Blue Jackets notch 3-1 win over Sharks

Labanc’s goal drought continues in Sharks loss

SAN JOSE — San Jose Sharks winger Kevin Labanc wouldn’t be entirely forthcoming if he said the 10-game goal drought he carried into Thursday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets wasn’t weighing on him in some fashion.

But Labanc, in his third professional season, is also mature enough to realize there’s only positive way to react.

“It’s always going to be in the back of your head,” Labanc, 22, said Thursday morning. “But the thing is, you have to be a good enough player and a good enough pro to not worry about that, and to stick with it, stick with the process. “You just have to keep going.” Starting on a line with Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl, Labanc scored his first goal since Oct. 5 at the 11:50 mark of the first period, but the Blue Jackets answered with three of their own to earn a 3-1 win at SAP Center.

Anthony Duclair, Seth Jones and Nick Foligno all scored for Columbus, with Jones’ goal at the 9:15 mark of the second period giving his team a one-goal lead.

The loss snapped the Sharks’ point streak at six games (4-0-2). San Jose hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

With his forwards failing to generate many quality scoring chances, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer, starting late in the second period, once again shuffled up his forward lines, as Couture and Hertl finished the game with Timo Meier on the other wing.

While the Sharks applied more pressure, they weren’t able to beat Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky a second time.

Labanc started the season on a line with Couture and Hertl, and had the game-winning goal in overtime for the Sharks in their 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 5.

But despite 23 shots on goal since that point, Labanc entered Thursday still looking for his second goal of the season. He has had six assists in the last 10 games, with four coming in San Jose’s 82 win over Philadelphia on Oct. 8.

Through 12 games last season, Labanc had three goals and four assists.

“I think it could be a lot better,” Labanc said of his season. “It’s obviously not the way I want it to be, but it’s a long season and I just have to really stick with the process, stick with all of the office stuff that I’ve been doing, be optimistic and know that good things will come.”

There’s no question he’s been creating opportunities for himself at even strength. According to naturalstattrick.com, Labanc had a Corsi-for percentage of 63.37 in the Sharks’ first 12 games, and has had 37 high-danger scoring chances.

“I think scorers go through times when they’re scoring and there’s times when they’re not,” DeBoer said of Labanc.

“You can’t solely judge him on point production, I think. When you dive into the analytics of it, he’s still creating offensive opportunities. He’s still doing a lot of good things, so sometimes you’ve got to just ride it out.”

Asked what he though Labanc needed to do to break out of his slump, Couture said, “Work hard, win battles. Just move his feet. He’s a very good player. Right now, he’s probably struggling with his confidence. He’s at his best when he’s got the puck and he’s moving his feet and winning battles.”

That was the approach Labanc was carrying into Thursday, and considering the way Couture and Hertl have been playing of late, things had the potential of turning around.

Couture and Hertl both carried sevengame point streaks into Thursday, with Couture collecting five goals and seven assists in that span and Hertl producing three goals and eight assists.

Couture’s assist on Labanc’s goal extended his point streak to eight games, matching the longest streak of his career, which came during the 2011-12 season.

From Labanc’s perspective, his job when he plays with Couture and Hertl is fairly straightforward.

“You just want to give them the puck and get open for them,” Labanc said. “Work with them and kind of be the gritty guy, be the (first forward) on the forecheck and retrieve the puck and just make those little plays.”

Couture, Hertl and Labanc were on the ice quite a bit against the Blue Jackets’ top line of Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Cam Atkinson when the two teams were at even strength Thursday.

It’s nothing new. Since Couture and Hertl were put together on the same line at the start of last season, they’ve typically been responsible for not only generating offense, but also slowing down the opposing team’s top players.

Joe Thornton was playing in his second game back after missing nine games with an infection in his right knee. He again started Thursday’s game on a line with Joe Pavelski and Meier, who was carrying a nine-game point streak.

Meier was named the Sharks Foundation’s player of the month for October with nine goals and five assists.