Ouch.
There are bad losses and then there is what the Columbus Blue Jackets did on Monday night against the Boston Bruins.
The Blue Jackets lost 7-2 and the game was never particularly close. They gave up multiple odd-man rushes and often hung out goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky out to dry.
The team will get to bounce back quickly against the Toronto Maple Leafs but for now, they're going to be licking their wounds trying to find answers to a whole bevy of questions.
Poor Effort
"I think we quit on Bob there at the end, too. And that's not right. That's not respectful to him," said Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois.
It is a cliche that gets used so often that it loses its meaning but the Blue Jackets put on a poor overall effort. There isn't a player on the team that didn't disappoint at some point during the game.
On a night to night basis, singling out certain players not caring or disinterested is unfair to the athletes that play the game, but collective efforts like this are hard to miss. When they're backed up by the players themselves, even better.
The Blue Jackets had no excuse to come out as flat as they did against the Bruins, especially after losing to the Hurricanes over the weekend.
Power Play Head-Scratcher
The Blue Jackets ended the game with a power play goal, but the lack of a meaningful power play when the game matters is befuddling. The team has talented players, each of them have performed at a high level during their careers. No one can be singled out as weak offensively and yet, there is nothing there.
The play goes around the outside of the zone and nothing incisive ever takes place. They are either too tentative or too plodding with their play to set up anything of substance; it makes sense that they scored when they did because they actually had nothing left to play for.
They need to be better in this area of the game or they won't have a chance to play in May, let alone April.
Who/What Is This Defense?
Everyone who watches the Blue Jackets and anyone who watches hockey knows that the Blue Jackets have had two solid pairings this season.
Jack Johnson and David Savard's names are nowhere to be found in the "solid" category.
With Ryan Murray out injured, the Blue Jackets have had to try and find two other pairings that work. They haven't found anything outside of Markus Nutivaara and it is becoming abundantly clear that strong years from Johnson and Savard in 2016-17 were an outlier rather than a certainty.
This Blue Jackets loss is especially bad because of how damn listless they looked. Basic fundamentals are being lost nearly half way through the season. Full team loss. #CBJ
— SB (@Sam_Blazer) December 19, 2017
Savard was near the bottom of the shot differential category and Johnson was near the top, but neither can be relied upon past a sheltered role. The more they got trotted out against top competition, the worse off the team will be.
Leadership Giving More Questions Than Answers
Boone Jenner and Nick Foligno are relied upon to be the emotional center of this team. This has been known for a while, especially when the two are talked about in unison, where they go, the team goes.
Intangible talk is like talking about fairy dust, it is supposed to be able to bring a magical element to everyone's game but at the end of the day, it is supposed to bring a tangible element to the stat sheet. That can be goals, assists or heck, even hits.
Players aren't leading by example and are a microcosm of what the team has been this season, wildly inconsistent.
Run Support For Bobrovsky
The Blue Jackets aren't going to win most nights when they give up seven goals, but that doesn't change the fact that the team has a scoring problem. Outside of the first line, there isn't much to be had and it is a big, big issue.
Putting offensive pressure on other teams is important and when you don't even put up 20 shots on goal in a game, you're not going to win many games. These type of games along with shootout wins and losses are going to run a goalie into the ground.
Changing the pace of the game is as easy as putting a shot on net. Why it alludes the Blue Jackets suddenly is a troubling, troubling question.
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