The Blue Jackets took to the ice in Phoenix last night to begin their West Coast back to back. It was an effort barely worth discussing, and laced with mistakes, leaving little to build on. In fact, in an attempt to compare their effort to mine in writing this recap, I have been aimlessly waving my hands at my keyboard in hopes that words form. Sadly, it is not working.
The shots only begin to tell the tale. Mike Smith fell to a blocker hand injury only four saves into the game, bringing Jason Labarbara into the game cold. He went on to make 21 easy saves en route to a .955 effort. Making backup goalies look like Vezina candidates; familiar.
On the other side of the ice, for much of the first two periods, Steve Mason gave the Blue Jackets a fighting chance to stay in the game. Unfortunately, the defensive breakdowns continued, and as the goals poured in, Mason found himself climbing a mountain. With his glove hand exposed, Phoenix capitalized on numerous occasions, wide open in the slot with time to shoot.
It is a strange situation to build up a year full of effort from guys I believe want to work hard for sixty minutes, only to watch a game look eerily similar to one I had seen 50+ times last year. I had thought after all the roster shuffling and new additions, this team would be past that.
Painfully bad mistakes and blown assignment gave quality players shots in the mid to high slot, and unfortunately Mase was not able to make the same hero-like saves we saw Bobrovsky make in the first two games. That said, he served his purpose as the secondary goaltender of this team. He made a game of it, unlike the rest of the team.
The next overly ugly statistic was in the faceoff circle. The team that gains possession off the draw tends to control the game, and losing 42 faceoffs while only winning 24 is telling. That statistic was actually worse early in the third, sitting at 13-33. Former Blue Jacket Antoine Vermette was easily the best man in the faceoff circle, winning 12 and losing only 2 all game. On the Blue Jackets side, 6 of 14 for Anisimov, 4 of 12 for Brassard, 2 of 7 for Dubinsky, 3 of 13 for Johansen, and 6 of 13 for Letestu. Ugly.
The powerplay mustered a handful of shots, however most took so much time that Labarbara was able to not only cut off the angle, but actually get set to take the shot. None of them really had a fair shot of going in, and very few produced rebounds that could have caused a secondary scoring chance. They gained zone possession relatively well with the man advantage, but their passing on the perimeter was limited to about a third of the ice, leaving next to no forced movement of the PK or goaltender.
Defensively, the top four need to be better, and more dynamic. This defined “Controlled Chaos” did little last night to push the pace up ice despite Johnson leading the team with nearly twenty four minutes of ice time. I am not sure if their similar styles of play have caused them to become timid about pressing the issue offensively, or whether they are playing into a gameplan, but they are most effective with the puck on their stick moving through the neutral zone, and there was very, very little of that last night.
Tyutin and Nikitin flat out must get better. Two straight games of abysmal hockey, brutal decision making with the puck deep in their own zone, and blown coverages. Now, I can understand if they are being given the hardest minutes, but offenses only get more talented from Phoenix, and missing assignments against a team who might be a bubble playoff group is simply unacceptable.
Offensively, the committee needs to get going. Dubinsky and Umberger have combined for a whopping five shots on goal over the last three games and have nothing to show for it. While we have seen high end offensive efforts from Brassard, Foligno, Atkinson, and Anisimov, we need a continued effort to press forward up the ice to take the pressure off the defensemen and goaltender. I would also like to see a combined effort rather than a stretch pass with one player standing out offensively. Sustained offensive zone control seems like a premium right now.
It is one game in an abbreviated season, but it was all too familiar with the Blue Jackets team I did not expect to ever watch again. I have said time and time again that I will take the losses if they include a sixty minute effort, and I am not even convinced we got thirty minutes last night. Todd Richards made note that the mistakes and excuses need to be limited moving forward, and I agree. No more excuses. Hard nosed hockey.
Carry the Flag. They have a lot to prove tonight in Colorado.
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