COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Maybe they\u2019re trying so hard to be difference makers. Maybe they\u2019re so panicked by the opportunity before them that they\u2019re simply short-circuiting, both with brains that can\u2019t process and hands that won\u2019t stop trembling.<\/p>\n
Either way, the Columbus Blue Jackets look nothing like the structured, direct club that played their way back into a playoff race under coach Rick Bowness. They look like independent contractors, unsure of what the others are doing.<\/p>\n
The most \u201ctogether\u201d the Blue Jackets were Saturday came after their frustrating 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets in front of 18,272 in Nationwide Arena, when the dressing room doors stayed closed for more than 20 minutes so a players-only meeting could be held.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ll keep that conversation in here,\u201d Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. \u201cWe\u2019re a better team than we\u2019ve shown, and we just talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets are now 1-6-1 in their last eight games, scoring only 13 goals in that stretch. The only goal on Saturday was scored by defenseman Ivan Provorov, meaning the Blue Jackets have gone 137 minutes, 53 seconds without a goal scored by a forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of our issues right now are related to just terrible puck management,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cWe\u2019re making very poor percentage plays. We created the second-most chances off the forecheck in the entire league, yet we want to get inside the blue line and make cute little plays against good teams that aren\u2019t working. They\u2019re not working.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to get after them. They\u2019ve got to change their mindset. We\u2019re a north-skating team. When you turn the puck over as much as we did, you\u2019re on your heels all the time. That\u2019s what\u2019s frustrating for me. We\u2019re not going to sit here and talk about effort; we\u2019re going to talk about execution with the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only thing keeping the Blue Jackets alive in the playoff race is every team around them.<\/p>\n
The New York Islanders, who are in third place in the Metro Division, just one point ahead of the Blue Jackets, have lost four straight. Ottawa, which currently holds the second wild-card spot due to a tiebreaker advantage over the Jackets.<\/p>\n
The two other clubs tied with Columbus and Ottawa \u2014 Detroit and Philadelphia \u2014 are struggling, too. The Red Wings have won two of their last seven games, and the Flyers have dropped two of three.<\/p>\n
With a win, the Blue Jackets would have jumped from 11th place in the conference standings to third place in the Metro. Now they face two much-needed days without a game, including an off-day on Sunday, before a huge game in Detroit on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But all of this talk about the standings or a playoff spot seems silly if the Blue Jackets keep playing like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not eliminated,\u201d Werenski said. \u201cWe\u2019re still in it. I believe in this group. I believe we can get it done, and it\u2019s just doing it. I mean, we did it for two months. The last two weeks haven\u2019t gone our way, but it\u2019s in the room and it\u2019s on us to just pull it out and get it done.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it starts with one game at a time. We can\u2019t worry about what other teams do or whoever we have after Detroit (on Tuesday), our focus has to be on Detroit, and after that, we\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets came out of the gate fast and hard, and only 1:17 into the game, they made it 1-0. Mason Marchment used the mother-of-all stick lifts to outbattle Winnipeg\u2019s Dylan Samberg for the puck deep in the Jets\u2019 end.<\/p>\n
Marchment then carried the puck below the Winnipeg net and found Provorov sneaking through the slot for a one-timer that sailed over the shoulder of Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.<\/p>\n
But by the second period, the Jets had taken over the game. The Blue Jackets didn\u2019t get their first shot on goal in the second period until 4:16 remaining. They generated only 16 shots on goal, but half of them came in the third period.<\/p>\n
It was reminiscent, but not quite as drastic as Thursday\u2019s loss in Carolina, when Columbus finished with 10 shots on goal, matching a franchise record low. In that game, Blue Jackets forwards totaled an NHL-record low two shots on goal.<\/p>\n
Bowness hinted at sweeping line changes in advance of Tuesday\u2019s game in Detroit, and you can understand why. An Arctic blast has settled upon the forwards\u2019 end of the bench.<\/p>\n
Sean Monahan has zero points and a minus-6 rating during the 1-6-1 swoon. Kirill Marchenko, Conor Garland, Cole Sillinger, Charlie Coyle, Adam Fantilli, Boone Jenner and Zach Werenski have each scored one goal.<\/p>\n
Werenski and Marchenko have been the Blue Jackets\u2019 offensive drivers all season, but they haven\u2019t looked close to form lately.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Marchenko is so out of sorts that he whiffed on a wrist shot from the left circle. He had no shots on goal for the fifth time in his last 10 games. Werenski, meanwhile, uncharacteristically turned the puck over at the blue line on multiple occasions when he was trying to dump it deep.<\/p>\n
In business, as in hockey, when all else fails, hold a meeting, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to communicate,\u201d Marchment said. \u201cYou know, we\u2019re all men in here. We\u2019re family. It\u2019s nice to hear what everyone thinks and has to say, and where we all sit, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Maybe they\u2019re trying so hard to be difference makers. Maybe they\u2019re so panicked by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-541483","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\/116350221471470549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541483","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=541483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}