The Blue Jackets have (at least temporarily) busted out of their bad habit of slow starts, but lately, it’s the way they respond to goals of their own that’s giving them trouble.
Take the last two games, for example: Columbus got a huge goal from Nick Foligno in Ottawa, staking them to a 2-0 lead with half the third period to play. The Senators closed the gap to 2-1 moments later before the Blue Jackets hung on down the stretch and gutted out a road victory.
And Monday night, the same problem reared itself as the Blue Jackets could not get out of their own way against the Los Angeles Kings. Two timely goals for Columbus were answered within 90 seconds each time by the Kings, making any momentum for the home side short-lived and forcing the Jackets to do a lot of chasing — and it added up to a frustrating 4-3 loss tonight at Nationwide Arena.
“We weren’t very good at all tonight,” said Ryan Johansen. “If it weren’t for (Curtis McElhinney), it would’ve been a blowout. We didn’t have any room in the neutral zone, and we didn’t execute.”
Jack Skille scored the opening goal just 1:40 into the game, banking a centering pass off the skate of Kings defenseman Jamie McBain and behind Jonathan Quick — but the early lead stood for 32 seconds.
Dwight King converted a perfect feed from Jeff Carter into a wide open net at 2:12, and the Kings were in control the rest of the first period. Tyler Toffoli cashed his 15th goal of the season on a pass from King at 8:01 of the first, and the Kings held that one-goal margin into the break.
Scott Hartnell, playing his 1,000th career game, briefly restored some Blue Jackets momentum by capping off a terrific passing play between he and line mate Ryan Johansen late in the second period. Johansen gathered the puck in the neutral zone, gained the Los Angeles line, and out-waited the Kings’ defense to hit Hartnell with a pinpoint pass and it was quickly a 2-2 hockey game.
You’ve heard this before, but the score remained that way for all of 78 seconds.
Carter finished off a pass from Brayden McNabb to give the Kings a 3-2 lead with 4:26 left in the second period, and the Blue Jackets were charged with staging a third period rally against a team in a desperate scenario.
“It’s just a lack of focus after a goal,” Johansen said of the response goals. “I don’t know if we think it’s going to be easier now since (we) scored or something, but we’ve been terrible in that area.”
The third period didn’t start well for Columbus; Dustin Brown banged in a rebound at 1:49 of the third period after McElhinney — who did his part, making 40 saves — made the initial save on Marian Gaborik’s shot from the slot.
With McElhinney on the bench for an extra attacker, David Savard brought the Blue Jackets within a goal thanks to a seeing-eye wrist shot through an Artem Anisimov screen with 1:53 to go, but the Kings clamped down the rest of the way.
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