COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s not the uniforms.
The Blue Jackets wore their red “reverse retro” jerseys for a second time and lost again, badly, but their 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena had nothing to do with their color scheme. The guys wearing those uniforms are the actual issue, as the Jackets continue to stumble through this season without any sort of consistency.
“Zero concentration,” coach John Tortorella said, forced to discuss an issue that has plagued his team most of the season. “I don’t even remember the other years (we’ve struggled). I’m kind of wrapped up into this one here. Teams have struggles, things come into play … I don’t know what happened the other years. Right now, concentration or the lack thereof is a big problem with this club.”
The Blue Jackets’ struggles this season, especially in their own zone, are starting to feel like they’re just playing the same games over and over. The only thing that’s changed with any regularity are the uniforms, which is where the Jackets’ choice of threads actually does count for something.
Otherwise, it’s the same plot every game. No matter what team they face, the Jackets get trapped in their own zone for long stretches, can’t close out opposing puck-carriers and then turn a lot of pucks over while scrambling just to exit the zone.
Tortorella calls it “chunking pucks off” off the shin guards of opposing forecheckers or settling for “flipper” plays along the walls just trying to get the puck into the neutral zone for a shift change. That is happening far too often and the Predators – a team that was 4-10-0 in its previous 14 games — were the latest team to thrive off it.
Calle Jarnkrok scored two goals, including one on a power play, and the other two were scored by Filip Forsberg and Colton Sissons — who all capitalized a strong forecheck that either led to scoring opportunities or penalties that put Nashville on the power play.
Jarnkrok and Forsberg scored 29 seconds apart to start the third period, both goals scored less than a minute into it, and the Predators surged to a 4-2 lead — capitalizing on a costly turnover and poor coverage in the Columbus zone.
“The two goals are just … they’re free,” Tortorella said. “It’s just an egregious turnover that causes the first one. Really, it was just a turnover. It wasn’t like it was a forced turnover. And the second (goal), we just get it spanked 1-on-1. And there’s your two goals.”
Things also got worse for the Blue Jackets at 2:40, when goalie Elvis Merzlikins (35 saves) sustained an injury while making an acrobatic save. During a sprawl to stop a shot by Matt Duchene, his left arm got caught underneath his body and twisted awkwardly.
After dropping back to the ice in the crease, he left the game with his left arm held close to his body. Joonas Korpisalo finished the game, making six saves.
Boone Jenner and Gabriel Carlsson scored the goals for the Blue Jackets, who trailed 2-0 after being dominated for 17 of the 20 minutes in the first period. Columbus held an early 5-2 edge in shots, but Nashville finished the period with a 14-1 advantage in shots and led after goals by Jarnkrok and Sissons.
The Jackets finally got off the mat in the second, pulling even at 2-2 on the goals by Jenner and Carlsson 1:42 apart, but it took another dicey situation to spark the two-goal flurry.
Jenner cut it to 2-1 at 3:46, scoring shorthanded with a deflection of a pass from Scott Harrington, and the Jackets climbed right back in the game thanks to their fourth shorthanded goal of the season.
The goal turned into a bigger momentum shift quickly, after Carlsson’s goal tied it 2-2 less than two minute later. Spotting forward Oliver Bjorkstrand with the puck on the opposite side of the ice, Carlsson pinched low to the bottom half of the left face-off circle and tapped in Bjorkstrand’s cross-ice feed at 5:28 for the first goal of his NHL career.
It capped a big day for Carlsson, who last played 365 days earlier for the Cleveland Monsters in the American Hockey League.
The Blue Jackets, however, still had their hands full with the Predators. Nashville finished the second period strong too, putting a ton of pressure on Merzlikins and forcing the Blue Jackets’ goalie to come up with a number of huge saves to keep it tied.
The Predators, who outshot the Blue Jackets 45-23 overall, had a 19-10 edge in shots during the second period and took commanding advantages in shots (35-16) and attempts (59-27) into the third — when Jarnkrok and Forsberg broke the 2-2 tie quickly.
“We just can’t put a 60-minutes together at the moment,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “We battled back to make it 2-2 and kind of reset our minds — and wanted to come out and have a good period. And we let up those two in the first (minute). It’s hard to come back after that.”
