively.

“I know I can create (offense) in any environment at any time of the year. I think last year, when we had to win six straight to give ourselves a chance, I created enough. So I’m not worried about it. It just sucks when you’re going through it.”

It would make perfect sense if Werenski’s battery had run low. He’s an exceptional athlete, but there are human limitations.

In the middle of last season, while his teammates went to the beach, Werenski played for the USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Then, last summer, he played in the IIHF World Championships. This season, he went to Italy with Team USA instead of getting a break.

Would he do it all again? Sure. But he hadn’t looked like his explosive self for a couple of weeks now. He’s making un-Werenski-like decisions with the puck and with his reads, and recently there have been times when he’s not up in the play as he usually is.

“I feel good,” Werenski said. “I feel like I have energy. That’s never been an issue for me. Obviously, I’ve played a lot of hockey, but I enjoy it. I love being out there and I love this time of year.”

Marchenko, meanwhile, is going through a true playoff push for the first time in the NHL, and it’s been clear that opponents are challenging him physically. He’s never really seen that before, and, frankly, he hasn’t handled it well.

He gets pushed out of the dangerous scoring areas, and, as former coach Ken Hitchcock used to say, he gets “pushed out of the game.” It’s like he has short-circuited. He has one goal in his last 11 games.

In Saturday’s game, he had a clean look from the left circle — his first clean look in a few games — and managed to whiff on a wrist shot. You don’t see that at this level very often, especially from the likes of Marchenko.

Again, the list of struggling Blue Jackets is lengthy. But if Marchenko and Werenski aren’t thriving, neither are the Blue Jackets.

Item 2: Health wanted

The Blue Jackets will be without wingers Olivier and Dmitri Voronkov for the upcoming three-game road trip through Detroit (Tuesday), Buffalo (Thursday) and Montreal (Wednesday), but after that…

After saying last week that Olivier was out for the regular season, the Blue Jackets now hope there is an outside chance he could play in the final two home games of the season: Sunday vs. Boston and April 14 vs. Washington.

Olivier has been asking to play through his hand fracture, but the club has been advised that he should wait for further healing before stepping back into the lineup. Fighting is going to be off-limits for a while, too, of course.

If the Blue Jackets can rally and stay in the race, Olivier’s return could be quite a boost.

The news is less positive for Voronkov, who was in and out off the lineup for most of March, but could be very useful right now. There was hope that he could return before Olivier, but he’s out through the end of the season.

There’s a chance Voronkov could return if the Blue Jackets reach the postseason.

As for Severson, the Blue Jackets announced last week that he had season-ending shoulder surgery, an unceremonious end to what had been his best season with the Blue Jackets.

He had 8-24-32 in 71 games, along with a plus-18 rating that leads the Blue Jackets and is tied for 20th-best in the NHL among defensemen.

Item 3: Snacks

• Who wants that final playoff spot? You know about the Blue Jackets’ 1-6-1 skid. Well, Detroit is 2-6-0 in its last eight. The New York Islanders have lost four straight and just fired their coach. Ottawa won on Sunday, but that’s just two wins in six for them. You’d have to say it’s — checks notes — the Philadelphia Flyers? The Flyers, in what is supposed to be another rebuilding season, are 14-5-1 in their last 20 games. As of Monday morning, the Flyers are third in the Metro with 90 points, ahead of the Islanders (89) and Blue Jackets (88).

• The Blue Jackets open a three-game road trip on Tuesday in Detroit, and the matchup with the Red Wings looms large. Both teams have played 77 games. Both teams have 88 points. Both teams have found rough roads at the worst time of the season. You have to be careful throwing “must-wins” around, but it’s getting to that point quickly. “It’s gonna be awesome,” said Werenski, a Detroit-area native. “It’s Hockeytown, an Original 6 team, fighting for a playoff spot just like us. I’m expecting a great atmosphere. I’m expecting a great hockey game, and I know that with the character we have in that room, at some point, it’s going to flip. It’s just got to flip tomorrow.”

• After an off day on Sunday, Bowness held an optional skate on Monday, giving players plenty of time to catch their breath if they needed. It’s only the second time since the Olympic break that the Blue Jackets have had more than one day between games. As Bowness noted, the last time the Jackets had a two-day break between games (March 15-16), they looked energized in the short term, beating Carolina (5-1), the New York Rangers (6-3) and Seattle (5-2) in a five-day span to get up and over the playoff line in the East.

• The optional skate did not reveal what Bowness is thinking with his forward lines on Tuesday in Detroit, but he’s planning “radical” changes, he said. “We changed all the lines up,” Bowness said. “All of them. Totally different look. We’ve got to score some goals. We have to create more offense. We’re not doing enough of it right now. We’re going on the road. I don’t get the last line change. So the lines we’ve put together for tomorrow, right now they’re balanced. It doesn’t mean that 10 minutes into the game I can go back and change them, but we’re going to give them a different look early and see if it can give us some momentum.”

• The Blue Jackets generated just 10 shots on goal in Thursday’s loss in Carolina, then backed that up with a 16-shot performance on Saturday against Winnipeg. The 26 shots on goal in a two-game stretch is a franchise-record low for Columbus, and it’s not even really close. The previous mark was 31 shots on goal in a two-game stretch, and it’s happened twice, both in the early days of the organization. When you’re beating the not-so-great records of your expansionist forefathers, that’s a problem. The first time it happened was Oct. 14-15, 2000, the fourth and fifth games in franchise history.

• AHL Cleveland has clinched a playoff spot for the third straight season. They’ve righted the ship with two straight wins after a rough patch, and the Monsters host Rochester on Monday with a chance to make it three straight. AHL Cleveland remains without top center Luca Del Bel Belluz, who is with the Blue Jackets. The Monsters added forward Owen Griffin and defenseman Charlie Elick, both Columbus draft picks, but neither has yet debuted in the AHL. The focus, Waddell said, is locking down their third-place spot in the AHL’s North Division to avoid a play-in round of the playoffs. “We told them to prepare for a week to 10 days of practice with a team that’s in a playoff stretch right now,” Waddell said. “It’s all a learning experience just for them to be there right now, whether they go into the lineup or not.”

• FanDuel Sports Network has informed the Blue Jackets that their network will be up and running for the remainder of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs, which local broadcast crews always handle. This has been a concern for much of the season, but it’s good to know they’ll make it to the finish line, especially for FanDuel’s crew of broadcasters and on-air talent. How Blue Jackets fans will watch local coverage next season remains a mystery, but there’s a strong likelihood that something new is on the horizon.

• The Blue Jackets have had talks with a handful of NCAA free agents, but so far haven’t found a mutual fit. But keep an eye on University of Michigan forward Josh Eernisse, a junior who has 10-8-18 in 37 games for the Wolverines this season. Count Columbus among several clubs interested in Eernisse. Along with T.J. Hughes and others, Eernisse will likely sign pro contracts after the Frozen Four. Michigan plays Denver on Thursday in a national semifinal.