After a shutout loss in Toronto last night, the Columbus Blue Jackets stayed in Ontario and faced the Ottawa Senators on a less than 24 hour turnaround. To juice the offense, Yegor Chinakhov finally made his return to the lineup, and the top 6 was shuffled with Sean Monahan and Adam Fantilli trading lines.
Alas, it wasn’t enough as the Blue Jackets once again failed to find the back of the net. In the first four months of the season, the Jackets were shut out just three times. Since early March, the Jackets have now been shutout 6 times in 15 games.
Things went bad early with an Adam Gaudette goal two-and-a-half minutes into the game. Erik Gudbranson was in the way, but couldn’t block the shot. Definite pylon moment.
Two minutes later, Finnish defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo scored his first career NHL goal. Once again, Gudbranson and Johnson were on the ice. It’s not clear to me what the defensive structure was trying to accomplish here. Neither the defenders nor the forwards seemed to be where they needed to be. The result was no one actually helping to defend the crease.
After allowing 2 goals on 6 shots in just under 4.5 minutes, Dean Evason had seen enough of Daniil Tarasov. Despite playing last night and coming in cold in this one, Elvis Merzlikins actually played quite well for the remainder of the first and second periods, keeping the Senators from extending their lead in that time.
The Jackets woke up a bit, outshooting the Senators 9-8 or the remainder of the period. The bottom pair was still atrocious, but the Voronkov/Fantilli/Marchenko and JVR/Danforth/Kuraly lines were overwhelmed too.
In the second period, the Jackets won the possession battle but lost in shot quality. Neither team produced much quality against the goalies in that frame.
The third period featured a push from the Jackets, with half of their expected goals from the game coming in the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately, only the Senators actually scored. David Perron got a rebound goal after a Drake Batherson shot deflected off of Elvis. Perron just outbattled Zach Werenski in front of the net and used that leverage to get to the puck.
Shane Pinto scored a 200 foot empty net goal, but credit to the Jackets for finally creating some better chances. A unit of Danforth/Olivier/Jenner/Sillinger/Provorov/Mateychuk kept possession for over a minute.
Final Thoughts
I thought it was unfair to pull Tarasov that early. Evason has been loath this season to change goalies in the middle of a game. Now he has done it a couple of times in the last week. The issue was the defense. As Dale said in our writer’s chat, not even Dominik Hasek could play behind the 3/44 defensive pair. I would have preferred to see Tarasov battle through it. That being said, Elvis was outstanding under the circumstances. He faced 23 shots in 53 minutes and allowed just one goal. I also appreciate that after the game, Elvis did not blame the skaters for the loss – and he would have been justified in doing so! He said that he knew they were playing hard.
While many of you want Elvis gone over the summer, I expect that it will be most practical to keep him. Tarasov is an RFA so will almost certainly be traded or non-tendered. I’m not saying that Elvis should be the incumbent starter, mind you. It could be an open battle between him and Jet Greaves.
More importantly is changing a lot about how this defense looks. Some of it will be internal progression, as the defenders (and the forwards) get more comfortable executing Evason’s system. The other part of that is turning over a big portion of the defensive corps. Ivan Provorov is a UFA and likely will hit the open market. Jack Johnson is also a UFA and will not be re-signed. Jordan Harris is an RFA and doesn’t seem to fit. At least one of Damon Severson (a healthy scratch again tonight) and Erik Gudbranson may also be removed via trade or buyout. That’s especially tricky for Severson with six years remaining on his contract, but it’s clear his coaches do not have faith in him.
Up Next
These two squads face off for the final time on Tuesday, this time back in Nationwide Arena.