The Blue Jackets have Work To Do after Opening Night

The Blue Jackets opened the 2023-2024 season with a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. While there are always positives and negatives from any game, there were three things that stood out as needing work in last night’s game.

1. The Power Play. The CBJ power play went 0-4 and looked bad yet again. This has been an issue with this team for years. There are talented offensive players on this team. For them to not be able to get set up in the offensive zone, pass the puck crisply, and get quality shots during the power play is baffling. New assistant coach Mark Recchi better press the reset button on this power play quickly.
2. Team chemistry. Every season is a new season. There are new faces, new schemes, etc. The injuries last season really put a damper on the players developing chemistry, as so many players missed time. But last night’s game made it obvious that many of the players don’t have a lot of familiarity with each other. Passes were not stick-to-stick. They were either behind a player, beyond a player, or telegraphed so much that the Flyers could easily pick it off. The movement of players in all areas of the ice was not crisp and in-sync with their linemates. It just seemed like, whatever one player wanted to do, another player had a different idea or wasn’t on the same wavelength. The communication needs to greatly improve.
3. Defensive zone coverage and Effort. The Blue Jackets defense appears to be better than last season (could it get much worse?). There were signs of that last night. However, there were moments last night where players (mostly forwards) appeared to be standing around in the defensive zone. The Flyers seems to be playing harder and skating faster than most of our forwards in our defensive zone. The Jackets couldn’t get pucks cleared out of the defensive zone. Not for a lack of trying, but more so a lack of will and effort. There were moments where the Flyers clearly outhustled the Jackets to loose pucks and looked like the hungrier team. That has to change. The defensive coverage was good for portions of the night. But that lack of effort and hustle in the defensive zone (at times) led to some lapses in defensive coverage. The effort by all players, especially the forwards, in the defensive zone needs to improve.

Everything is not all doom-and-gloom, as there were some positives from last night’s game. Elvis Merzlikins played well, as he stopped 33 of 35 shots. Despite giving up 2 goals, there was not much Elvis could do on the first goal, as the Flyers had a 2-on-0 break. His strong performance was much needed. Adam Fantilli looked like he belonged and showed glimpses of his potential. As the season progresses, I expect Fantilli to improve and show that he can be one of the top players in the NHL. Additionally, some other players had strong performances. I’m referring to Patrik Laine, Jake Bean, Alexander Texier, and Kirill Marchenko. There were definitely some good things that happened in game #1 for the Blue Jackets.

It was only one game, but if the Blue Jackets don’t fix some of their issues soon, it could be another long season. The Jackets need to play better soon to avoid another disastrous start to the season. The 5th line does not want the season to be “over” as soon as it has begun like last season. Here’s to hoping that the remaining 81 games are prettier than the first game.