Jackets Are 0-3, Is it Panic Time?
It’s amazing how quickly a season outlook can change. One week ago, excitement was palpable as the Blue Jackets were entering their 2022-23 campaign with what is probably the most talented roster they have ever had. But after three straight setbacks to start the season – by a combined 14-5 margin – the excitement has died down. Is it panic time in Columbus?
In short, I don’t think it’s time to panic … at least not yet. While a run of three straight losses is never a good thing, it often gets blown out of proportion when it happens right at the start of the season. Would people have the same reactions if the team lost three straight in, say, December? Probably not.
With that said, they lost each game by three goals (4-1 at Carolina, then back to back 5-2 losses to Tampa Bay and St Louis), something even this franchise has never seen happen to start a season. After their first week of the season, the Blue Jackets hold a league-worst -9 rating; worse than even the tanking Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks, whose seasons may best be remembered for being on Connor Bedard watch.
The only thing the team can hang their hats on here, is that they played probably the two best teams in the Eastern Conference, and a very good recent Cup winner from out west. Their season opening three games in four nights pitted them against three teams with Cup aspirations this year. Two of these games were against opponents hosting their season opener, so emotions were going to be high. Honestly, winning any of these games was going to be quite the task, but this team seemed ready to go.
They started off well against Carolina; the game was evenly matched and the Jackets even took a 1-0 lead early in the second period on a goal by Patrik Laine. But his injury seemed to pull the energy away from the club, and around that time the Canes started to pick up their physicality. The momentum turned quickly and once it went to Carolina, the Jackets were never able to pull it back.
The home opener against Tampa Bay was basically the same exact story. The Jackets came out swinging, but the veterans on the Lightning took the game over, and the only thing that kept this one from getting much uglier, was some solid goaltending from Daniil Tarasov.
Saturday brought a much better effort, but costly turnovers and a lack of detail defensively wound up costing the team the game, as the Blues rattled off three third period goals en-route to an easy win.
The biggest question mark coming into the season has held true; this team cannot defend.
This losing streak can be attributed to three things, in my opinion. First: the injury to Patrik Laine threw a wrench in this team’s plans. They were playing very well until he went down, and any time you lose a player of this caliber, it stings. Lines become jumbled, guys get put into roles they probably shouldn’t be playing, and it’s easy for the group to lose focus. This is a team that is built to outscore some of its problems, and without one of the best snipers in the game, that becomes a lot more difficult.
In his absence, we’ve seen a collection of players trying to fill the void on the top line, including Yegor Chinakhov, Gustav Nyquist, Justin Danforth, and Jakub Voracek. So far, there doesn’t seem to be a good match to keep pace offensively with Johnny Gaudreau. I would also argue that Boone Jenner seems to be holding this line back as well; their offensive chances have mostly been one and done. We knew finding the right center for this line would be key to generating offense, but Laine going down certainly doesn’t help.
The second issue I’m seeing with this team? They are still getting pushed around. Jarmo Kekalainen went out and added toughness to his fourth line, and his third defense pairing, and they have done virtually nothing to make this team harder to play against. Mathieu Olivier has had some good shifts and honestly is a better NHL player than I was expecting. But we haven’t yet seen this physical toughness or level of protection from him.
Footer szn ‼️ pic.twitter.com/IWPNCMUJyp
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) October 15, 2022
Erik Gudbranson has been arguably the worst player on the ice for the club through three games, and like Olivier, has done nothing to protect his teammates. We saw Gaudreau get hit after a whistle in Carolina. Brent Burns was running all over the place and the Canes in general were causing havoc in after-whistle scrums. We saw Daniil Tarasov bowled over on a Lightning goal (see video above). When are these guys going to bring the toughness they were hired to bring?
You can see the results already, as several of the younger players look like they don’t want the puck. Momentum can be turned by something as simple as these guys doing something, anything, to protect their teammates.
Lastly, and we knew this one would be an issue: the team defense. The biggest question mark coming into the season has held true; this team cannot defend. Even the shutdown pairing of Vladislav Gavrikov and Andrew Peeke looks lost defensively. Just look at this goal by the Lightning… what were they defending?
The Captain's racking 'em up! pic.twitter.com/fsnLJqXZN7
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) October 15, 2022
There isn’t any chemistry amongst the pairings, and it’s really hard to find a single positive thing to say about the team in its defensive zone. Fixing the back end, should be priority #1 here. Is it a coaching issue, or a personnel issue? Maybe both?
If they can bring the team average down to 2.5 or 3 goals against per game, they are capable of winning a lot of games.
When we’re looking at what went right for this team, let’s be honest … not much. Losing three games by three goals is not how you want to start the season. We can look at some individual performances and single guys out who have played well, but the team as a whole just looks like it’s lacking direction right now. Hopefully a couple of days of practice will help.
They need to get back to basics and go over some of the simplest details, if they’re going to turn this thing around. They need a 5-man effort defensively; everyone needs to be contributing in the defensive zone and working as one to get the puck back. We’re seeing too many turnovers because guys are in a hurry to create offense the other way, which has killed this team early on. The personnel that are on defense here, are the guys they have to work with; so the forwards need to do a better job helping them out.
There isn’t a single player in the NHL that can fix this defense corps, and nobody is giving away quality NHL defenders. All of the talk of trading for Jakob Chychrun is really irrelevant at this point. One guy doesn’t clean this mess up, and the assets they would have to give up just aren’t worth it. Imagine Jarmo trading away four first round assets for this guy, and the team still misses the playoffs this year. Then where are we? The best roster acquisition this team can probably make right now, is to give Nick Blankenburg a chance to play.
Improved team defense will take some of the pressure off the goalies, and honestly, the offense as well. If they can bring the team average down to 2.5 or 3 goals against per game, they are capable of winning a lot of games. This is a talented team that can score in transition now, but they need to work harder defensively to make it all work. Allowing an average of nearly 5 goals per game, just isn’t going to work.
They’ll be facing an easier schedule as the season goes on, but it doesn’t get better in the immediate future. They have four games this week, including their next three straight at home: Tuesday vs Vancouver, Thursday vs Nashville, Saturday vs Pittsburgh; and then a road matchup Sunday in New York, to face the Rangers.
It goes without saying that they have to win at least two of these games to stay afloat in the standings. It certainly won’t be an easy task – but it starts with keeping pucks out of their own net. Read: Laine Injury Presents Opportunity
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