The Jackets season of inconsistency continued Saturday as the boys followed up a nice win over Edmonton the night before with a poor performance that saw Boston dominate Columbus in every facet of the game. Here are a few of the areas where the Jackets struggled.
Not enough shots on goal
In a battle of the backup goaltenders, the Jackets failed to take advantage of Chad Johnson. No offense to Johnson but he is no Tuukka Rask and Columbus simply failed to exploit the opportunity afforded them with Boston sitting their starter. The Jackets mustered just 14 shots on goal while Boston managed 36 on Sergei Bobrovsky’s understudy, Curtis McElhinney. Good teams can get 14 shots on goal in a single period of hockey much less in 60 minutes. Give credit where credit is due; Boston is a terrific team and generally sound defensively but Columbus lacked the jump needed to compete tonight and that was the primary reason they were outshot so badly. Too many penalties
Columbus found themselves shorthanded six times Saturday night and while for the most part their PK unit was good they did allow a first period PP tally to Milan Lucic. The time they spent shorthanded meant less of an opportunity for them to get their forecheck going and disrupted any chance of generating an offensive flow.
Conversely the Jackets earned just two man advantage chances, converting one. That was reflective of how little Columbus generated offensively and how they were outworked by a more talented team. Usually when Columbus is forechecking hard they are drawing penalties and that wasn’t the case Saturday night.
Losing the faceoff battle
Another area that contributed to Columbus soundly losing the puck possession battle was the disparity in the faceoff circle. Puck possession starts with winning faceoffs and Boston won 34 of 56 draws Saturday night. Ryan Johansen (yes, him again) was the only Blue Jacket to win at least 50% of his draws.
Boston is undoubtedly a better team than Columbus and they showed that tonight. At no point after the Bruins took the lead did it seem that the outcome was ever in any real doubt. On the bright side, Johansen tallied yet another goal, his tenth of the season. It drew the Jackets to within two in the third period, briefly offering the team and their fans some hope they could mount a comeback.
McElhinney was good again in goal for Columbus. The first goal, scored by Patrice Bergeron from a bad angle, resulted from a screen in front and may have deflected off of Jack Johnson. Boston’s third tally also deflected high into the air off a Blue Jacket and over McElhinney into the back of the net with Jarome Iginla standing on the door step trying to tap it in. That goal went to Lucic, his second of the contest. Of the three tallies against McElhinney, two of them weren’t his fault. I applaud Dalton Prout for dropping the gloves with Lucic in the second period. Lucic appeared to take umbrage with a hit from Prout just prior to the scrap. Say what you will about the Boston winger, he is one of the toughest players in the league and it took guts for Prout to go with him there. Perhaps the Jackets defenseman saw this as an opportunity to spark his teammates; he was seen gesturing toward his bench and mouthing what appeared to be, “let’s go boys,… as he skated to the penalty box. Regardless, not only did Prout have the balls to fight Lucic he also acquitted himself fairly well.
I liked the fire showed by winger Nick Foligno, who was angry that Dennis Seidenberg got away with a shoulder to the head of the Columbus forward. Skating in along the RW boards on the forecheck, Foligno approached Seidenberg who saw the hit coming. More than likely trying to brace himself for contact, Seidenberg jumped up into the air, skates leaving the ice and definitely contacted Foligno in the face with his shoulder. The hit pushed Foligno’s visor into his face cutting the bridge of his nose.
Foligno responded angrily but no penalty was assessed to the Boston blue liner. Instead, Foligno received two for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10-minute misconduct penalty. I can understand Foligno’s anger at nothing being called on Seidenberg and appreciate his fire but he needs to maintain control in that spot. He put his team down a man on the ice and took himself off for a total of 12 minutes. I thought Jack Skille was pretty good again tonight. He was moved up later in the game and finished with nearly 11 minutes of ice time. He has good wheels and nearly had a breakaway opportunity early on but that was nullified by the sweeping twig of Seidenberg. With Columbus again struggling to generate offense he’ll likely find himself with another opportunity to play some meaningful minutes Tuesday night against Tampa. Once more Columbus failed to string together consecutive victories. They haven’t won two or more in a row since winning three straight from October 20th through the 25th. The Jackets currently sit five points behind the New York Rangers for the final playoff spot in the East. If they are going to start gaining ground they need to reel off some consecutive victories. This inconsistency is going to cost them a postseason berth if they don’t fix it soon.