Dean Evason wasn’t in the mood to break down the way that yet another Blue Jackets game got away.
Still heated from clashing with NHL referees Francis Charron and Brandon Schrader in a 7-6 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Dec. 6, the Jackets’ coach instead issued a blunt postgame commentary.
“The whole game was a joke,” Evason said. “That’s what I account it to.”
Joke? In what way?
“Every way,” he said. “Entire game was a joke.”
Evason was careful not to outright blame the officiating for his team blowing three leads for the second straight game, including giving up a third-period lead for the 10th time this season, but that was clearly the implication.
Blue Jackets good, refs bad. No further explanation necessary.
“It’s a joke,” he repeated, “an absolute joke.”
Credit him for this: That’s probably what a lot of Blue Jackets fans thought, too, watching the reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers erase deficits of 1-0 in the first period, 4-1 in the second and 6-4 in the third before killing a Blue Jackets power play early in overtime and winning on Sam Bennett’s goal with 3.2 seconds left.
Another gut punch in a season filled with them, and this was just the first game of a back-to-back. Next up, on Dec. 7, the Blue Jackets are on the road against the Washington Capitals, who top the Metropolitan Division and won the first two games against Columbus by 5-1 margins.
“Our guys are great,” Evason said. “Our guys have no issues. They know what happened. They’ll be good. We’ll play hard. We played hard all night. We played great. The game was a joke.”
Here are three takeaways:
Failed challenge sends Columbus Blue Jackets into latest meltdown
The Blue Jackets lost a coaching challenge that erased the Brendan Gaunce first-period goal that would’ve put them up 2-1 and another that upheld the first of Carter Verhaeghe’s two goals in the second.
The NHL Situation Room in Toronto called for a review of Gaunce’s goal and ruled it be taken away for a distinct kicking motion. While Evason and Gaunce protested, Panthers coach Paul Maurice could’ve issued a separate challenge for goaltender interference.
Verhaeghe’s upheld goal in the second was more contentious.
Evason issued a challenge claiming officials had missed a hand pass by Brad Marchand.
But NHL Rule 38.1 states: “In all coach’s challenge situations, the original call on the ice will be overturned if, and only if, a conclusive and irrefutable determination can be made on the basis of video evidence that the original call on the ice was clearly not correct. If a review is not conclusive and/or there is any doubt whatsoever as to whether the call on the ice was correct, the original call on the ice will be confirmed.”
In other words, the guys who made the call or non-call get to watch replays and use their own judgment to determine whether they got it right or wrong. That might seem like a joke, but the NHL’s rule book is filled with that jargon.
Also comical was the NHL’s verbiage in upholding Verhaeghe’s goal, which cited an additional rule about hand passes, Rule 79.1, that leaves it entirely up to the “opinion of the on-ice officials” to determine whether an illegal hand pass occurred.
Approximately six seconds before the goal, Marchand touched the puck with a swat of his left hand, dropping it to the ice for teammate Sam Bennett to collect. Bennett sent it back to Marchand, who fed it to former Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones for a shot that Verhaeghe tipped past Merzlikins.
Here’s what NHL Rule 79.1 states:
“A player shall be permitted to stop or ‘bat’ a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently, possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official.”
Charron and Schrader ruled that Marchand simply deflected the puck with his hand without intentionally sending it to Bennett. (They also ignored a potentially illegal high stick touch by Marchand before his glove ever contacted the puck.)
The Blue Jackets were assessed a delay-of-game penalty for a failed challenge. Verhaeghe capped the power play to pull Florida within a goal at 4-3, and Jones soon tied it 4-4 on another power play.
Notably, NHL referees Wes McCauley and Corey Syvret overturned a Tampa Bay Lightning goal just days earlier, ruling Dec. 2 that Brandon Hagel’s attempt to protect himself from being struck by the puck was a hand pass they’d missed.
Similar plays. Starkly different interpretations. Typical NHL rules inconsistency.
Columbus Blue Jackets‘ Elvis Merzlikins struggling vs power plays
Neither goalie had an enjoyable afternoon, but Merzlikins got the worst of it. A turnover in the neutral zone at the tail end of overtime gave the Panthers a 2-on-1 rush, and Bennett scored the winner with 3.2 seconds left on the Panthers’ 40th shot on goal.
During a 6-5 shootout win over the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 4 at Nationwide Arena, Detroit went 3-for-5 against Merzlikins and his penalty killers. Florida went 2-for-4 on the power play two days later.
It’s tricky to assign blame when an opponent has the advantage of an extra skater, but one of hockey’s oldest mantras is that a goalie must be their team’s best penalty killer.
Merzlikins has allowed 15 goals on 72 shots in 12 games for a .792 penalty-kill save percentage, which must improve if the Blue Jackets are going to stop coughing up leads. Jet Greaves’ PK save percentage for Columbus of .877 through 16 games isn’t elite, but it’s good enough to avoid multiple-goal leads vanishing during penalty-kill situations.
Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins pays for risky play
Merzlikins isn’t shy about leaving his net to play the puck, and he often kills developing scoring chances by doing it.
He broke up a short-handed breakaway for the Panthers with a somewhat risky decision to go after a loose puck between the circles, which kept the Jackets ahead 6-5, but Florida soon made him pay for a similar decision on its tying goal.
A stretch pass from Sam Reinhart to Eetu Luostarinen nearly became another breakaway, but Merzlikins ventured out of his net and poked the puck back up ice. The problem was the puck dropped right in front of Anton Lundell in the high slot, and he quickly shot it into the net before Merzlikins could get back in the crease.
That forced OT and gave the Jackets their 10th blown third-period lead in 28 games.
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social