Just When We Thought The Blue Jackets Could Go No Lower

We all watched with great pleasure as the Columbus Blue Jackets stormed out to a 4-0 lead in Pittsburgh last night. For once, the joke was not on us, as the Jackets were flying and getting production from the bottom of their lineup. But unfortunately, the joy was short lived.

The Jackets struck early and often, with Emil Bemstrom kicking off the scoring on the power-play, after a nice dish from Cole Sillinger just 4:02 into the game. Lane Pederson would finish off a rebound chance off the rush to make it 2-0 less than four minutes later.

Patrik Laine joined the party 2:18 later to make it 3-0, and the Jackets were rolling. Patty’s goal caused Mike Sullivan to use Pittsburgh’s timeout to get in the team’s ear, which usually leads to a swing in momentum. But on this night, it felt like the Jackets were prepared for anything, and they took the 3-0 lead into the first intermission.

The second period kicked off with more of the same, as Liam Foudy made it 4-0 Jackets just 2:37 in. The main story here might have been Elvis Merzlikins not coming out to start the period however, with the team announcing that he was too ill to continue. He would rejoin the team on the bench later in the period, but this meant that Michael Hutchinson was thrust into the Jacket net.

As things seem to go against Pittsburgh, even at 4-0, they were never really out of this thing. Jason Zucker narrowed the gap to 4-1 just after the halfway mark of the period – but still, the Jackets kept up the pressure and were able to carry their big lead into the third period. It sure seemed like they were poised to win in Pittsburgh for the first time since 11/13/2015 – a stretch of 12 games.

But they came out flat in the third period, and the Penguins were buzzing. Jake Guentzel scored 21 seconds into the period. Zucker potted his second of the night less than three minutes later. Danton Heinen tied the game less than a minute after that. In the end, the Jackets got out-shot 40-17 over the final two periods and overtime, with the final shot being Sidney Crosby’s OT winner.

While I won’t go as far as saying this was their most disappointing or worst loss of the season, this one stings and should serve as a harsh reminder to the young Jackets: no lead is safe in the NHL, especially when you quit skating. This is doubly significant to keep in mind when you have a team like the Penguins, whose veterans have been doing this to teams for years.

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In the end, while this loss seems like the absolute bottom, we should remember that this team is well out of the running for contention this season. We can only hope that this lesson will stick with them and make them stronger. Maybe we can break the streak in Pittsburgh next season.