For the Blue Jackets, the last few games have been a little bit like one of those finger trap toys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The harder the team has pushed to get out of its six-game losing streak, the worse it\u2019s gotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes, you have to work smarter, not harder, and that might be the situation the Blue Jackets\u00a0find themselves\u00a0heading into tonight\u2019s crucial game at Detroit.\u00a0The frustration of losing control of their own destiny in the Stanley Cup playoff race \u2013 and scoring just 10 goals in the last six games \u2013 has led to\u00a0individual play creeping into the team\u2019s game, and it\u2019s meant the\u00a0squad just\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0been on the same\u00a0page.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when that’s the case, you have a team that’s simply pushing and working too hard to make things happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0was talking with some of the\u00a0guys,\u00a0and I feel like the last however many games were probably the hardest we\u2019ve worked, which\u00a0is crazy to say,\u201d defenseman Zach Werenski said. \u201cBut\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0probably\u00a0just\u00a0because we were the most disconnected. I feel like you almost\u00a0have to\u00a0work harder when\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0not connected.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0flowing and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easy and\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0breaking pucks out and\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0getting it back and\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0playing a three-quarter ice game, the game is a lot easier.\u00a0So\u00a0I feel like the results\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0there,\u00a0but I feel like\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0working\u00a0probably harder\u00a0than we have all year.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0just not\u00a0going,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not for any other reason than\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0just not\u00a0connected. The game is a lot easier when all five guys on the ice are on the same page and\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0just flowing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
So how do the Blue Jackets get that connection back? That\u2019s the biggest thing they must find as they embark on five games over the next eight days that will decide whether postseason hockey returns to Columbus or the team deals with another offseason of what ifs.<\/p>\n
Even with the recent swoon, the Blue Jackets\u00a0remain\u00a0in the mix in the Eastern Conference, just two points behind Philadelphia (third in the Metropolitan Division) and Ottawa, which holds the final wild card spot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets just finished a stretch in which they played 19 games in 34 days, so the time to recharge and recalibrate over the past two days could be beneficial. The team was off Easter Sunday and then staged an optional practice on Monday, following the same schedule it used when it last had three days between games in mid-March, then downed Carolina, the New York Rangers and Seattle in the next five days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Bowness said. \u201cYou look at the last time we took this two-day\u00a0break,\u00a0we did the same thing. We gave them the day off, then we had an optional skate. The most important thing is\u00a0do\u00a0what you\u00a0have to\u00a0do to get ready for tomorrow night, so we gave them the optional today, and tomorrow\u00a0it\u2019ll\u00a0be the same thing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we came out of that two-day break, one of our best games of the year was Carolina, 5-1. Then we beat the Rangers and we won three in a row.\u00a0So\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0hoping to get the same results, but regardless,\u00a0everything\u2019s\u00a0focused on Detroit, and these two days are beneficial for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In many ways, tonight feels like a must-win, as the Red Wings enter tied with the Blue Jackets with 88 points, and both squads are chasing the teams above them. Both teams have struggled to get wins of late and should be desperate, so whichever team finds its game first will be the one to have success.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m expecting a great atmosphere, and I\u2019m expecting a great hockey game,\u201d said Werenski, a Detroit native. \u201cI know the character we have in that room. At some point\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0gonna\u00a0flip.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0just\u00a0gotta\u00a0flip\u00a0(tonight).\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0excited to see how we respond to all this and all the conversations and everything. We know\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0in there,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0just doing it and pulling it out,\u00a0and we believe in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the Blue Jackets, the last few games have been a little bit like one of those finger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544967,"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-544966","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\/116361745327897690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544966","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=544966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}