Seth Jones made his return to the lineup, but it was not enough for the Blue Jackets who fell 4-1 to the Arizona Coyotes. Things started off well for the Jackets with Pierre-Luc Dubois scoring only 31 into the game, but it was all downhill from there.
The Jackets looked pretty bad against an Arizona team that’s on the upswing but is still far from being an upper echelon team in the league. The Jackets play was, at times, awful – they couldn’t get anything going, they struggled to complete passes, and they looked flat.
Here are tonight’s Three Things:
Sergei Bobrovsky...
In Sam Blazer's Three Things from Saturday night, he asked “when should you worry about Bob?” I think the worrying should begin. Sergei Bobrovsky is not right, and so far, he’s played like one of the worst goalies in the league.
Sergei Bobrovsky has the NHL's worst goals saved above average rate among regular starters. This is what that looks like on a shots map. Looks like too many goals from the high slot... pic.twitter.com/SgIxurhr03
— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) October 23, 2018
And this was before allowing four goals tonight. The Jackets need to figure out what is going on with Bobrovsky, whether it’s something physical or something between the ears. If it means sitting Bobrovsky for a few games, so be it. Joonas Korpisalo has played pretty well and he deserves a shot while Bobrovsky sorts through whatever's holding him back.
Seth Jones Returns
The Blue Jackets' No. 1 defender is back – and there was no easing him in. He played 27:24, the most minutes from any player on either team, and showed little rust. He put up four shots and had a 63.04% Corsi at 5-on-5 while playing mostly with Zach Werenski (though he spent some time shuffling around). David Savard was on the third pairing with Dean Kukan and they had an off night. It’s going to take a couple games for the defense to find that chemistry as they'd missed Jones for almost a month.
Artemi Panarin: Off Night
Panarin drives the play for the Blue Jackets, and when he’s off, the whole team is off. He registered five shots and played 18:53 tonight, but something was off about his game. He didn’t seem as dangerous as usual and as a result, the Jackets weren’t able to create much offense. He turned the puck over a couple times, which is not typical from him.
This was definitely just a one-off for Panarin, but it goes to show what he does for this team. The Jackets have good depth, but everything starts at the top.
