Despite Blue Jackets’ fast start vs. Kraken, their offensive funk extends losing skid
There was a brief moment in the first period on Tuesday when it looked as if the Columbus Blue Jackets were emerging from their scoring funk, and it appeared the club's fourth line — Sean Kuraly , flanked by Zach Aston-Reese and Kevin Labanc — would lead the way.
That line scored two goals in 22 seconds, part of a dominating period overall, to give the slumping Blue Jackets a 2-0 lead over the Seattle Kraken in Climate Pledge Arena.
But that was just a tease. The scoring woes continue, especially for the Jackets' front-line talent, and the losing skid has now stretched to six games (0-5-1) with a 5-2 loss before 17,151. The Kraken scored five unanswered goals, four in the second period.
The Blue Jackets looked fast, aggressive and tenacious in the first period, much like they did in most of their games over the first two to three weeks of the season. But they looked like a completely different club in the second — shades of the 2023-24 Blue Jackets — when Seattle did most of its damage.
"We're trying to figure it out ourselves," Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. "We couldn't sustain it, for whatever reason. We lost a lot of battles in the second period. We lost foot races. We looked tired in the second period.
"There are a lot of positives in this game, but it's frustrating that we had the start we had and we can't close the deal."
Kuraly and Aston-Reese each had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets, while Labanc had two assists. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins , who could have napped during the first 10 minutes of the game, faced a barrage in the second period. He finished with 28 saves, 16 in the middle stanza.
The Blue Jackets haven't won a game since Oct. 30. They've won one road game all season, and that came on Oct. 12 — now more than a month ago — at Colorado.
But it's not as if they've been completely outplayed during that stretch. Far from it, actually. Tuesday's game marked the third time during this losing skid that the Blue Jackets have totaled 40 or more shots on goal, and the fifth time the Jackets outshot their opponent.
It's no coincidence that the Blue Jackets' fourth line scored the goals.
At 13:46 of the first, Kuraly had worked his way to the front of the net when Aston-Reese's soft wrister from the left circle caromed off Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord and landed behind him in the crease. Kuraly pounced for his second goal of the season.
As a sign of respect, Evason kept the fourth line out of the ensuing faceoff. Only 22 seconds later, Kuraly twisted and turned with the puck in the corner, then found space to rifle a puck in Aston-Reese's direction for a close-range deflection past Daccord.
Driving to the net. Battling for pucks in hard areas. Looking for rebounds and "greasy" goals. Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, there wasn't enough of that from other lines, which is why they scored fewer than two goals for the seventh straight game.
Making matters worse, the Blue Jackets collapsed defensively in the second, even though they knew Seattle was going to respond after a ragged first.
"It seems like for the last string of games, we're just taking one period off," Aston-Reese said. "It's just like these one-period lapses where we give up five or six odd-man rushes, a couple of grade-A (chances) ... we just shoot ourselves in the foot, and that makes it really hard to win.
"Sometimes we have to get the cuteness out of our game. We're trying to make lateral, east-west plays, and they're getting picked off and going the other way. Or it's a tough read on a pinch and we're giving up odd-man rushes."
Seattle scored three goals in the first 7:23 of the game, including two goals in just 10 seconds.
At 7:13, Brandon Tanev scored off a 2-on-1 rush to tie the score at 2. At 7:23, Eeli Tolvanen scored a power-play goal to give Seattle the lead. They made it 4-2 later in the period — another odd-man rush — when Will Borgen scored.
"That second period was not us," Kuraly said. "The first period was us.
"We knew they were going to come out strong. We knew they weren't just going to lay over at home. For us, we need to learn to manage the momentum. Live to fight another day on some shifts. There are times when a nothing shift is fine, just to calm everything down and punt it out."
The Blue Jackets spent the night in Seattle after the game, opting to fly home during the day to help keep their sleep schedules and body clocks synchronized. It will not be a fun flight home, however.
Next on the schedule is a Friday matchup in Nationwide Arena with another struggling club, the Pittsburgh Penguins , in a battle between two clubs at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division standings.
(Photo of Eeli Tolvanen scoring a power-play goal against Elvis Merzlikins: Steph Chambers / )
