Blue Jackets Self-Inflicted Loss to Panthers Exposes Major Discipline Issues

If games only consisted of the first period, the Columbus Blue Jackets would be one of the best teams in the NHL in the early going. Because as soon as that second period starts, they haven’t had answers of late.

On Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers, the Blue Jackets got exposed thanks to costly mistakes and ongoing discipline issues. The Tkachuk brothers made them pay in a big way with Brady getting a hat trick and Matthew assisting on all of those goals.

Panthers 7, Blue Jackets 3.

Normally, a loss in Game 5 of the season won’t instill panic. Charlie Coyle said as much postgame. The issue here though is that the kind of mistakes that are happening if left untreated could wreck a season before it even begins.

That’s why the next set of games takes on a certain level of importance. It’s all about the response. The mistakes have happened. The penalties have happened. Now what are they going to do about it?

We will learn a lot about the makeup of this team through this next stretch. Was Tuesday night just another ho hum loss? Or will it be the catalyst to something better? It only becomes something better if the team turns Tuesday’s embarrassing result into motivation to overcome this.

Costly Mistakes & Undisciplined Play

What adds a level of frustration for the Blue Jackets is that they do start well in games. Their first periods the last two games have seen them outscore their opponents 3-0.

But the Blue Jackets’ second periods the last two games? They’ve been outscored 7-0. They have yet to show they’ve been able to withstand a push by the opposition in the middle frame.

In St. Louis, it was the Ross Johnston/Mathieu Olivier fight. On Tuesday, it was a costly turnover that led to the Panthers first goal.

The Blue Jackets have taken six penalties in the second period the last two games. Six. This excludes the fight and any offsetting minors. Two in St. Louis including a ridiculous too many men call when they were about to get a power play. Then four on Tuesday including Olivier’s game misconduct for slashing.

The Blue Jackets took the game’s last four penalties of Tuesday night. Damon Severson was dinged twice over the course of the evening. These kinds of things continue to haunt the team as they try to find their footing.

To make matters worse, the Blue Jackets aren’t able to kill off their undisciplined mistakes. They have now allowed seven power play goals against in 18 shorthanded tries, an abysmal 61.1% kill rate. They allowed the Panthers to score four power-play goals against.

Locker Room Reaction

For Olivier, the penalties is what sticks out to him.

“It’s a common mistake that happens on the first goal,” Olivier said. “Shouldn’t have knocked us off our game, but kind of did a little bit and we just never bounced back from that. I go back to the penalties. I think that had a big part of tonight for sure.”

Olivier said postgame he apologized to his teammates for the slash on Uvis Balinskis. He took full accountability for the play.

“I apologize to my teammates for putting them in that spot and it’s happened a couple times this year. It’s usually not what I do, but it’s been happening, so I need to look in the mirror and figure it out. That’s all on me.”

Head coach Rick Bowness didn’t hold back when asked to reflect on the game.

“You have to hope, you got to believe that performance tonight will embarrass them enough to stop this, right? Because if they’re not embarrassed by that, we don’t want them on the team. It’s as simple as that.”

Bowness believes the issues are fixable. But only time will tell if Tuesday’s game got the Blue Jackets’ full attention.

“I believe in them,” Bowness said. “And I believe we can fix the problems. That all being said, if that doesn’t get their attention, they’re on the wrong team. It’s as simple as that and we’ll find out over time, right? So we’ll go back to work tomorrow. We’ll address the issues we don’t like.”

If the Blue Jackets are going to overcome this, it’s going to have to be up to them to do it.

“I’m not a babysitter. I’m too old to be a babysitter for these guys. You’re a professional athlete. Prepare yourself to play properly. Prepare yourself to play with some discipline … These penalties are completely, completely unnecessary. I don’t think I saw a good penalty tonight at all. Usually when you take a good penalty, you can kill it. When you take a selfish penalty, then you don’t.”

“All right, let’s move on. Don’t make it worse. We made it worse,” Bowness said.

The Blue Jackets now have to face the red-hot New York Rangers on Saturday night and then have to travel to Minnesota for a Sunday evening game with the Wild. If they’re not careful, 2-3-0 could become 2-5-0 which would force them to play catchup early in the season.

The Blue Jackets need a major response. They have three off days to try to find one. There have been some good moments canceled out by their prevailing issues with mistakes and penalties.

This situation should cause the Blue Jackets to lock in and focus. Otherwise, tougher questions will need to be asked much sooner in the season than anyone wanted.