Injury Riddled Blue Jackets Have Their Lack of Depth Exposed Out West
The Blue Jackets ran into two juggernaut teams over the weekend, losing both games by a combined 10-3 score.
The most difficult part of a rebuild might just be what happens when your team starts running into injury troubles. The Blue Jackets have certainly felt that sting over the last two seasons.
This team has struggled to win games all season, even when healthy - but now on a trip out west, with injuries piling up; we're again being showed their lack of quality NHL depth.
On Friday night, they took on the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. The Jackets started out pretty well, scoring the game's first goal just 4:28 in.
But the Avalanche took the game completely over. They scored 6 unanswered goals, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, out-shot the Jackets by a 51-24 margin. Those 51 shots were the most allowed by the Jackets this season.
Things didn't get any easier for the team from there. Clearly, whoever makes the NHL schedule did them no favors, as they went to Vegas to play the defending Cup Champion Golden Knights the very next night.
Again, the Jackets jumped out to an early 1-0 lead - which they carried into the first intermission. But the Knights stormed out in the second, tying the game 3:31 into the period. Then, a lapse in coverage defensively cost the Jackets dearly.
🔥 MR. 500!!! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4bO1xInrMb
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 24, 2024
The second Vegas goal gave them the lead, and got the crowd into the game. From that point on, it felt like they were on a power-play for the rest of the second period.
It was yet another critical mental mistake by a Blue Jacket defender; something they have not been able to figure out this season. What is Erik Gudbranson doing on that play?
The Knights went on to win the game 4-2, out-shooting the Jackets 47-22 in the process. If you haven't done the math already, it wasn't pretty. Two games. 10-3 combined score. 98-46 combined shots.
A big part of this is on the coaches, in my opinion. First, why do they keep getting burned by missing simple defensive coverages? And second, let's look at ice time usage...
The Jackets played two games in two days over the weekend, so certainly they rolled all four lines, right?
Wrong. Head coach Pascal Vincent opted not to keep anyone's legs fresh for the quick turn-around. A bold move, with expected results.
Boone Jenner led the forwards in ice time on Friday, playing 20:38(!) in a 6-1 loss. Alexandre Texier was next on the list (?), playing 18:54.
Meanwhile, on the blue-line, Zach Werenski and Damon Severson both played over 22:00; while Jake Christiansen played just 13:51.
On Saturday, Trey Fix-Wolansky (7:53) and Mikael Pyyhtia (8:14) were stapled to the bench for long stretches of time; while the top line of Jenner (19:32), Johnny Gaudreau (18:31) and Alexander Nylander (18:13) was double shifted. Which made zero sense:
Corsi for/against at 5-on-5:
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) March 24, 2024
Gaudreau 2-26
Jenner 3-25
In case you needed an indication of how this game is going. Yes, that's 2 attempts for, 26 against when on the ice for Gaudreau. #CBJ
I'm not saying that Gaudreau and Jenner aren't the two best, most reliable forwards currently on the roster. But clearly, they were tired Saturday. You could see it in their body language.
This begs the question we've all been asking for the last several weeks. Heck, months even: at what point does Pascal Vincent realize that this season is over, and spread the minutes around to the younger players?
Why does he continue to roll out the vets, regardless what happens to them on the ice? Gudbranson, after his clear missed coverage on Saturday, went on to play over 21 minutes.
They were getting crushed by the end of the Colorado game. They were getting pulled through the ringer on Saturday. But still, they continued to roll out their veterans on a double shift basis, stapling a guy like Fix-Wolansky to the bench.
This is a guy who this franchise has invested time and money into developing in the AHL for several years. A guy who was probably on his last chance to make an impact in the NHL with this franchise.
And he got less than 8 minutes of ice time on Saturday, before being sent down on Sunday.
I'm not saying he should have played 16 or 18 minutes. But, at least if he'd been given a regular shift in some offensive situations, you could comfortably look back any say you gave him a fair chance.
In a back-to-back situation against two elite teams - with travel - it just made no sense to run the veterans into the ground.
The ice time over these two games exacerbated the fact that this team just doesn't have very solid depth. Or, if they do, they're afraid to use it.
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