Sigh.
I guess this is what happens when you have one team in the playoff race that makes a grade at the deadline, and the other team plays AHLers with 5 of their 18 skaters.
Early period
Things started off well! Las Vegas took control early, but Columbus' first shot went inside the goal courtesy of Erik Gudbranson.
There was another good push at the end of the period, with Johnny Gaudreau's shot on target, but just as time expired.
Second period
The Blue Jackets had a power play opportunity early in the second period, but instead of extending their lead, they only managed one shot on goal and were unable to get into the offensive zone.
Shortly after, Vegas tied the game. Ivan Barbashev took a shot off a faceoff win in the offensive zone and scored off his own rebound.
Jack Eichel scored the go-ahead goal, his 500th career point.
Jody Shelley sounded like Baghdad Bob, “ending the period 2-1.”
They were 3-for-23 on shots on goal during that period.Shot attempts were 6-for-35.
Mathieu Olivier said: “I don't know what we're doing there.”
third period
Will the Blue Jackets respond?
no.
Pavel Dorofeev got behind Zach Werensky and took a great shot to force Tarasov out of position and make it 3-1.
Eichel scored his second goal of the night on the power play late in the third inning after Olivier was called late for hitting the puck on the glass.
Although they can't score on the power play like they have in the past, Las Vegas still manages to score goals even when their players go down. Oh my god.
A silver lining: Carson Meyer scores a rebound goal with 12 seconds left.
final thoughts
Granted, it's back-to-back second halves, but there's no excuse for the second period to be that bad.
Losing 17-9 in the third period was also inexcusable. Is there any backlash there? Really?
Daniil Tarasov scored 0.48 more goals than expected. Despite the lack of help from his teammates, he gave his all.
Boone Jenner's line was wiped out tonight, but they can't even use the excuse of playing in top-level competition. They were mostly facing the fourth line. At 5-on-5, they were outscored 2-26 and had more than two and a half minutes more than any other line.
Cole Schillinger led the forwards on the ice with a positive shot attempt differential in all situations. He was successful in shutting down Eichel's line in the first period, but then Bruce Cassidy was able to give Eichel a different matchup for the final 40 minutes.
next
The Blue Jackets will remain in the desert and play the Coyotes in Tempe on Tuesday night at 10 p.m.
