Three Things That Could Help Turn the Blue Jacket Season Around

The Blue Jackets dropped their seventh game in a row on Thursday night, this time a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Arizona Coyotes. They aren’t exactly playing inspiring hockey right now, with results not coming at all. But there is a lot of talent here, and assuming they don’t make any major moves, there are three things that could help turn the Blue Jacket season around.

Of course, there are way more than three things that this team needs to figure out right now. After seven losses in a row, it’s really hard to glean positivity about this team at all. They’re struggling, flat out, and if it weren’t for their line of Dmitri Voronkov, Adam Fantilli, and Kirill Marchenko, a lot of these games weren’t even close. They’ve been the lone, consistent bright spot amongst the skaters (though I have to give a nod to Erik Gudbranson, who has played well above the mean most nights).

The strange thing about this team is that, even with all of this skill, they’re struggling to score goals. They’re getting a lot of saves from both of their goaltenders, and have had a chance to win on most nights. But the transition game is a mess, and it’s led to stunted rush attacks. Combine this with their inability to play in-zone offense consistently (outside of that young line mentioned above). The result? This team has come out and averaged just 2.7 goals per game.

Their best players have to step up…

This is probably the biggest key to unlocking this team’s potential. We’re 17 games into the season, and their two most highly paid forwards – Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine – have just 3 goals and 9 points. Combined. This is a team whose core is extremely young. These two guys make a combined $18,450,000 against the cap, on a team that has only spent $37,000,000 or so on forwards (with Jack Roslovic healthy).

That’s really close to 50% of your dollars, accounting for roughly 0.6% of your team’s goals on the season. Now, Laine gets a partial pass here because of time missed due to injury. But what in the world is going on with Gaudreau? He looks completely disinterested at times, and has been fighting the puck since the very first faceoff of the season. Things have gotten so bad, that both of them were benched at the end of last night’s loss to the Coyotes. And you know what, good. They deserved it. They were not good enough.

But this leads us to the first, and most crucial thing that needs to happen for this team to compete: figure out what is going on with your best players, and get them going. I don’t know if they need a quick in-season vacation. Maybe they’re upset about the system they’re playing in. Or, maybe they’re both hurt. Whatever the case, figure it out, soon, or this streak of losses will be into the double digits in no time.

There’s no other way to put it. This team’s defensive zone structure is utterly ridiculous.

Yeah, I said it. It’s the worst defensive zone structure I’ve seen in years. Either the players are not executing it right, or the coaches haven’t seen what’s going on and made an adjustment. But, I can see from a mile away that this team’s own-zone play allows the opposition to possess the puck at their discretion, wearing out Blue Jacket skaters, right up to the point where they can generate the kind of high danger scoring chances that this system is supposed to be built to prevent. It’s too passive.

Come on guys, figure this thing out. In the video above, the first Arizona goal last night, you can see this in full effect. All five Jacket skaters are collapsed in a “home base” defense, leaving the entire outside of the zone wide open. Adam Fantilli fans on a clearing attempt because, well, his only option is to shoot it up the boards … because there’s no support, everyone is collapsed into the front of the net. I can see that. You can see that. The Arizona Coyotes can surely see that.

It’s an easy play to step up and pressure Fantilli, who inevitably turns the puck over. Which is survivable if he has any kind of support up the boards, but he does not. Everyone is in front of the net, and by the time the puck gets there, they’re all tired, get bodied out, and it’s an easy Coyotes goal.

The Jackets have given up 61 goals on the season, and without going back and rolling through tapes, I would venture to guess that somewhere around 40 of them have been on plays almost identical to this one. Turnover. Shot. Lose the battle in front, easy goal.

The worst part about this: it’s not that hard of an adjustment to make. The Boston Bruins have given up the fewest goals in the league (30). They play a very similar style, believe it or not. The traditional “box plus one”; where four guys build a box in front of the net to not allow any cross-ice passing, and one guy pressures the puck. They then release a player from the box as soon as the puck is pressured, to cut off the only passing option; while simultaneously giving them a breakout option.

So why, then, can’t our coaching staff figure out that the defensive zone coverage is the biggest thing killing this team’s momentum? They get pinned into the D-zone way too often, and their entire ability to create rush offense is gone, because there is no breakout option should they actually pressure the puck and get a turnover to go the other way. This is what is leading to this team’s inability to hold onto the lead. It’s unacceptable that they haven’t figured it out yet.

Fixing the defensive zone leads to easier breakouts. Which leads to less momentum against – and, probably, more rush offense. Which probably leads to production from rush savvy players like Johnny Gaudreau, Patrik Laine, (currently demoted) Kent Johnson, Zach Werenski, and Yegor Chinakhov.

Regardless, this team needs to find itself, and really soon. We’re nearing the quarter mark of the season, and they sit 30th in the overall standings (based on points percentage) – with the third-worst goal differential in the league as well. Not good enough.