The Columbus Blue Jackets visited the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night to continue their California road trip following an entertaining win against the San Jose Sharks. On Saturday (Feb. 17), they found a way to win but against the Kings, the Blue Jackets found a way to lose convincingly.
Gaudreau’s Goal Drought Continues
2024 has not been a great year so far for Johnny Gaudreau. He’s showing up on the scoresheet on a regular basis, but not in the way he’d want since the calendar changed over. The last time he scored a goal was on Dec. 29 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He went the entire month of January without finding the back of the net, and now it seems that the same may occur in February. It’s certainly not for a lack of trying though. We discussed his three breakaways and overturned goal against the Sharks earlier this week, but the same trend continued into Tuesday’s matchup.
In the first period, Gaudreau thought he had finally gotten the monkey off of his back, but it was once again challenged and overturned. On Saturday, his goal was overturned because Boone Jenner had strayed offside. Tuesday, it was overturned because Jenner pushed Brandt Clarke into Cam Talbot and it was ruled goaltender interference. This moment would become even more notable when Quinton Byfield scored a goal-of-the-year candidate to make it 1-0 in favor of the Kings later in the period.
The Blue Jackets got one back though, as Drew Doughty seemingly scored near the end of the second period to make it 4-1. Head coach Pascal Vincent challenged the play for goaltender interference and it was overturned, this time in favor of the Blue Jackets, as Doughty’s skate had collided with Elvis Merzlikins.
Boqvist Breaks Through
Adam Boqvist has had a turbulent year with the Blue Jackets. He’s been in and out of the lineup both due to injury and as a healthy scratch, he’s consistently been in trade rumors and there’s been no certainty about what the future has in store for the 23-year-old defenseman. As an offensive-minded defenseman, you would expect him to find the back of the net somewhat regularly albeit nowhere near the same level as a skilled forward. While he’s been able to put some assists on the board, it had been nearly a full calendar year without a goal for him. The last time he scored was in March 2023, but on a bit of a broken play, Boqvist joined the rush, pinched forward behind the net, and banked it in off the backside of Talbot.
It wasn’t the type of highly-skilled play you’d expect from someone who is as highly touted as Boqvist, who was once compared to Erik Karlsson in his draft year, but a goal is a goal and it can only help his confidence moving forward. He still has tons of potential, which occasionally shines through, but if he’s unable to remain healthy in the long run, he risks his career taking a similar path to the Blue Jackets’ former number 27, Ryan Murray, who also had very high potential but was unable to reach it due to injuries.
Even More Deja-Vu
Strangely, the first two games of the California road trip have had even more similarities than just Gaudreau having a goal overturned. On Saturday, Anthony Duclair, a former member of the Blue Jackets who left under less-than-ideal circumstances, scored two goals against his former team. Tuesday, history once again repeated itself as Pierre-Luc Dubois, whose departure from the Blue Jackets is pretty well documented at this point, scored two goals himself.
Special Teams Struggles
The Blue Jackets’ special teams got quite a few opportunities late in the game, but they went terribly. The penalty kill gave up a goal to Dubois pretty quickly during the second period, and when it got called upon again in the third, they generated a couple of shorthanded scoring chances but ultimately surrendered a goal to Kevin Fiala to make it 4-1 in favor of the Kings.
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Meanwhile, the power play sustained some offensive zone time and created some chances when Matt Roy got sent to the box near the end of the second period, but a bad pass by Boqvist took them out of the zone, and then Gaudreau lost the puck when trying to bring it back in as time expired for the second period. They were unable to sustain pressure when they resumed the man advantage at the start of the third and ended up finishing without a shot on goal. Their second opportunity on the power play was slightly more successful, they recorded a shot on goal but were unable to make the most of it. It did create a third chance with the man advantage though, as Trevor Lewis took a delay of game penalty in the dying moments of the second power play but the Kings killed it off once again.
Overall, this was a game that the Blue Jackets deserved to lose. They were outplayed, specifically when it came to special teams, and seemed to fall apart late in the game. There’s no doubt that the Kings were the better team, and they deserved to sweep the season series.
