The Columbus Blue Jackets won an exciting game on Friday night to climb back into the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. This is despite just one regulation win since March 1.
The race for the last playoff spot is up for grabs. The Blue Jackets are tied with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers with 75 points while the New York Islanders are just a point behind. The Detroit Red Wings are only three points back.
The holder of the final playoff spot is expected to change hands several times between now and the end of the season. The team that strings wins together will give themselves a leg up for that spot.
If the Blue Jackets want to be that last playoff team, there is one part of their game that they must fix fast. They will get a chance Saturday night in Ottawa to do just that.
Back-to-Back Struggles
The Blue Jackets have not fared well in the second game of back-to-backs all season. While the Blue Jackets are a respectable 4-3-2 in the first game in those situations, they are just 1-8-0 in the second game. Their only win came back on Jan 31, a 3-2 overtime win against the Utah Hockey Club. Only the Seattle Kraken have it worse with an 0-11-0 record on the second half of back-to-backs.
The Blue Jackets have had the strange oddity that every second game has been on the road. But that doesn’t excuse them from the very poor play they’ve had. Here are the results of the nine second games of back-to-back this season. The numbers clearly speak for themselves.
- Nov 2: 7-2 loss to the Washington Capitals.
- Nov 10: 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
- Nov 16: 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
- Dec 6: 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
- Dec 15: 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
- Dec 28: 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins.
- Jan 23: 7-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
- Jan 31: 3-2 OT win over the Utah Hockey Club.
- Mar 21: 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Seven of the eight losses have been by three goals or more. The opposition has the first goal in seven of the nine games. Couple that with the Blue Jackets’ recent struggles with starts and it’s a tall mountain to climb. The Senators are at home waiting for the Blue Jackets.
This week, we posed the same question to both head coach Dean Evason and defenseman Ivan Provorov. How do they try to fix this disturbing trend in their game? In their own way, they each said the same thing.
Simplify
“Just to simplify in those games and not shoot ourselves early, not get down early, not have to chase the game,” Evason said. “And when we’ve had success or had chances to have success in games like that, we’ve stayed in games. We’ve hung around especially if it’s been on the road.”
“But having said that, we didn’t like our start the other night. We turn too many over early. The shot totals were very lopsided though the first period and the third period. It was real good for us but we have to start properly. That doesn’t mean scoring goals. It just means playing right and playing simple and not turning pucks over to allow teams to not only score and get up on us, but get momentum in those hockey games. Moving forward, that’s something that we’ll stress obviously every night.”
Like Evason, Provorov pointed to the need for better starts to games.
“Honestly, tough to say,” Provorov said. “I feel like for the most part this year besides the back-to-backs, we’ve been playing our game. I think in some of them, we deserve better but some of them, we definitely didn’t come out the way we should have.”
“I think it’s just getting into it right away from the first minutes. A lot of those I think were on the road. It’s just us being able to make sure that the game on the road has to be a little bit more simpler. It’s nice at home scoring a lot and winning those, 6-2, 6-1 games. But I think on the road, our mentality has to be more going in there and trying to win a 2-1, 3-2 game. So I think that’s the biggest takeaway from what didn’t work for us in other (back-to-backs.)”
Not only have turnovers wrecked the Blue Jackets, it’s been where the turnovers have happened. They’ve been big enough that it’s led to goals against. Trying to chase the game when physical and mental fatigue is present makes it that much harder to win.
For the Blue Jackets to get a big win Saturday night, they need to simplify. Get pucks deep when they can. Complete passes to get out of their zone. Then let their system take over from there but not overcomplicating anything.
The Blue Jackets have three more sets of back-to-back this season. Finding success in those games could go a long way for them in trying to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season.