SUNRISE, Fla. ― The good news for the Blue Jackets after 12 games is they're becoming a scrappy team.
The bad news is how often they've fallen into early holes, especially against experienced teams like the Florida Panthers . It happened again Monday in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena, leaving a bittersweet taste for the Jackets' postgame flight home.
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Florida dominated the first 15 minutes, outshooting Columbus 19-1 before Sean Kuraly scored on the Jackets' second shot. The Blue Jackets (4-5-3) scored the next three goals for a 4-3 lead in the third, allowing a tying goal late in regulation plus Carter Verhaeghe 's OT winner.
"I feel like we're never out of it," Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. "We're a young team, and sometimes when you face that kind of push, they're still trying to figure out how to manage it, and it's going to come with time. But the desire to do well and execute the right plays, I know it's there. When we play the way we can play, we can be very dangerous."
The Jackets' overriding youth and inexperience shows whenever they don't.
"We've just got to figure out how to manage those (pushes) and playing against older teams," Vincent said. "If you look at the games we've played against an older team, a veteran team, a physical team … we don't manage it as well."
How the Blue Jackets solve that issue and how long it takes will determine their fate. Here are four more things we learned in South Florida:
Elvis Merzlikins was pulled 6:09 into the game after Aleksander Barkov put the Panthers up 3-0 on their 10thshot. It was a mercy pull for Merzlikins, whose net was swarmed relentlessly from the opening puck drop.
Watching with a front row seat was backup Spencer Martin, who came in cold and made 34 straight saves before allowing Nick Cousins ' tying goal with 54.6 seconds left in regulation.
"You just feel bad for your goalie partner," Martin said. "I know (Merzlikins) was prepared, and these things happen to every goalie. They were obviously bringing it to us in the first there, so you just have to do your job. I have the best job in the world, so I'm never upset to get in there."
Martin has quickly endeared himself to the Blue Jackets since they claimed him off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks in the preseason. In five appearances, including three starts, he's 1-2-1 with a 2.62 goals-against average and .928 save percentage.
Things will get more interesting when Daniil Tarasov returns from a knee injury that occurred during summer skates in Columbus. Tarasov and Martin will require waivers in order to be assigned to the AHL with the Cleveland Monsters, and there's now solid chance either would be snapped up. Tarasov will almost certainly get an AHL conditioning assignment before he returns to the NHL, but those have a maximum length of 14 consecutive days.
In the meantime, Merzlikins and Martin have combined as a solid duo in Columbus.
Two days after Pascal Vincent benched Gaudreau in the third period of a 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals , the two discussed it Monday before the Jackets' morning skate . Unlike Vincent's benching of defenseman Damon Severson during a 4-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings , he and Gaudreau essentially agreed to disagree.
Gaudreau expressed his opinion, Vincent countered, and now they're "moving on."
Vincent clarified that his decision to sit the Jackets' highest paid player wasn't related to Gaudreau coughing up the puck too much. It was about skating.
"I'm not going to sit a guy because he turns the puck over once or twice even," Vincent said. "It was about the routes, it was about moving his feet, it was just a few things, and it happens at times. It doesn't mean that Johnny is not one of the best players in the league. He is, but for him to create offense, he's got to keep moving his feet."
Gaudreau ran into a similar situation in a 6-3 road loss last season in Tampa . He skated just four shifts in the third period of that game, logged a total of 14:35 and former coach Brad Larsen said, "There's better in him … he's wearing an 'A,'" when asked about Gaudreau's ice time.
Vincent appeared to reference that game by saying, "We've seen it in the past," and re-emphasized Gaudreau's importance to what the Blue Jackets building. Gaudreau skated 19:58 against the Panthers and finished with a –2 plus/minus rating while putting four shots on goal.
It was another quiet night. Gaudreau has one empty net goal and four assists for five points in first 12 games, but Vincent is trying to keep him from letting frustration spark bad habits.
"We don't want him to cheat the game," Vincent said. "That's going nowhere. We're trying to set different standards here and he's a big piece of it."
Erik Gudbranson has begun to shoot the puck more in the Jackets' last few games and it's paying off.
After scoring his first goal of the season in a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, Gudbranson earned his first of two assists against the Panthers with a slap shot off Sean Kuraly's pass around the boards. Kuraly redirected the puck into the net off what appeared to be Gudbranson's rebound, which was ruled a blocked shot by NHL officials.
"I've got a pretty good shot and I'm pretty good at getting it through," Gudbranson said. "Often times, I'm looking for rebounds. If it goes in, that's a plus, but I'm just trying to create some chaos in front of the net."
It's working.
Andrew Peeke ended a 10-game stretch of being a healthy scratch and Adam Boqvist sat out a ninth straight game Monday in Sunrise, Florida as a healthy scratch.
Each had regular roles last season that have vanished thanks to Jake Bean returning from shoulder surgery and rookie David Jiricek getting an extended look on the second pairing. The Blue Jackets are carrying eight defensemen instead of seven, a situation that has NHL waiver exempt defenseman Nick Blankenburg stuck in Cleveland.
Gudbranson, meanwhile, is fighting through a lower-body injury that's caused him to miss a few practices without missing a single game. That makes it tough on Peeke and Boqvist, who've been dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing when their next opportunity to play will happen.
Peeke's arrived Monday, when he played in his "hometown" in place of Jiricek. He logged 16:30 in ice time and added an assist on Alexandre Texier 's goal in the third.
"You know the competition, you know all those things," Peeke said. "That's just part of it. It comes with being in the NHL. There's good players always wanting to come up and take your spot and there's good players already here, so that just comes with the territory. You've just got to show up, perform and work hard in practice, all those little things."
Boqvist and Peeke are frustrated by the Jackets' roster logjam, but haven't monitored social media much for the latest trade speculation. Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is looking for a trade to clear his backlog of NHL-caliber players, but it's not easy to find a trade partner with enough salary-cap space to absorb Peeke or Boqvist's cap charge.
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"I this business, you never know," Boqvist said. "I haven't played in (nine) games, so I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm here in Columbus. It is what it is. Last time I got traded (to Columbus), I found out on Instagram, so you never know. But I'm happy here. I'd be more happy if I played, obviously, but it is what it is. I'm just ready for my opportunity."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 things we learned about the Blue Jackets in OT loss to Panthers
