COLUMBUS, Ohio — Following the morning skate before the Blue Jackets’ home opener on Monday vs. the New Jersey Devils, head coach Dean Evason felt his penalty kill had played well despite allowing four goals in a 7-4 win at Minnesota on Saturday.

“Did we make a couple mistakes? Yeah,” Evason told reporters. “What, we were on it, eight times? That’s a lot of penalty kill, right?

“It’s not an excuse. We got to get better. We got to keep the puck out of the net on the penalty kill, but it’s not a structural thing. We think that it’ll correct itself here moving forward.”

Those corrections didn’t come in Monday night’s 3-2 loss to the Devils.

Each of New Jersey’s first two goals came when the Devils had the man advantage, and both in the waning seconds.

Timo Meier ripped a shot from a wide angle past Jet Greaves with one second left on an Adam Fantilli penalty to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead at 15:47 in the opening period.

Following a Kirill Marchenko breakaway goal to tie the game at 1 at 8:49 of the second period, Devils goaltender Jake Allen, who left the game after two periods, robbed Fantilli on a 3-on-1 shorthanded chance in the final seconds of a Cole Sillinger hooking penalty.

Allen’s save, which was one of the 23 he made on 24 shots, turned into a 2-on-1 at the other end for the Devils. With only four seconds left on the Sillinger penalty, Arseny Gritsyuk found an open Dawson Mercer who shot a one-timer past Greaves for a 2-1 lead.

That was the seventh powerplay goal the Blue Jackets have allowed this season. They have allowed only two goals in even strength, and one was an empty netter by Mercer with 56.4 to play.

Through three games, the Blue Jackets have looked like the better team in 5-on-5. The problem so far, as was the case last season, is what happens when it’s not 5-on-5 anymore.

Despite having the most 5-on-5 goals in the NHL last season, the Blue Jackets ranked 22nd last season on the power play (19.5%) and the penalty kill (77.0%). So far, they are 1-for-9 on the power play (11.1%) and just 7-for-14 on the PK (50%).

Special teams often tip games, especially in the playoffs, which is where the Blue Jackets want to go.

Now, we do have to understand that three games is way too small of a sample size to draw any glaring conclusions. Special teams can be streaky, and the Devils had the No. 3 power play in the NHL last season (28.2%).

One positive that came out of Monday compared to the first two games is that Columbus didn’t spend much time in the penalty box. They committed just two penalties all night after having 12 in the first two games combined.

The problem on Monday was that the Devils capitalized on those two chances.

The Blue Jackets haven’t played poorly in any of these first three games as a whole. But to get to where they want to go, which is the playoffs, they will need to make sure this three-game problem on the penalty kill doesn’t become a long-term trend.

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