Blue Jackets want to see more this year from center Roslovic
When the Blue Jackets fell to the Capitals 3-1, Jack Roslovic was watching, a healthy scratch for the first time this season and for the first time since joining the Blue Jackets last season in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets.
Roslovic’s play had picked up after a slow start, but Larsen wanted to address some issues in his game to see if it can spark more offensive production.
“There’s a better game for Jack,” Larsen said. “And when you’re not scoring, you’ve got to contribute in other ways. I know he’s got a better game. I’m not going to get more indepth than that. Him and I, we’ve had some conversation, we’re going to do some video work and try and get him back to where I think he can be.”
Roslovic tallied four points (two goals, two assists) in the previous six games entering this weekend and had a scoring line of 3-5-8 in 20 games. He’s also faring better on faceoffs this season, winning 49% of his draws overall and 52% during 5-on-5, but his role and production have yet to mimic what he did last year.
With Roslovic being scratched, Justin Danforth received his first look at center. Larsen likes his relentless approach as a winger and hopes that can continue with Danforth skating at the position he’d played almost exclusively prior to signing with the Blue Jackets as a free agent out of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Danforth is 5-foot-9, 180 pounds and has great speed. Larsen wanted to see what he and Hofmann — another burner — could do while playing together on a line with Yegor Chinakhov. The trio was one of the only noticeable groups in the first two periods for Columbus Saturday, and they produced a goal by Chinakhov that was negated by Hofmann’s offside infraction.
“I don’t think ‘Danny’ deserves to come out,” Larsen said. “He’s played his tail off and he’s versatile. He can play in the middle. So, he’s been competitive, I think he’s been ‘dog on a bone,’ and it can’t all the time be (Danforth and Hofmann) coming out.”
Danforth was eager for the opportunity.
“I’m hungry to stay on the roster and stay in the lineup every night, so for me, I know what I have to do on the ice,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough night every night for me with the way I play. If I have to play physical and have to be a bit of a rat and get under guys’ skin, then that’s what I have to do. If I can bring that every night and that keeps me in, that’s good.”
However, even with those moves, the growing pains continued for the Blue Jackets against the Capitals.
“No one’s going to give you a game,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said following the loss. “It’s the NHL. You’ve seen our schedule of who we’re playing. We’re playing all the top teams right now, and they’re playing well, too . ... We’re learning some hard lessons here.”
The Capitals used the same gameplan against the Blue Jackets as the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars have this season. Each one of those teams pinned Columbus into its own end of the rink for long stretches and forced turnovers in bushels. All but Vancouver made the Jackets pay a steep price for those gaffes.
The Capitals and Stars didn’t score as much as the Predators and Blues did, but they netted enough to win, including Alexander Ovechkin’s 750th career goal standing up as the winner.
Eric Robinson scored the lone goal for the Blue Jackets, who got another strong performance in net from rookie Daniil Tarasov (29 saves). bhedger@dispatch.com @Brianhedger
CAPITALS 3, BLUE JACKETS 1
Columbus 0 0 1 — 1
Washington 1 1 1 — 3
FIRST PERIOD: 1. Washington, Protas 2 (Schultz), 4:33. Penalty—robinson, CBJ (tripping), 6:41.
SECOND: 2. Washington, Ovechkin 20 (Carlson), 3:12. THIRD: 3. Columbus, Robinson 3 (Werenski, Danforth), 6:28; 4. Washington, Hathaway 7, 18:33 (en).
Shots on goal: Columbus 9-2-7—18; Washington 11-13-8—32. Power plays: Columbus 0 of 0; Washington 0 of 1. Goalies: Columbus, Tarasov 0-2-0 (31 shots-29 saves); Washington, Samsonov 10-1-1 (18-17). A: 18,573. T: 2:14.