The Columbus Blue Jackets are in a playoff position thanks to an incredible run since their January coaching change, but they\u2019re all too aware of the importance of turning their fortunes again when they play host to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets (38-24-12, 88 points) sit in the Eastern Conference\u2019s second wild-card spot, but are in a downward spiral. Plus, there are a trio of clubs two points behind in the standings.<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Bowness feels Sunday\u2019s 4-3 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins should snap everybody into attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these guys, they\u2019ve got a lot to learn about how to play in this league at this time of year,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cIt gets harder and harder and harder, and we\u2019re going to keep reminding them and reminding them every day how hard it is to win at this time of the year. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot to be learned from some of these guys, and they better damn well start listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Columbus went on a 18-2-4 tear after Bowness took the helm following the firing of Dean Evason on Jan. 12, but has just one victory in the past five outings.<\/p>\n
In losing to Boston, the Blue Jackets squandered a three-goal lead in the final 14 minutes of regulation time, including a game-tying tally scored with 11 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
Consecutive clashes with Carolina \u2014 they meet again Thursday in Raleigh \u2014 will require a Blue Jackets\u2019 turnaround.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t be tough, because there\u2019s nothing we can do about it now,\u201d center Charlie Coyle said of finding their focus. \u201cThere are so many more meaningful games left that we just have to take advantage of. The one we\u2019re getting ready for, and that\u2019s the next one on the schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes (46-21-6, 98 points) have a solid hold on first place in the Metropolitan Division and are vying for top spot in the Eastern Conference, but are in a little swoon of their own.<\/p>\n
Carolina has dropped two of three games and is coming off a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.<\/p>\n
In fact, the Hurricanes lost a pair of regulation-time games to the Canadiens within a week. Carolina outshot Montreal 35-18 in Sunday\u2019s defeat and registered a 43-19 edge in a 5-2 loss on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In both games, Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes was deservedly the first star.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty much identical as the game up there,\u201d coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour said of Sunday\u2019s home defeat. \u201cWe played well, we definitely created enough opportunities, we just didn\u2019t score. So, you tip your hat to that goalie. He played great again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In both games, Carolina took a lead, but watched it evaporate while the Canadiens roared back with all unanswered goals en route to victory.<\/p>\n
The easy thought is to believe the Hurricanes just needed to find another goal or two to seal those victories, but captain Jordan Staal said the answer goes beyond something that simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, their goalie played well, but it\u2019s what you give up, too,\u201d Staal said. \u201cIt was a couple mishaps in the second, and being down a couple against a goalie who is playing well is never easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carolina\u2019s lone goal on Sunday came via Andrei Svechnikov on the power play, giving the club man-advantage goals in six consecutive games (8-for-18, 44.4%).<\/p>\n
With his assist on the tally, Seth Jarvis has collected nine points (two goals, seven assists) in a six-game point streak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets are in a playoff position thanks to an incredible run since their January coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-532106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116321413877001091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}