The Columbus Blue Jackets had a chance to jump into third place in the Metropolitan Division with a win Thursday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. They couldn’t get anything going all night.
Logan Stankoven scored twice in the first 8:52 of the game and the Hurricanes never looked back. They cruised to an easy 5-1 win over the Blue Jackets on Thursday night at Lenovo Center. Sebastian Aho and Taylor Hall each had two assists. In the process, the Hurricanes clinched a playoff spot for the eighth-straight season.
Here are our three takeaways of the game from a Blue Jackets’ perspective.
First-Period Trouble
Anytime a team plays against the Hurricanes, they have to be ready to go. They also can’t fall behind early. The Blue Jackets allowed a deflected goal by Stankoven just 2:27 into the game.
The Hurricanes have always excelled at generate chances and suppressing the opposition. On Thursday night, they did both things extraordinarily well. Their shots to the net created havoc around goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. But then their five-man units just swarmed the Blue Jackets all night.
Alexander Nikishin scored a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0 not even 13 minutes into the game. By the time the first period was over, the Hurricanes had three goals. The Blue Jackets had two shots on goal.
The first period set the tone for how the rest of the game went. The Blue Jackets’ passes were broken up. Their rush attempts were constantly pressured throughout the night. It was a clinic of a performance by the Hurricanes thanks to the way they started the game.
Franchise Futility in Shots
The Blue Jackets finished the night with just 11 shots on goal. They had two in the first, four in the second and five in the third. There was simply no room out there to generate much of anything.
The Blue Jackets’ 11 shots on goal now becomes part of their history. It marks the second-fewest shots in a game in franchise history. The fewest happened in 2003 when they had 10 shots on goal in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Blue Jackets’ defensemen accounted for eight of their 11 total shots on goal. Kirill Marchenko, Boone Jenner and Miles Wood each had one shot and were the only forwards to register a shot on goal. Denton Mateychuk had two shots and scored the only Blue Jackets’ goal of the night.
While the Hurricanes tend to do this sort of thing to a lot of their opponents, the Blue Jackets simply couldn’t do much when they had the puck. Even with three power-play chances, they were swarmed when they had possession.
Impact to the Playoff Race
The Blue Jackets’ regulation loss means they will finish the night outside of the playoff picture. Both the Senators and Red Wings tied them in points but have games in hand and a tiebreaker edge.
If there is a silver lining in all of this, it’s that the Blue Jackets with six games remaining are one point out of a playoff spot in the Metro. If you would have told them that’s where’d they’d be at the start of the season, chances are they would have taken that in a heartbeat. They also remain in contention in the wildcard although there’s a lot more competition there now.
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The Penguins lost to the Lightning while the Flyers lost to the Red Wings. The Islanders did not play on Thursday night.
As awful as that performance in Raleigh was, all the Blue Jackets can do is move past it and get ready for Saturday night’s game at home against a desperate Winnipeg Jets team.
The out-of-town scoreboard has been pretty favorable to the Blue Jackets this week. They’ve lost six of their last seven games and remain in the thick of the playoff chase. It’s now up to them to figure out their struggles and find a way to finish the season strong.
The playoffs are still well within reach. But only if they start putting much better performances together.
