How have the Blue Jackets improved and regressed through the first quarter of the season

The Blue Jackets can't close out games

One of the worst parts of the Blue Jackets’ performance so far, and definitely the most frustrating for fans, had been their complete inability to close out games in regulation.

Their first struggle with this came back on October 25th when Columbus gave up two goals in the final six minutes of the game. Both goals were due to a breakdown in positioning that led to one-timers that beat Elvis from Kris Letang and Bryan Rust, respectively.

This didn't cause a huge concern at the time, especially after the Jackets were able to hold Pittsburgh off in overtime and eventually go 3-for-3 in the shootout to win it, but things quickly spiraled out of control.

The Blue Jackets faced off against the New York Islanders on November 2nd, which was looking like a rather easy win going into the final minutes of the game despite playing sloppy hockey for the majority of the night.

This sloppiness came back to bite them when they gave up a game-tying goal with a minute and seven seconds left in the third period off a shot by rookie sensation Matthew Schaefer that got deflected twice and beat Elvis up high.

Not so bad right? Wrong. New York took advantage of their momentum, scoring another goal not even 30 seconds later while the Jackets watched in shock. This time, a combination of poor defense and Merzlikins not sealing the post well enough were to blame.

Columbus had a lead with 67 seconds left and ended up losing without even getting a point for an overtime loss. No matter how you look at it, that type of performance is unacceptable.

The same problem resurfaced just eight days later in Edmonton, where they gave up two goals in the final seven minutes to send it into overtime.

What made this collapse even worse, however, was that the final goal came on a Blue Jackets power play with under a minute left in the game.

Although Columbus initially was aggressive and attacked with the man-advantage, they ended up lazily playing catch in the defensive zone with the puck, and the Oilers jumped all over it and Jake Walman sent the game into overtime.

A poor line change by the Jackets let former teammate Jack Roslovic (who else) score just 56 seconds into overtime and send Columbus home.

If the Blue Jackets want to be a competitive team down the stretch (let alone succeed in the playoffs) they will need to be able to hold off strong opponents and protect their lead late in games going forward.

There are still areas of improvement

Weirdly enough, the Blue Jackets' power play has been exactly the same in terms of results as it was in the first ten games. In both intervals, Columbus drew 23 penalties and capitalized on just four of them, resulting in a conversion rate of just 17.39%

With that being said, the man-advantage has looked more threatening as the Blue Jackets have been more active and shot-heavy while maintaining a constant net-front presence with Voronkov, a presence that created a goal in a key shootout victory against Montreal.

The defense has still been lackluster as well, despite amazing progression from youngster Denton Mateychuk, with the team allowing over 31 shots against per game.

All in all, it's already been a stressful roller coaster of a season for the 5th line. There are definitely bright spots in the team's performance to look forward to, but there are also major issues that need to be addressed and fixed.

There is still a long way to go, though, and plenty of time to clean up the mistakes. If the defense can return to form and if the team can stay strong in the final minutes of their games, this can definitely be a team that deserves to see postseason action.