Blue Jackets mistakes exacerbated by slumping offense in loss to L.A. Kings
Over the first three weeks of the season, the Columbus Blue Jackets were among the most explosive clubs in the NHL . Given their heavy reliance on young forwards playing prominent roles, the output of goals seemed too good to be true.
Now, in the throes of a four-game losing streak, it appears it was.
The Blue Jackets hung with the Los Angeles Kings for two periods Saturday in Crypto.com Arena, but the game slipped away early in the third period. The Kings pulled away for a 5-2 win before 18,145, extending the Jackets' skid (0-3-1).
After scoring six goals in each of their first four wins of the season, the Blue Jackets have scored only seven goals during their recent dip.
"We gotta get back on track, get a little confidence back," Blue Jackets center Justin Danforth said. "It definitely helps to win games when everybody's scoring. But guys are going to go through times when they're not scoring, and other guys have to step up."
The Blue Jackets got goals from Dmitri Voronkov and Ivan Provorov , and Danforth had two primary assists. After spending Friday's practice driving his players to go harder to the net and look for greasy goals, Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason was not pleased.
"There's a little bit (of improvement), but we can still get there," Evason said. "I think we're still relying too much off the rush.
"Our offensive game, our offensive zone game, our hanging on to pucks and allowing the cycle and our movement to generate more chances ... it's been better this season than it has been in the last few games."
The Blue Jackets were ready to head to California for a lengthy getaway after suffering back-to-back lopsided losses last weekend — 6-2 versus the Winnipeg Jets at Nationwide Arena last Friday, and 7-2 versus the Capitals last Saturday in Washington.
But California has not provided any comfort. The Jackets lost to the lowly San Jose Sharks 2-1 in overtime Tuesday before getting a three-day break to play the Kings.
One of the perils of relying on so many 24-and-under players is the wild inconsistency of performance, including but not limited to their offensive output.
Yegor Chinakhov , who was among the league scoring leaders only a couple of weeks into the season, has no goals and two assists in his last eight games. Kirill Marchenko has one goal in his last six games. Zach Werenski (six games), Cole Sillinger (five) and Adam Fantilli (five) are also mired in scoring slumps.
The way the Blue Jackets handled the puck — and handled the Kings' pressure — there's no way two goals would have been enough to win.
The Jackets trailed 2-1 after two periods, but they started to make a push late in the second period, earning a power play late that carried over for 1 minute, 41 seconds into the third. But the pivotal moment belonged to the Kings, instead.
Only 30 seconds into the period, Sillinger fumbled a puck at the offensive blue line, springing Los Angeles in the other direction. Warren Foegele beat Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins with a slap shot from distance coming through the left circle.
The Jackets responded only 19 seconds later on Provorov's first goal of the season to pull within a goal (3-2), but a wicked deflection by L.A.'s Alex LaFerriere at 7:05 restored the Kings' two-goal lead.
The 5-2 goal was scored on an empty net.
"In key moments of the game, we gave them opportunities," Evason said. "I don't want to say we gave them goals, but they took advantage of some stuff.
"First goal, we turn it over. Second goal, we make a huge mistake. Third goal, we turn it over. That's three goals. In key areas, we have to clearly make the right read and clearly not turn the puck over."
The Blue Jackets play at 8 p.m. ET Sunday in Anaheim before finishing the trip in Seattle on Tuesday.
(Photo of Kevin Fiala and Elvis Merzlikins: Ronald Martinez / )
