The Columbus Blue Jackets are officially in the grind of the 2023-24 season. Dec. 16’s contest against the New Jersey Devils marked their 32nd of the campaign. Heading into it, the Jackets were the second-last team in Eastern Conference standings. These are exactly the types of games that are hard to get motivated for and immature teams can have difficulty showing urgency.
That’s pretty much exactly what happened with the Blue Jackets, as they got behind early and were never able to assert themselves afterward. Devils’ star Jack Hughes scored 47 seconds into play and New Jersey let the peddle off the floor, maintaining a firm hand on possession. The two sides traded goals including two more from Hughes for his second career hat trick, including an empty netter to cement a 6-3 win.
Things weren’t all bad for the Jackets, and it wasn’t even their worst performance of the week. While they were close at times, bringing the score to within one on two separate occasions, they were simply outmatched by an all-around better team.
Some highlights from the game include a powerplay goal, staying disciplined by taking only two penalties, and a much-needed goal from the struggling Alexandre Texier. Aside from those, let’s have a look at three takeaways from the Blue Jackets’ loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Blue Jackets’ Russian Line Remain Hot
It’s time we come up with a fun nickname for the Blue Jackets Russian line because the combination of Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Voronkov, and Yegor Chinakhov has been by far the team’s most consistent line over the last several games. Some fun suggestions I’ve seen are the Blue Curtain, the Goalsheviks, the Red Jackets, the Kremlin Gremlins… I could go on forever. Regardless of what we’re calling them, they have been fantastic together, and they were again in this one.
Let’s start with Chinakhov, the man who made even the most learned prospect pundit scratch their head in wonder during the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. He has bounced around between the NHL and AHL throughout his three seasons in North America, but finally stumbled onto some success. He was crucial to the Jackets’ power-play goal, despite not being credited with an assist, and then scored a second goal for his fifth goal and seventh point in the last four games.
Marchenko is starting to heat up as well after a bit of a sophomore slump to start the season. He’s had four points in his last five games and used his lethal shot to score the team’s first goal of the night. Voronkov balances the two so well, making space out there for them with his big frame and chipping in on the scoreboard where he can.
This line is finally starting to get the ice time it has warranted since it was assembled as the team’s most impactful group. Saturday’s game had all three members among the top five in ice time. Marchenko led the way with 20:52, followed by Chinakhov with 19:20, and Voronkov was fifth with 17:42. They have been the team’s hot hand as of late. Looking forward, it will be interesting to see how long they can sustain the flame of this hot streak.
Daniil Tarasov Returns
The game was also a return to play for young netminder Daniil Tarasov, who had missed the first 30 games of the season with a knee injury. He was not tasked with an easy foe in the New Jersey Devils, who came into the game with a 7-3-0 record in their last ten games.
Related: It’s Time for Blue Jackets’ Tarasov to Take the Next Step
He took on the division rival and was shelled, allowing five of the six goals against. You could make a case that four of the five goals were the fault of shoddy defending and elite passing and shooting from the Devils. As for the other, the Tyler Toffoli wrist shot goal was from a distance without any traffic in front of the net. It was a tough goal that even the best goalie has let sneak through at some point in their career.
When you break it down, most of the Devil’s goals capitalized on poor lateral movement across the crease from Tarasov. That could be indicative of just shaking some of the rust off, getting used to putting more pressure onto his once-injured knee. Time will tell if that continues to be an issue for the young Russian or if he can get it together and start to develop into the difference-maker that the Jackets sorely need in the blue paint.
Gaudreau Hits 700 Points & Has A Major Gaffe
Last but not least, we had a career milestone hit in Saturday’s affair. It has been a tough start to the season for the player with the highest cap hit in the Blue Jackets’ franchise history. Regardless, Johnny Gaudreau played merely okay in this game against his home state’s team – scoring his 700th career point in his 714th career game.
Just as this season has gone, in this game, Gaudreau had far more downs than ups. His assist on the Marchenko goal was overshadowed by an egregious turnover on the first shift of the game. His outlet pass went tape-to-tape with Devils’ Toffoli, who quickly chipped it ahead to Hughes on a mini-breakaway. It was the first shot against Tarasov in an NHL game since March and clearly started him off on the wrong foot.
The turnover overshadowed Gaudreau’s milestone and was brought up several times in the team’s post-game media session. Head Coach Pascal Vincent was succinct in his response to the turnover. He said, “That’s a mistake. We hold our players accountable, and he knows that’s something we can’t do.”
Gaudreau said, “I saw a blue shirt on the far side. He kind of backed off, [Toffoli] picked it off, and it ended up in our net. It’s a bad turnover, it’s part of hockey, but I felt bad. It was [Tarasov’s] first shot back from six or seven months, however long it’s been, on a breakaway. I feel bad for him. It’s on me, and I’ll try not to do it again.”
Gaudreau’s struggles continue to be a storyline for this season, and his production has definitely taken a hit since he left the Calgary Flames for Ohio. Since coming to Columbus, he’s scored 91 points in 112 games, which is still 24 points shy of his 115-point production in his last single season in Alberta. And so, the learning curve for Gaudreau continues.
Up next for the Blue Jackets is an away game against the similarly struggling Buffalo Sabres, who have also been 4-5-1 in their last ten games, before a two-game homestand against the Washington Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leafs. They now sit nine points out of a wildcard spot, which very well could be an insurmountable margin as we near the halfway mark of the season.
