Coaching and leadership were absent as the Blue Jackets blew another lead

The Blue Jackets needed to take home 2 points on Sunday to keep their flickering playoff hopes alive. After 21 minutes of play, they were in great shape to do just that.

But, as has been the case too many times this season: they watched their big lead evaporate. That's the best way to describe what happened to this team yesterday. They stood around and watched.

The Jackets started slowly, but Jet Greaves made several good saves early to help them get their feet moving. Despite giving up a goal on his first shot, the young goaltender battled back and kept the Penguins from breaking this game open early.

The team finally got going, and actually had a terrific final 14 minutes of the first period. After giving up the first 6 shots of the game, they out-shot the Penguins 12-3 and scored three times.

Then, they came out and seemingly put the game out of reach just 47 seconds into the second period, with Zach Werenski's 15th goal of the season giving them a 4-1 lead. But the entire team promptly fell flat on their face after that.

The Penguins would out-shoot the Jackets 32-12 for the balance of this game. They flat out dominated nearly every shift, and it felt like only a matter of time before this one slipped away. Which is exactly what happened.

Coming out of this one, I can use a lot of adjectives to describe how the fans felt. Frustrated. Humiliated. Angry.

Watching the team's post-game presser only made it worse. There was no real emotion, aside from Zach Werenski's comments; which were again troubling to hear (how soon until he can bolt?).

As the game went on, and even after, I kept asking myself one question: why isn't anyone doing anything about it?

Leadership let the team down.

First, the facts: this team wasn't ready to play this game. They stumbled into this one still feeling the high of Saturday's win. But, they eventually got going after the first TV timeout.

They played about 15 good minutes of hockey, and then could not get the puck out of their own end to save themselves. As the second period dwindled down, I was wondering why nobody brought any emotion into this game?

Where was Mathieu Olivier with a physical shift? For that matter, his entire line fell into the same rut as the rest of the team. This is supposed to be the "identity line" for the Blue Jackets. You know: the one with the captain on it.

Every other line was somehow worse. The entire team looked careless and exhausted. For lack of better words, they gave up.

When the Penguins made it 4-2 by period's end, it felt like a miracle that it wasn't worse. Still, we hoped that an intermission to reset and come out would help. After all, this team had supposedly turned a corner over the last few weeks.

Except they did not. They got absolutely wrecked, again, in the third period. They gave up the two goals to tie it, and barely touched the puck in overtime before Sidney Crosby bagged the winner.

Coaching was absent.

Hard question time. What exactly did Dean Evason and his coaching staff do yesterday? What were they saving their timeout for?

As this team was stuck in the mud, every time I saw the bench, I saw 5(!) guys standing there with their arms at their sides.

I know the saying "we coach during practice", but that only applies to teams that don't need coaching during the game. At some point, it's on this staff to light a fire under the rear of their team to get them going.

They didn't do that yesterday. Dean even admitted it in his press conference.

"Honestly we thought the start was as bad as we've been. There was a time we were going to call a timeout, but we didn't ... and then there was a TV timeout and the guys were saying the right things, so we didn't chime in."

Dean Evason

That sounds like a coaching issue to me. If the team isn't performing to your expectations, as the head coach, you are supposed to do something to get them going. That did not happen yesterday.

Worst of all, this staff has been in place for a season and a half, and this team still cannot defend in their own zone. Look no further than the game tying goal:

There are three players high in the defensive zone, but none of them challenge the player with the puck. The player who just happens to be the 8th all-time leading scorer in the NHL.

They run into each other and cancel themselves out. Simple math tells you that when the opponent has six players on the ice, and three of your guys run into each other: someone is going to be open.

How has this defensive scheme not been dialed in to this point? There is enough talent here to at least be serviceable enough to close out hockey games. I'm sorry, but that's just a fact.

It would be easy to say "fire this person" or "change that scheme", but at this point in the year, it's too late. This team has played its way out of the playoff race at the 41 game mark. There are just too many teams to climb over.

For 25 years, many of us have supported this team through thick and (mostly) thin. Even us die-hards are having a hard time watching this team now. That's a bad sign for the direction of this franchise.