Welp. In a game that somewhat mirrors the season to date (in that it’s not quite as bad as the final score/record looks), the Jackets fell 4-0 to the New York Islanders. This drops them to 0-7 on the season. The last team to start a season 0-7? The 1997-98 Chicago Blackhawks, coached by current CBJ associate coach Craig Hartsburg. On the bright side, that Hawks team recovered to finish 9th in the Western Conference, the top team in the conference to miss the playoffs. The Jackets are still four losses away from the all-time record (held by the 1943-44 New York Rangers), and ten losses from the all-time longest losing streak (held by the 1974-75 Washington Capitals and 1992-93 San Jose Sharks).
Good: The Jackets looked pretty good for much of the game, and were absolutely dominating the 3rd period, holding the Islanders without a shot until almost halfway through the period. For most of the contest, this looked like it would be the one. They looked like the better team. They controlled the play. At first, they seemed destined to get back into it in the 3rd period. As play continued and they did not score, it was not surprising to see Thomas Hickey (of all people) score the first goal of the period. That the Jackets continued to press, continued to fire rubber on Jaroslav Halak (37 shots in total), is also good.
Bad: The team is 0-7. A lot is bad. Here is some quick hit badness: Curtis McElhinney was fine for the most part (maybe challenge Clutterbuck just a little on that third goal), but would have rather seen Sergei Bobrovsky (he is the man long term, so you need him to get his game back); What is the point of Dalton Prout if not to out-muscle opponents in front of the net?; Speaking of getting out-muscled, William Karlsson continues to get outmuscled regularly; Brandon Saad had a great powerplay entry, but we missed it so FSO could show McElhinney standing in his crease (hate this more than just about anything); Cody Goloubef couldn’t even make it through the game without messing up, stopping me from saying nice things about him; Powerplay got away from what made it run so well earlier this year, maybe chill with the point shots from way out with a ton of traffic, and get back to the quick passing, lots of movement, shots from the dots, and crashing the net.
Ugly: 0-7. It doesn’t get much uglier than that.
Tweet of the Night:
I have Columbus at an 894 PDO after tonight. Nobody’s winning any games with percentages that low.
— Chemmy (@felixpotvin) October 21, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
