Columbus Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner scored a goal late in the second period of Sunday night's 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, and the Columbus Blue Jackets spent the next 20:35 completely unable to match the press that came.
Brad Marchand's third-period hat trick ended up being the difference, as the Bruins' captain scored two power-play goals that seemed inevitable. After all, even with a top-ranked penalty-killing unit, giving an elite team like the Bruins six power play opportunities was the exact type of fate tempting that seems to haunt this young team.
Coincidentally, it was a week ago today that I wrote about how this team consistently struggles to close out third-period leads, as though the opposition can sense a tightening sphincter blood in the water. And as that article suggested, it's only worth the pain if the team can actually learn from these experiences. Small sample size, a young team, I get it... but it's clear that the team is repeating its mistakes again and again.
It's worth noting that, while these blown leads are frustrating, they are happening against the NHL's elite. The Carolina Hurricanes are tied for the ninth most points in the league, and the Bruins and New York Rangers rank second and first, respectively. That's the upper echelon of the NHL, and frankly, they are doing what they are supposed to do - playing their best hockey during the high-leverage moments of a game.
After watching the same movie many times over the first 26 games, my working theory is that the club's top players - Johnny Gaudreau, Patrik Laine, Zach Werenski, etc. - are offensive-minded and simply not difficult to play against (note: that description does not apply to Jenner, who has less offensive talent than his peers but manages to produce far more). Some of that is the nature of where this team is in its lifecycle - it's not hard to imagine this team in its fully formed version being much more difficult to play against when players like Adam Fantilli, David Jiricek, Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Voronkov, etc. are fully formed.
For example, the tying goal came against a five-man unit of Jenner, Gaudreau, Kent Johnson, Werenski, and Adam Boqvist. Should we be all that surprised that this unit was unable to track Marchand on a fairly pedestrian entry rush play? Talented, no doubt, but defensively responsible and difficult to play against? Not quite.
63 strikes again. pic.twitter.com/RpubIapoVe
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 4, 2023
The hope is that the team is learning from these experiences and that there's no substitute for time. But it's easy to understand why anyone and everyone - from the players in the locker room, the coaches/front office, and fans alike - would be skeptical.
