After latest blown lead, Larsen wants more from Jackets’ vets
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — With an average age of 25.97 years, the Blue Jackets are the youngest team in the NHL. It stands to reason, then, that the team’s issues with maintaining leads and winning games on the road could stem from its youth.
That’s all the more reason, according to coach Brad Larsen, that the Jackets’ older players need to step up.
The Jackets’ latest stumble came Tuesday at Vancouver, when Columbus allowed four unanswered goals in a 4-3 loss to the Canucks.
“We need our leaders to lead these guys through it,” Larsen said. “Those are the guys that have to step up. We’ve made some big mistakes at the wrong time. There’s guys on this team that have to step up in those moments. We’re not doing it right now. We’re going to have to find a way.
“... They’ve got to grab ahold of it. Someone has to. There’s guys on our team that should be the ones to do it. We can’t rely on our young guys to do it.”
For the second straight game, the Blue Jackets led by three goals in the second period only to allow the lead to evaporate.
The only difference was this time, they couldn’t hang on to force overtime and come away with two points. Unlike Saturday’s overtime win in Seattle, a late penalty gave the Canucks a chance to win the game, and they took it.
Bo Horvat scored his second goal of the game with 58.8 seconds left to complete the comeback.
“We didn’t deserve to win,” Larsen said. “We hung on, hung on and hung on, but we didn’t deserve to win. We got what we deserved.”
Two goals from Eric Robinson, both set up by Alexandre Texier, and a goal from Max Domi had Columbus in control after the opening 20 minutes. But despite knowing the Canucks were going to push back, when the push came,
the Jackets couldn’t do anything about it.
Though they allowed only one goal in the second period, they were outshot 18-5 in the frame and 27-9 across the final two periods.
On the late power play, Horvat lifted a cross-ice pass from J.T. Miller over the shoulder of goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.
“If you’re not gonna be competitive at the puck, you just let them in the door,” Larsen said. “That’s what happened. They let them in. Even 3-1 going into the third, we’re still in a good spot. But they played. We didn’t.”
Columbus has often struggled to rein things in when its opponent gets rolling, and that pattern revealed itself again Tuesday.
“We should be able to sustain it,” forward Boone Jenner said. “I think we just let up and give them some momentum. We sit back a little bit where we should just keep playing . ... We know it’s coming. Every game ramps up as it goes along, so we know it’s coming. We’ve just gotta do a better job of playing our style more.”
Canucks’ Poolman pulled after first period
After playing eight shifts for a total of 5:37 in the first period, Canucks defenseman Tucker Poolman was removed from the game and entered COVID-19 protocol. Poolman became the fourth Canuck to enter protocol Tuesday after Luke Schenn and Juho Lammikko tested positive Tuesday morning and Brad Hunt returned a positive test prior to the game.
“We saw he was gone,” Larsen said. “I didn’t know why. It’s the world we live in right now.”