Blue Jackets get Shutout to Start Homestand

Blue Jackets Get Shutout to Start Homestand

By Grant Burkhardt

With 30-or-so games to go, the Blue Jackets are slumping. CBJ are just 7-9-1 since the end of the 16-game win streak, , and while the team is still second in the Metropolitan Division, in fine standing for the playoffs, things are getting difficult for the young Jackets.

[su_pullquote]But now, deep in the slog of a long NHL regular schedule, the Jackets seem to have hit a block.[/su_pullquote]

Thursday night against the struggling Vancouver Canucks would have been a great time for the Jackets to re-establish themselves as the explosive, irresistible offensive force that they were at the start of the season. Instead, the result was a 3-0 loss to the Canucks, which had lost four in a row entering the game. Few of the 33 shots on net bothered Vancouver’s Ryan Miller at all. It was a flat performance from start-to-finish. Even when a few Jackets decided to scrap in front of Miller’s net – a lazy tactic to “prove” you’re interested in the game – it didn’t mask the fact that it had been a lifeless performance. That’s only surprising because this has often been one of the league’s most energy-infused teams, full of confidence and goals.

But now, deep in the slog of a long NHL regular schedule, the Jackets seem to have hit a block. CBJ hasn’t scored a power play goal since January 22, and teams are adjusting their gameplans. The CBJ power play is still the league’s best, but it isn’t getting the reps they were in December. Opponents are taking fewer penalties against the Jackets (Jan. 22 is also the last time the Jackets had more than two power plays in a game).

Some of the joy and passion is misplaced around Nationwide Arena at the moment, but that’s bound to happen along the way in an 82-game season. Cam Atkinson hinted at it a bit after the game Thursday, saying, “We shouldn’t be taking any teams lightly. These are huge games.”

CBJ has six games left on this homestead. Saturday the Red Wings are in town – the Jackets should have no problem getting emotionally invested in that one after the classic OT win on Tuesday in Detroit – and still have plenty of time to steady the ship and comfortably make the playoffs, but 7-9-1 isn’t a record that will cut it for the next two months. Every other night is a new test, each as formidable as the next. This is the NHL, after all, where even a below-.500 team like the Canucks have an Olympian goaltender and the skill to beat you.

It’s understandable, really, for the league’s youngest team, many of them going through their first high-stakes NHL season, to have a lull. But what it proves is that the Blue Jackets didn’t make as large a leap as we thought they might have from last season to this one. They’re still the unknown commodity in the Eastern Conference – the fast, scrappy combination of young guys and veterans still has plenty of prove.

Photo via Blue Jackets Twitter, Grant Burkhardt is a writer and podcast producer here in Columbus. Talk puck with him on Twitter at @grantburkhardt.

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