Columbus Blue Jackets overwhelmed by Washington Capitals: 3 takeaways
It’s time to regroup.
More: Columbus Blue Jackets vs Washington Capitals score today: Live updates, highlights
After flying home from a 7-2 thrashing by the Washington Capitals on Saturday night, the Blue Jackets get a day off Sunday to rest, decompress and start to wrap their minds around what happened in their first of 12 back-to-backs this season.
The blowout loss in Washington followed a 6-2 rout by the Winnipeg Jets on Friday at Nationwide Arena, handing the Blue Jackets (5-5-1) their first consecutive losses by a stinging 13-4 margin that reduced their overall goal differential from +10 through the first nine games to +1 after 11.
Here are three takeaways from the Jackets' meltdown at Capital One Arena:
NHL scheduling ‘monster’ takes a bite out of Columbus Blue Jackets
Six of the Jackets’ first nine opponents played them in the second game of back-to-backs, including five who traveled to Columbus. It was a scheduling anomaly that hadn’t happened in the NHL since the 1950s, and it played at least a small role in the Blue Jackets' 5-3-1 start.
Head coach Dean Evason pushed back on that assertion by saying players are in better shape than ever and that it’s way too early for tired legs to play a role in deciding games, but the team’s play Saturday night felt like a rebuttal.
Whether the Jackets had tired legs or just weary emotions after Winnipeg's dominant performance 20 hours earlier, the result was ugly. Washington scored 56 seconds into the game, made it 2-0 less than two minutes into it, pushed it to 3-0 at 7:28 of the first period and scored two more goals, 24 seconds apart, to decide the game with a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The Jackets were outskated, outhustled and overwhelmed, which allowed the Capitals to play on cruise control for the final two periods. It wasn’t all due to scheduling, but that had to be a contributing factor in the game unraveling so quickly. If there’s any good news for the Blue Jackets to take from the weekend, it’s that it’s over.
Next is an off day Sunday, practice Monday, a flight to San Jose, California afterward and a four-game road trip to the West Coast starting Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks. The Blue Jackets must take a breath, refocus and not let a brutal weekend send them into a tailspin.
Kevin Labanc should stay in the Columbus Blue Jackets’ lineup
Kevin Labanc netted the Blue Jackets’ second goal against the Capitals by poking at a puck that goalie Logan Thompson appeared to cover. His jab sent it sliding under Thompson and over the goal line for his first goal as a Blue Jacket, which required a video review to confirm.
The play probably should’ve been blown dead once Thompson’s prone body covered the puck, but officials didn’t blow the play dead for some reason and Labanc pounced in his return to action after being scratched against Winnipeg.
Evason said Labanc played arguably his best game with the Jackets in their 2-0 victory Wednesday over the New York Islanders, which made it a tough call to sit him against the Jets while making room for Dmitri Voronkov’s return. Labanc wasn’t happy about the decision, stated his case for why he should’ve stayed in the lineup and then played another solid game upon returning in Washington.
Labanc has one goal, five assists and six points in eight games now, mostly while playing a role on the fourth line. Voronkov’s return gives Evason an extra forward on the roster, which should spark a healthy internal competition for ice time. James van Riemsdyk was scratched Saturday for the first time this season, but it could be somebody else’s turn to sit Tuesday in San Jose.
Columbus Blue Jackets must find Cole Sillinger a steady role
Evason likes to play Justin Danforth at center on the third line for multiple reasons. He’s solid on draws, is a right-handed option at the dots, is fast enough to cover all 200 feet of the ice down the middle and is sneaky good offensively.
The problem is that playing Danforth in that spot forces Cole Sillinger into a wing position rather than centering a line, which Evason has said multiple times is his best long-term position. Initially, Sillinger moved from center of the third line to left wing on the top line, skating with Sean Monahan and Marchenko.
When that didn’t show much chemistry, he slid to left wing on a line with Adam Fantilli in the middle and rookie Mikael Pyyhtia on the right. That looked good for a couple games, but Pyyhtia started Saturday on the left wing of the third line, while Voronkov and Sillinger flanked Fantilli as the second group.
Down 6-2 starting the third period, Sillinger moved back with Monahan and Marchenko while Yegor Chinakhov went back to Fantilli’s line. Neither of those moves made much of a difference, especially for Sillinger. He finished with a game-low –3 plus/minus rating and subpar possession metrics in 9:19 of 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Is it time for his return to center ice?
Stay tuned.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 3 takeaways from Columbus Blue Jackets unraveling against Capitals
