Coaching Decisions Coming into Question as Jackets Lose Again

Pascal Vincent defended his decision by telling reporters: “We were playing [well]. The team was playing [well]. We had a matchup, and that’s what happened. I mean we can focus on that or we can focus on Marchenko and Voronkov and, you know, Johnny, the way he played. I mean, this is the NHL.”

Matchups? That’s the reason the young players on this team were held off the ice late? Isn’t a 3-0 lead at home, exactly the kind of game you want to roll your bench in? Let the other team shorten their bench if they want to. Let them wear themselves out chasing the puck. Roll all four lines with a simple game plan of puck retrieval, keep possession, and make them go 200 feet every time they touch it. That’s what a team with an identity will do, make you continue to play their style. Instead, Pascal opted to lean heavily onto his veterans.

You know what else we’ve noticed (and written about) quite a bit this season? The veterans have not lived up to their expectations. Sure, there have been solid games here and there. Strong individual performances. But on the whole, by and large, the veterans on this team have struggled. That’s literally the reason this team is in last place. And so we find ourselves here, banging our heads against the wall after another loss that came because the coach stubbornly rolled three lines and two defense pairs out in the third period, while they all got dominated for almost the entire 20 minutes.

Let’s start right at the top. Adam Fantilli was our prize for last year’s 59 point season from this team. Last night, Fantilli played 10:11 – second worst on the entire team. This is a guy who is in the top-10 amongst rookies for scoring. He picked up an assist last night, and I thought he looked really good. He has all season; flying around the ice and winning puck battles more consistently than a lot of other, heavier usage players. I would argue that he’s been the team’s most noticeable forward in the defensive zone on a lot of nights. But he played just three shifts in the third period.

There was only one guy behind Fantilli in ice time. Kent Johnson found himself stapled to the bench, yet again – playing just 8:06 on the night. That’s three minutes fewer than enforcer Mathieu Olivier, who finds himself a healthy scratch in roughly half the games. Like Fantilli, Kent saw just three third period shifts. Would it not be better for Kent’s development to play bigger minutes? Did they really recall him from the AHL to continue to not use him and embarrass him every chance they get?

David Jiricek has had his share of struggles, but what else do you expect from a 20 year old defenseman? Still, he’s been a mainstay in the lineup ahead of Andrew Peeke. But, somehow last night, Pascal trusted Peeke enough to play him 22:40 … while Jiricek (like Johnson and Fantilli) saw just three shifts in the third period, finding himself benched. He picked up an assist last night as well; the same goal that Fantilli assisted on. Jiricek played 10:25 – a full 12 fewer minutes than Peeke, who hasn’t even been good enough to get into the lineup for almost a month.

How is Jiricek good enough to play on a nightly basis ahead of Andrew Peeke, but not good enough to play as many minutes when they’re on the ice in the same game? Why does Eric Robinson – who was deemed expendable and sent to the AHL earlier this year – get 16:43 of ice time? That was the fourth most amongst CBJ forwards last night – ahead of even Johnny Gaudreau (16:37).

Matchups or not, this player usage makes zero sense. It’s time for the Blue Jackets to admit that this season is a lost cause, one way or another; and release the chains from their younger players. Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, David Jiricek, make up the future competitive core of this team. Playing them fewer minutes is not helping their development. Worse, stubbornly stapling them to the bench and rolling out the same veteran players who have lost countless games here over the last several years, is not helping this team win games. So why do it in the first place?