Columbus Blue Jackets' skid hits four games: 3 takeaways
The Blue Jackets’ uplifting, refreshing start is history.
More: Rewind: Columbus Blue Jackets fall to L.A. Kings, fourth straight loss
After dropping their fourth straight game late Saturday in a 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena, they’ve fallen below hockey’s .500 mark at 5-6-2 and are showing some of the same flaws that plagued them the past three years.
Costly turnovers. Egregious mistakes. Puck management issues. Flubbed shots. Flubbed passes. Not enough Blue Jackets creating havoc for the opposing goalie. Failures on golden, "Grade A" scoring chances. The issues were extensive, again, but it was also another solid statistical night for the Blue Jackets other than goals.
That’s the good news heading into Sunday’s finale of a "SoCal" back-to-back in Anaheim.
Here are three takeaways:
Columbus Blue Jackets' Dean Evason facing tough challenge
Reality might be setting in now for new Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason, who has watched this team stumble into a four-game slide much the same ways former coaches Pascal Vincent and Brad Larsen did during extended losing streaks the past two years.
They’re not consistently skilled enough to make opposing teams pay for defensive mistakes in nearly the same way that other teams make the Blue Jackets pay for theirs. Columbus generated more scoring chances, but couldn't convert enough in actual goals. The Kings, meanwhile, buried key goals in the second and third periods to put the Blue Jackets behind the proverbial eight ball for most of the game's final 40 minutes.
After scoring six goals in each of their first four wins, the Blue Jackets have scored a total of nine in the past five games to go 1-3-1 in that stretch. That's an average of 1.8 per game that's 2.3 goals per game lower than they averaged by scoring 33 goals in their first eight games.
Not great.
If there’s a bright side, it’s their secondary numbers in the first two games of a four-game road trip that began with a stinging 2-1 overtime loss Tuesday in San Jose. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blue Jackets finished with 5-on-5 advantages in multiple stat categories, including scoring chances (18-14), high-danger scoring chances (7-6) and expected goals (1.89-1.27). The problem is they turned the puck over in key spots, leading to two goals, and young defensemen David Jiricek was caught straying far out of position defensively on Warren Foegele's goal in the second to give the Kings a 2-on-1 that resulted in a 2-1 lead.
Some of the mistakes can be attributed to the NHL maturity process, but not all. Evason’s vacant stare and assessment of what happened after the game sounded eerily familiar to those who've watched this team since the Jackets qualified for the "Covid" postseason in 2020.
It's a movie that's been playing in Columbus for three or four years now, and there's currently no telling when its box office run will end.
Columbus Blue Jackets' Dmitri Voronkov impresses against Los Angeles Kings
Despite the loss, the Blue Jackets got some great news against the Kings. It was the play of Dmitri Voronkov, a second-year power forward who began the season on injured reserve with a left shoulder injury that happened late in the preseason.
Voronkov scored the game’s first goal by charging down the slot, straight to the net, where a puck passed by Justin Danforth on the right wing deflect off him into the net. It was only Voronkov's fourth game back from the injury, which at one point was expected to keep him out until later this month. His previous three games were spent building back into top form, and it appears he's now close to it. Voronkov’s performance in L.A. might’ve earned him additional ice time Sunday night in Anaheim.
Voronkov played 12:24 on 18 shifts as Danforth's left wing on the third line.
“I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get him on the ice a little bit more,” Evason said. “We thought his game was good. Obviously, he scored, but he was holding onto pucks, he was carrying it through the neutral zone (and) it looked like he was more comfortable. So, we’ve got to get him on the ice more than we did here tonight.”
Columbus Blue Jackets lacking net presence
Vorokov and Ivan Provorov scored the Blue Jackets’ goals against the Kings in similar ways. Each went hard to the net, right down the slot, and got rewarded for it.
Voronkov scored off a redirected shot and Provorov put back a rebound of his own shot to cap a power play in the third, cutting it to 3-2 just 49 seconds into the period and 19 seconds after Trevor Moore made it 3-1 for the Kings with a shorthanded tally. Otherwise, Evason wasn’t thrilled with how little the Blue Jackets got to the Kings’ net to disrupt goalie David Rittich.
That's been a recurring issue for two or three years, as the Jackets settle for too many shots taken from low-danger areas on the perimeter and lean too much on "one-and-done" rushes rather than establishing possession time inside the offensive zone. That's not how Evason prefers to play. According to reports from the Jackets' practice Friday, he placed a heavy emphasis on getting to the opposing net with numbers in that session. They showed some improvement against the Kings, but not enough.
"There was a little bit, but we can still get there, where I think we’re still thinking and relying off the rush," Evason said. "Our offensive game, our offensive zone game, is hanging onto pucks and allowing the cycle and our movement to generate more offense than it has the last few games.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 3 takeaways from Columbus Blue Jackets' loss to Kings
