That sound you heard emanating from the visitor’s locker room at Honda Center Monday night; that was the sound of bitter frustration. The Columbus Blue Jackets are a frustrated group and it’s easy to see why. Catching a Ducks club playing their first home game in two weeks and looking a little slow out of the gate, the Jackets got off to a fast start but again were undone by costly mistakes and would go on to lose 3 – 2 Monday. Once again the Jackets wasted a solid overall effort and it’s evident the losing is wearing on the players and coaches.
Columbus defenseman James Wisniewski was particularly succinct in his postgame comments. Here’s what the veteran defender had to say after the Jackets dropped for the sixth time in seven games.
"I'm sick of trying to look at it like a silver lining in the clouds. We lost."
The Jackets were the better team for the first half of period one and had several terrific chances on Jonas Hiller. Unfortunately the Jackets only got one past Hiller, who was making his first start in ten days. Vinny Prospal, stationed near the right goal post, got the Jackets on the board when a loose puck bounced off his chest and he was able to swat it into the net before Hiller could cover it up.
Columbus had several other opportunities to extend the lead but was unable to do so. Anaheim was uncharacteristically sloppy with the puck and looked slower than the Jackets. A better team would have jumped all over Anaheim and likely would have been up two or even three goals midway through the period but Columbus could only muster the Prospal marker before the Ducks turned things around.
Again it was a turnover and bad decision that led to a goal against. Skating 4-on-4, Derek Dorsett carried the puck into the offensive zone on the RW. He had the puck lifted right off his stick by Ducks D Ben Lovejoy and when Nikita Nikitin pinched in Bobby Ryan corralled the puck and fired a long pass up ice to Peter Holland, who had just exited the penalty box. Holland skated in alone on Bobrovsky and beat the Columbus net minder with a wrist shot to even the score.
The Ducks were back at it again just 21 seconds later with Ryan Getzlaf making the big play. Getzlaf shoved Derick Brassard off the puck in the offensive zone and forced it to the boards where Nikitin tried to a pass to a teammate. Getzlaf intercepted the pass and skated in toward goal. He fed the puck to Matt Malewsky who fired a shot on goal. Bob made the first save but as Getzlaf skated by the top of the crease his skate clipped the left pad of Bobrovsky and prevented him from having a chance to stop Getzlaf on the rebound. Nothing was called and they took a lead they would not relinquish.
It wasn’t much contact from Getzlaf but I’ve seen goals scored with that type of interference waved off with no penalty called and that could have been done in this case. It’s hard to fault the officials as I had to see the play twice on replay before I noticed the contact. It looked at regular speed that the Blue Jackets defender alone actually made contact with Bobrovsky.
The Ducks put the game away for all intents and purposes in the third with Corey Perry scoring on the PP 8:44 into the third period. Nick Drazenovic was whistled for interference when he and a Ducks player seemed to get tangled up and both going to the ice. I thought it was just a hockey play and no penalty should have been called. The refs obviously felt differently.
In truth it didn’t matter. When the play was whistled dead a Blue Jacket and Duck player were pushing and shoving each other along the boards near the benches and then Adrian Aucoin came over and delivered a two-handed shove to the back of the Ducks player knocking him to the ice. That easily could have warranted a roughing minor and would have resulted in a PP for the Ducks even had they not called Drazenovic.
The goal itself was one that Bobrovsky should have stopped. Perry had the puck on the LW and held it, shifted the back-hand and lifted it up and off Bobrovsky into the net. Bobrovsky left a gap between himself and the left post that Perry was able to exploit for the tally.
Brassard, who had many good chances throughout the contest, finally cashed in at the 12:06 mark to draw the Jackets within one. Despite manufacturing some chances down the stretch Columbus was unable to pot the tying goal and the Ducks skated away with the win despite being outplayed for much of the game.
Figuring out what’s wrong is the easy part; the hard part is fixing what’s wrong. The Jackets are making too many mistakes and they aren’t good enough to overcome those errors when they end up in the back of their net. They also aren’t good enough to capitalize fully when their opponents make mistakes. It’s not a good recipe for success. The Jackets have to play near perfect hockey to win games and that hasn’t happened often this season.
Every season starts with hope but that hope is quickly dwindling for Columbus. The hiring of Jarmo Kekalainen couldn’t have come at a better time. He’s certainly going to have his work cut out for him.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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