The Blue Jackets lost their fifth straight game on Saturday night. While the effort was undoubtedly better than the absolute disaster they put forth on Thursday, it still wasn't enough to get the victory.
The talk after the game was the same old story. They did their best. They're disappointed in the result. They just need to keep doing the right things. Ugh, give us a break.
What right things? What have you done this season to give you the ability to say something like that? This team has won 13 out of 32 games - and only 7 of those wins have come in regulation. As pointed out on X this morning, they have lost just as many games when leading in the third period.
If they were doing the right things on a nightly basis, they would not be eying the Buffalo Sabres game tonight with their fingers crossed that they won't be in dead last in the Eastern Conference at the end of the day.
But that's still the narrative. "Just keep doing what we're doing. Forge ahead." It's too late for that. It's time to do something different.
Our patience with this team has run very thin. In fact, for many of us, it's pretty much gone at this point. Which makes the post-game interviews very frustrating to watch. We have seen this show too many times, even if you don't look back beyond the start of this season:
Charlie Coyle starts this off by saying that they "gave the proper effort and did the right things". I'm sorry, but this isn't good enough. This should be the expectation from this team each and every night.
After all, that's what Dean Evason has been trying to sell us for the last year and a half, right?
Of course, Dean comes to the podium and tell us they "played their asses off" but "couldn't catch a break". I'm sorry Dean, but again I have to point out: this is supposed to be the expectation each and every night.
You can get away with not catching breaks when your team competes and plays hard every night. But, hello, wake up: they do not.
You can't point to them playing hard as a positive when this team loses its fifth straight game. It's your job to have them playing like this each and every night. Had they done so over the last month, they would probably have more wins under their belt. And, we might still have patience for this nonsense.
More down nights than up nights.
Instead of coming to the rink every night and battling like they did last night, this team is taking more than the occasional night off. Thursday against Ottawa was a prime example.
They were flat, uninspired, and downright awful in their own end. We've seen it a bunch this year. This team was not good enough, and Evason's only response was to embarrass his starting goaltender by pulling him less than 15 minutes into the game.
Nevermind the veteran defenseman who was directly responsible for three of the goals against, but wound up with almost 26 minutes of ice time.
So, it should be no surprise in hindsight that this team has four wins in the last calendar month. Only one of those in regulation. Nor should it come as any surprise that they may very well wake up tomorrow at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
This would be a much different article if this team showed virtually any emotion during or after the game last night. But they didn't show up in a bad mood, or with a killer instinct. They didn't even try to stir up any emotion in their home barn.
Instead, despite "playing the right way", they looked on in stunned awe as the Knights tied the game just 1:03 after the Jackets had taken the lead. Then, they watched again as Mitch Marner set up the game-winning goal.
Finally, they managed only two shots on goal in the final 4 minutes of the game. With two extra attackers and while needing a tie, they stuck to flinging the puck around the boards and avoiding challenging Vegas in any meaningful way.
After the game, it's another case of "oh well, we tried our best". Insert eye roll here...
By the time they get things figured out, I'm afraid it will likely be too late. We're looking at another lost season in Columbus, which begs the question: how much more suffering should the 5th Line be subjected to?
The Jackets don't even show up and fight for themselves, let alone their unfairly loyal fanbase. We deserve better.
This is a very disappointing time to be a Blue Jackets fan. In fact, it's downright embarrassing seeing this team flounder in their 25th season, while their expansion brethren load up an elite team.
At least our guys are "playing the right way", according to their coach.