The Blue Jackets left Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night with far more than another loss. They walked out to a building full of boos, a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and another reminder that the problem isn’t one moment or one period. It’s the whole operation.
When the final horn sounded, “Go Leafs Go” was ringing through the arena.
Charlie Coyle didn’t hide how he felt afterward.
“It’s just stuff we need to figure out right now. Stuff we should have figured out weeks ago.”
That frustration came after Columbus stumbled through the same script that has haunted it before. The Blue Jackets were good enough early to hang around, then got buried when the game tilted in the second period.
It happened again Tuesday, just as it had the previous week against another opponent on the second night of a back-to-back that had to travel into Columbus. The Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers both left with four-goal wins.
Columbus should have had the advantage. Instead, it looked flat when the game demanded a response.
The second period against Toronto told the story. The Blue Jackets began it with the tail end of a power play, and once William Nylander scored at 2:26 to make it 2-1, the game took on a finished feel.
No push followed. No answer came.
There were signs of frustration, sure. Zach Werenski was seen yelling at teammates after Easton Cowan’s shorthanded goal made it 4-1.
Later, Erik Gudbranson fought Zack MacEwen near the end of the second period. But by then, the damage was done.
Coach Rick Bowness sounded as stunned as anyone afterward.
“I didn’t see that coming. We had good meetings today and thought we were ready to go.”
That’s part of the problem. The Blue Jackets did not play like a team that understood the moment.
And the moment was there for the taking. Kirill Marchenko was back in town.
Jack Roslovic was back in town. The setup was right for Columbus to bring urgency and edge.
Instead, Marchenko scored. Roslovic scored and added two assists. The former Blue Jackets got the last laugh, and it was obvious they treated the night like it meant something.
The home team never matched it.
Adam Fantilli put it bluntly after the loss.
“They’re on a back-to-back. We’ve been waiting for them.
We got to have it whatever that looks like. The intensity, our game, getting on top of them.
There’s absolutely zero excuses. They flew here last night.
We got to be the fresher team and have our legs and be the better team. And we just weren’t.”
That part is hard to escape. Columbus had the rest.
Columbus had the motivation. Columbus had six power plays and nothing to show for them.
Bowness made it clear that won’t be brushed aside.
“You have six power plays and you don’t score a goal & your top-end guys don’t get a point. Okay, then we better look at what we’re doing & who we’re putting out there in those situations.
We’re going to have to change that up. We’re changing that power play up.”
Some change is already in motion, but the issues reach well beyond one unit. The Blue Jackets have scored 19 goals this season, which works out to 2.38 per game and ranks fourth worst in the NHL. Strip out the six-goal opener against the Buffalo Sabres, and they have 13 goals in their other seven games.
The defense hasn’t covered for it either. Columbus is allowing 3.63 goals per game, eighth worst in the league. That combination - limited scoring and too many goals against - has put the Blue Jackets in last place in the Eastern Conference by points.
The cap picture only adds to the mess. The team is in LTIR, with over $104 million in cap currently accounted for. PuckPedia had them at $105 million as of Wednesday.
And then there are the names that should be driving offense but aren’t producing nearly enough. Valeri Nichushkin, Conor Garland, Sean Monahan and Dmitri Voronkov carry a combined cap hit of $21.8 million.
Their output so far is two goals and seven assists, with Nichushkin and Monahan accounting for one goal apiece. Garland has gone eight games without a point and is sitting on a 16-game pointless streak, with one point in his last 21 games.
Bowness has spent time trying to let the group settle and build chemistry. Tuesday’s loss makes that harder to justify. The Blue Jackets are asking for patience while the standings keep getting uglier, and the margin for staying the same is gone.
The lines need to change. The power play needs to change.
The careless penalties need to stop. And if those fixes don’t come quickly, the questions will only get bigger.
There are 76 games left. That’s still plenty of season. But after back-to-back home beatdowns, Columbus is past the point where anything should be protected.
Nothing can be spared.
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