Sabres Embarrass the Jackets
The Blue Jackets played – and lost – their third game in four nights on Wednesday, this time we saw the Sabres embarrass the Jackets 9-4. In what can only be described as one of the worst performances in the history of the franchise, the Jackets gave up 6 first period goals and were well out of the game before even registering a shot on net.
Wow, what a difference a week makes. Last week, it seemed like this group was making progress after being embarrassed in a game against the Detroit Red Wings. They came out the very next night and dropped a very good Florida Panthers team. They lost two very hard-fought games against the Islanders and Canadiens – then beat a second place (now first place) Winnipeg Jets team on the road.
Then it’s almost like they crumpled up that page of their story and threw it in the garbage. Which, coincidentally, is exactly how they played last night. Let’s recap this most recent stretch, painful as it may be.
First, they found themselves down 3-0 to those same Red Wings on Sunday, which meant they’d given up 8 straight goals to the Wings, when you combine the game on November 19. Give credit where it’s due; they battled back and made a game of it, cutting the lead to 3-2 early in the third before Andrew Copp buried the dagger just 4:10 later.
Tuesday night brought a road trip to Pittsburgh, a place where the Jackets haven’t won a game since 2015. If you’ve watched them play the Penguins over the years, you know the story. Jackets dominate early, even take an early lead. But the Penguins marched back on the backs of – you guessed it – Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
An ugly goal while attempting to pull the goalie saw this game end 4-1, but really the young Jackets weren’t all that bad. They were just simply out-matched. As fans, I think we can live with that. They put up the good fight.
Wednesday night, however, they did not put up the good fight. They didn’t even put up much of a bad fight, aside from Sean Kuraly. They just didn’t fight at all. As fans, there is no way we should be expected to live with this kind of performance. With a small market team, we get one, maybe two – if we make the playoffs, three or four nationally televised games per year. This was our chance to show off our new and improved roster, with Johnny Gaudreau headlining the game.
They even gave us an easy lay-up game against Buffalo. That isn’t to say they’re an easy win, but they are a team in a similar situation as the Jackets. They’re very young, still in the midst of their rebuild. In fact, they’re only 7 points ahead of the Jackets – with the Jackets playing one fewer game. And this performance is what we get?
We were the laughing stock of the NHL last night. Twitter was wild, everyone had a comment to make. And oh, they made them. It’s not as though hockey Twitter needed any more reason to dump on one of the worst teams in the league, but there, on a primetime stage, our guys gave it to them.
How bad was it? Oh man, it was bad.
By the time the Blue Jackets got their first shot on goal, the game was already 3-0 Sabres, and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo had been pulled. Then they scored again. This prompted Sean Kuraly to try to get the bench going by showing some emotion … which led to a 4 minute power-play for the Sabres. Of course, they scored, again… 5-0.
A Jack Roslovic hooking penalty three minutes later? 6-0 game. All-time good guy Darren Pang dumped on the Jackets for their defensive lapses and lack of energy. At the first intermission, the national broadcast team openly laughed about the Jackets. They deserved it. We summed their performance up right here:
Been around since day one, and I have not missed many games. Can say that this first period was the worst effort I've ever seen from a #CBJ team. Zero energy, zero structure, zero effort. They look like a team that has quit.
— Union and Blue (@UnionAndBlue) December 8, 2022
Not good.
If you’ve followed hockey at all for the last 22 years, this says a lot. The Jackets have only made the playoffs 6 times in those 22 years – winning a series just once. They’ve been mired in mediocrity. I think back to Steve Mason’s sophomore year, when then Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville could simply quip “we scored easily tonight”. I think further back to the days when Geoff Sanderson was our offense. Our only offense.
And yet somehow, with this assembled team, with all the talent they’ve built up here, in a year where they were supposed to be better … we find ourselves watching the worst period of hockey I can ever recall from a Blue Jackets team. Where was the fight? Where was the care, the pride? They had nothing, zero last night, and as fans, we watched the national media literally laughing at us. At our team. For plays like this:
Ras obviously had one sprinkled in there. 😏 pic.twitter.com/EajP61e5ya
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) December 8, 2022
There are excuses to be made. Third game in four nights. Lots of guys on IR. A recent illness through the team. But I’m not having it. This isn’t junior hockey, where you’re playing 16-20 year old kids on limited rosters. This isn’t a minor league team that’s been gutted due to call-ups.
This is the NHL. All 23 of these guys are here for a reason. Even with the injuries, the illness, and the youth, there is zero excuse to simply not show up for a game. And it wasn’t just this game; we can look back on several games this season and point out a late-starting Jackets team. The only difference last night is, they never woke up. This post-game comment is simply alarming, and speaks to a possible cause:
Erik Gudbranson postgame: "We haven't really been practicing the greatest lately and we gotta be a lot better in a lot of areas." #CBJ
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) December 8, 2022
We’ve seen everything about the culture built by John Tortorella evaporate in less than two years. Gone are the tough practices and the accountability. Now we have a veteran player, who has been in this league for 12 seasons, commenting about soft practices. Say what you want about Gudbranson’s abilities on the ice – the fact of the matter is, this seems like a call out.
Those are the kinds of words you hear from teams that are starting to question their coaching staff. And last night, they sure played like a team that wasn’t hearing what the coaching staff is throwing down. It’s not in me to call for a coach’s head; and I’m in no place to start naming replacements.
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But what I will say is, while our expectations for this season are pretty low, losing games because the players obviously don’t care or have the desire to play, is simply unacceptable. Even by our standards. This is a results driven industry, and at some point, no matter how much potential you see in a guy, or how friendly they are, you have to start getting results.
Letting the team have an easy practice is encouraging the team to take it easy during the game. They didn’t look ready to play last night. That falls directly on the coaching staff, and it certainly seems like the Blue Jackets are going backwards.
It doesn’t seem like one or two mid-season changes to the roster is going to fix the issues here. It’s also not about salvaging this season. It’s about not dumping our entire future because we like the guys behind the bench or feel like they deserve a chance to right the ship. We’ve had too many games like the one last night, and that’s called building a losing culture.
We cannot accept a losing culture in Columbus ever again. To be made the laughing stock of the league at the hands of the team who has the longest current playoff drought, is unacceptable. Something has to energize this team, and soon. If they want to keep this coaching staff around, then so be it. But they need to be made accountable for the on ice results.
Next. What to do With Jack Roslovic?. dark