It's time to regroup.
That's what head coach Dean Evason and his team are looking to do after its 3-1 defeat to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
"It's on all of us," head coach Dean Evason said after Saturday's loss. "If we're not ready to play, it's on me, it's on the coaches, it's on the players ... Yeah, there was one guy ready to go, and that was our goaltender.
"If (Daniil Tarasov) wasn't ready it should have been probably 6-0 after the first period. He was outstanding.
"A lot of guys played a lot of hockey, but who cares, it's not that hard."
"Who cares, it's not that hard."– Blue jackets head coach Dean Evason
A game like Saturday's was bound to happen, even though both Evason and Zach Werenski shared similar sentiments about not letting it happen again.
"We have a standard now on how we have to play," Werenski said. "We've done that for four games, and tonight we weren't there.
"We're going to learn from it, and we're going to move on, and we're not going to let it happen again."
The Blue Jackets are getting tested on the injury front to their club only five games in but that's not an excuse for the team.
"We didn't work hard enough tonight," Werenski said. "I think everyone can do that, and I thought we lacked that from the start, myself included. It starts with me."
Saturday's game was the first without Kent Johnson, who has started the season hot with points in four straight (two goals, three assists), and now faces what sounds like an extended absence after leaving Thursday's game following a flukey collision with a teammate. Evason would not share much detail but said the injury for Johnson "was not short term."
Considering the team's plight, short on depth, and now being tested on that front with numerous injuries stacking up, tests like Tuesday's game against the Maple Leafs are a great opportunity to see how this team responds. Saturday's game was Evason's first lineup featuring the 11-forward, seven-defenseman alignment.
Over the last few seasons, it felt like once adversity struck, the dominos came crashing down.
In Monday's practice, the Blue Jackets broke up their first line, likely trying to find out what other combos can work in an effort to spread out the offense ahead of Tuesday's matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
#CBJ lines this morning feature a few changes
— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) October 21, 2024
Sillinger-Monahan-Marchenko
Pyyhtia-Fantilli-Chinakhov
ZAR-Danforth-Olivier
JVR-Kuraly-Labanc
Werenski-Provorov
Christiansen-Severson
Johnson-Jiricek
Harris
We'll see if these lines stick and how long these combos could be together. The Maple Leafs won in Monday's lone game on the schedule over the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2.
