The Blue Jackets saw their 4-game winning streak and their 12-game points streak both come to an end last night on Long Island. They lost a sloppy 1-0 game to the Islanders that closed the gap in the standings, but there are some valuable growing opportunities that can come out of a game like this.
Right from the opening faceoff, it felt like the Islanders had more jump. With both teams having played the night before, it was hard to tell who would get their legs first. But emphatically, that was the Islanders.
Still, you're in the game until you are not in the game. Unfortunately, the Blue Jackets fell behind almost right away in this one.
One mistake made the difference.
Less than 90 seconds into the game, the Islanders found the back of the net. The Blue Jackets were trying to get their forecheck going, but one mistake became very costly, leading to the odd-man rush that saw the game's only goal scored.
Ivan Provorov pinched further into the offensive zone, despite the Islanders winning the puck in the corner. They chipped it over his head to Bo Horvat, who flew down the wing and fired a shot past Jet Greaves to make it 1-0.
Provorov was puck watching for maybe a half second on that play. That's all it took. In a game this tight, one mistake can make all of the difference. In this instance, the puck happened to go to the one guy the Jackets wouldn't want to have it in that situation, and Horvat burned them.
They were flat for far too long.
I thought the Jackets did a good job holding their composure, despite the early tally against. They defended really well for the rest of the night, surviving several Islanders onslaughts in their end. Greaves stood tall as well, making the saves he needed to make.
But, with that said, I thought they played too safe. I mentioned after the game that it looked like they were playing not to lose, instead of playing to win. From the outside, they just looked flat.
Part of that is due to the other team playing a good game. Part of that is due to the terrible ice. But, the Jackets didn't do enough to earn the win last night. They lost a lot of puck races, made some bad passes, and generally looked disjointed in the offensive zone.
The frustrating thing is, they turned it on in the last 5 minutes. They were very dangerous late in this game, showing us that they can beat this team. But at that point, Ilya Sorokin was locked in, and there was no chance they were scoring with the Islanders dropping into their defensive shell.
If they had played even 40 minutes like they did the last 5 of this game, they win pretty easily. Instead they lose a sloppy 1-0 game.
— Union and Blue (@UnionAndBlue) March 23, 2026
No excuse for coming out flat in a game of this magnitude. They need to get right back to playing the way they are capable next game. #CBJ
Turn it right back around.
The biggest takeaway for this team is that they need to get right back on their horses and turn their game around. They can't let this slide into a two or three game losing streak. Just get back to playing CBJ hockey, and they will be fine.
Hopefully, this game was a hard lesson that only makes them stronger down this stretch run and into the playoffs. We will see how they look tomorrow night in Philadelphia.