Blue Jackets limp home after 11th consecutive road setback
Mercifully, the Blue Jackets have only one game left.
After finishing their road trip 0-4-0 with a 6-4 loss Saturday to the Nashville Predators, the Blue Jackets had a road losing streak extend to 11 straight games before they return to Nationwide Arena to finish the season Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
“There were parts of the game where we competed, and there were parts of the game where we got away from our game a little bit,” Blue Jackets forward Justin Danforth said. “This team’s too good, though. They’ll make you pay . ... they made us pay when we made mistakes.”
The offseason can’t arrive soon enough for the injury-maligned Jackets (26-43-12), who are missing half their usual lineup and played Nashville without center Brendan Gaunce (upper body). They trailed 3-1 after one period and 6-2 starting the third, before Danforth fed Trey Fix-wolansky for a couple of goals to make the final margin more respectable.
“At the end of the day, we’re not looking to fight from behind and lose games,” Danforth said. “At the end of the day, we lost the game 6-4. We want to win games. We wanted to win these final two. Couldn’t get this one, so we get another chance against Carolina and hopefully we can end the season on a good note.”
There were times during the Jackets’ final two road trips when it looked like they were playing out the string to end another long, injury-riddled season. Looks can be deceiving.
More likely, it was their injury/absence situation simply catching up to the Blue Jackets after an early valiant effort to overcome all the losses. After losing Gaunce with an upper-body injury, they went back up to 11 missing players that included seven NHL regulars plus goalies Daniil Tarasov (upper body) and Elvis Merzlikins (lower body).
Greaves and Malcolm Subban, emergency recalls who should be helping AHL Cleveland surge toward the postseason, have handled the goaltending duties the past five games. Also missing are captain Boone Jenner (personal), Patrik Laine (NHL/NHLPA player assistance), Adam Fantilli (calf laceration), Kent Johnson (shoulder surgery), Jake Bean (lower body), Yegor Chinakhov (upper body) and Adam Boqvist (concussion).
That’s no way to go through a single NHL game, let alone the last 10-15 games of a schedule that included almost exclusively playoff-bound opponents. The Blue Jackets were outscored 18-6 during the road trip and have an ugly -30 goal differential (49-19) during their 11-game road losing skid.