3 takeaways from the Columbus Blue Jackets' painful loss to the Detroit Red Wings
One of the biggest reasons hockey is a great sport to follow, its unpredictability, slugged the Blue Jackets in the gut Thursday night at Nationwide Arena.
Possessing the puck in the Detroit Red Wings ' zone and carrying momentum during a late power play, the Blue Jackets let two points — or one had they lost beyond regulation time — slip through their fingers.
A blocked shot plus a diving play by former Blue Jackets forward Tyler Motte led to a breakaway goal at the end from Jonathan Berggren that won the game, 5-4, for the Red Wings with 35.7 seconds left.
“We came back and gave ourselves a chance,” Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli said. “A tough bounce there with the guy coming out of the box. It sucks. What can you do?”
Here are three takeaways:
Columbus Blue Jackets make stinging ‘mistake' against Detroit Red Wings
Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins clacked his stick on the ice as he spotted time running out in a power play with the game tied 4-4 and less than a minute to play in regulation. That’s what goalies are trained to do to alert their teammates when a man advantage is about to expire and a penalized player is preparing to rejoin play.
The Jackets didn’t have either of their top power-play units on the ice, instead sending out a defensively responsible group to finish the man advantage, but they either didn’t hear Merzlikins’ stick hitting the ice or tuned it out while looking for a knockout punch of their own. Instead, the Blue Jackets lost a chance to earn a point or two in the standings.
Ben Chiarot blocked Ivan Provorov’s one-timer, Motte turned into Superman while diving for the puck for a tap out to Berggren and a couple of seconds later it was behind Merzlikins following a winning wrist shot under the glove. Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason used the word “mistake” multiple times in his postgame press conference about the sequence, saying the Blue Jackets should have been more careful with how they handled the last few seconds of their power play.
“We should get out of (the offensive zone), but our group’s trying to score,” he said. “(They’re) obviously trying to score, but we make a mistake at the end. The resilience of our group is good. We made a mistake. It’s fine. We’ll learn from it, and we’ll move forward.”
What can they learn?
“It’s clock awareness,” Evason said. “It’s recognizing where we are in the game, obviously, and just get out of there, right? And we didn’t. We made a mistake. It ended up in our net, unfortunately, and it could’ve (gone) the other way.”
Fantilli, who assisted on James van Riemsdyk’s tying goal to spark the finish, aptly summed up the Blue Jackets’ feelings.
"Provy goes for a one-timer, it deflects off the guy’s pants and right up the middle," he said. "A few degrees different on that shot and we’re in a different situation. That’s hockey, though. Bounces happen, and that’s how that game went.”
Columbus Blue Jackets continue utilizing unconventional lineup
This was the fifth straight game in which the Blue Jackets dressed seven of the eight defensemen they’re carrying on the NHL roster plus 11 forwards instead of the usual allotment of 12. They went 3-1-0 in the first four, which is likely the reason Evason and his assistants have continued the experiment.
The advantage is tied to the usage of forwards. Not dressing 12 allows Evason and assistant Mike Haviland to double shift select forwards from the top two or three lines by skating them on the fourth line with Sean Kuraly and Mikael Pyyhtia. Kirill Marchenko in particular is seeing his ice time and scoring chances rise because of it.
The drawback is having an odd number of defensemen in the lineup rather than three distinct pairings of two. It usually leads to an “odd man out” situation in which one of the seven defensemen doesn’t play much and must mesh with a defensive partner sporadically whenever he’s sent into the game. Evason declined to confirm at the morning skate whether he was going with the unconventional setup, but seven Blue Jackets defensemen were included on the active roster while Jordan Harris sat as a healthy scratch for the fourth straight game.
Kevin Labanc, the forward who usually skates with Kuraly and Pyyhtia, missed his fifth straight game as a healthy scratch. Evason said the decision to play a seventh defenseman over Labanc isn’t a reflection of his play and more about seeking an edge in boosting ice time for Marchenko and Sean Monahan.
Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan impressed with Columbus Blue Jackets' growth
Going into the NHL draft last summer, Todd McLellan was the Blue Jackets’ top choice to replace Pascal Vincent as head coach.
Talks fell apart due to a disagreement on contractual terms, which led to Blue Jackets president of hockey operations/general manager Don Waddell going with Evason instead. Evason has since gotten off to a great start in Columbus, while McLellan was recently hired by the Red Wings, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2008 as an assistant coach.
McLellan did his homework on the Blue Jackets’ roster and organizational system while discussing their coaching vacancy and has studied it even closer since joining the Red Wings. He’s impressed with the progress they’ve shown under Evason and senses even brighter days ahead in Columbus.
“I think Dean has his fingerprints all over this team,” McLellan said. “Anytime a coach comes in, and he can flip the identity and get the players believing in what he’s selling, it becomes contagious. I can see that throughout their lineup. ... In my mind, they’ve definitely turned the corner and they’re going to give not only the Red Wings but every other team in the league a handful.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets fumble chance to down Red Wings: 3 takeaways
