Game #74: Carolina Hurricanes @ Columbus Blue Jackets

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Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets fell to the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 3-2. A quick flurry of goals in the third period sunk the Jackets and set the tone for the rest of the game.

Highlights:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good: Matt Calvert

Tonight, Matt Calvert scored his 50th career goal. If you would have told me that this is only his 50th goal before tonight I would not believe you. Calvert has seemingly been around forever in the organization but has faced a lot of injury troubles. His net front presence on the first goal was the reason they were able to score. While it wasn’t flashy, it’s what Calvert has been known to do. I thought that this was going to be the moment that the floodgates opened on Eddie Lack but, alas, that moment never really came.

The Bad: Breakdown early in the third

I wish I could diagnose what happened but it was a complete breakdown. Players at every position had some fault in those three goals. Victor Rask’s goal was a difficult play for Bobrovsky; nothing could be done, sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. The next two goals were a couple of groaners. Bobrovsky didn’t play them poorly but he was hung out to dry consistently. He even showed his frustration at one point on the ice. These are the types of moments that need to be eliminated from the Blue Jackets’ game. They continue to pop up and are showing up at the tail end of this season. Is this a sign of things to come, or just a few outlier scenarios? One can never be so sure, these end of the season Jackets have always been tough to read.

The Ugly: Not taking advantage of strong play

The Jackets had 44 shots on the evening, just one game after their 53 shot performance against the Flyers. It looks like an encouraging trend that hopefully carries into next season. Unfortunately, they didn’t take advantage of the pucks put on net in this match. At even strength they put 75 shot attempts on net, normally a recipe for success. They ran into a hot goaltender once again. What do you think this means for the Jackets? Something to look forward to next season?

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