After a 5-5-5 November that saw them cough up important points especially late in games, the Columbus Blue Jackets are looking forward to a new month. They jump in right away as they play the New Jersey Devils on Monday night in Newark.
Most of the talk surrounding the Blue Jackets has centered on their propensity to lose leads in the third period. In their two-game homestand against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins, the Blue Jackets had leads in the third period. In both instances, they eventually lost the games in overtime.
In November, they lost six points in this fashion. Instead of talking about a team last in their division, we’d be talking about them near the top.
That’s where we start our Blue Jackets’ notebook today. There was a meeting of the minds that took place on Saturday the day after their 4-3 loss to the Penguins.
Waddell/Evason Meet
Head coach Dean Evason spoke to the assembled media on Sunday morning after their practice. The players might have had a day off on Saturday to recover. But the coaches almost never take a day off.
Evason said he spent part of his Saturday meeting with GM Don Waddell to discuss the state of these recent third periods.
“Actually, Don and I had a great meeting (Saturday),” Evason said. “I’m sure you guys write about it or talk about it or whatever forum that you guys do. But we are trying to figure out what’s going on. Yeah, for sure. Do we see a pattern of some sort? No. And that’s what we go back and look at. Is there something? Is it our defensive zone coverage? Is it our cheating for offense? What is it? And there’s several different things that we come up with. And the bottom line is that we just have to stay the course, do what we do and believe that it’s going to turn around. That’s all you can do. You can learn from the past but you can’t dwell on it, right? So we’re moving forward.”
Dean Evason believes the team just needs to stay the course as they navigate their third-period issues.(Photo by Colin Mayr/NHLI via Getty Images)
The Blue Jackets made part of their practice on Sunday fun. The team spray painted the ice in order to split it into two different smaller zones for scoring goals in small space. It was a high-tempo game of four-on-two so the players can get their touches in a highly energetic, fun environment.
“The puck movement’s good,” Evason said. “But they fell good. They’re happy. They’re having fun scoring goals. And the drill before that was one puck getting up and down the ice. Same thing. I guess we wanted them to feel good about playing the game of hockey.”
What was the ultimate takeaway for the team in the moment trying to get through this? Evason was asked what is that sweet spot when there are a room full of different personalities involved.
“You have to stick together,” Evason said. “That’s the bottom line is that we’re all in it together. It’s not just the players. It’s not just the coaches. It’s not just the managers. It’s all of us, right? It’s the Columbus Blue Jackets are in this together. We’re still in a really good spot where we’re at. We’re collecting points which is very positive. Do we want more points? Do we want more wins? Yes, of course. But we’re going to do it together. We’re going to get out of whatever it is we’re in and move forward. We’re going to do it as a team, as an organization. And we believe that our group will stick together the guys on the ice. Not only that but the team off the ice as well. We’ll stick together and get the job done.”
Jenner Back This Week?
Captain Boone Jenner, who was forced to leave the game in Seattle due to an upper body injury, is close to a return. He joined his teammates for practice on Sunday.
Coach Evason acknowledged that Jenner is progressing. Could we see him on Thursday night perhaps? Maybe.
“As you guys know, the progression is skates on his own,” Evason said. “(He) went out there with (Jared Boll) just doing a little pushing and shoving and what have you. Then if we were to do a battle drill today, he probably wouldn’t have been involved in it. But he’ll get (Monday) and a couple more skates and then optimistic that he’ll play very shortly.”
Meanwhile, Jenner acknowledged he is close to a return. However, he was not ready to definitively declare Thursday as his return to play game.
“I think anytime you can practice with the guys, it’s a step in the process of coming back and playing,” Jenner said. “So a good step (Sunday) being back out there…Timeline? Yeah, I don’t know. We’re going to see how it goes and continue to work.”
Boone Jenner is close to a return with Thursday being a possibility. (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)
Jenner said he is feeling much better. He had been skating on his own for a while before joining his teammates Sunday. He also acknowledged that he knew right away what his injury was. It was suffered at the end of the first period in Seattle. He tried to play one shift in the second and knew he couldn’t continue.
“We came back here and took a look and realized we got to rehab a little bit,” Jenner said. “That’s where it was. Obviously, I tried to go and it wasn’t up to anything close to playing.”
Jenner originally hoped that it would only be a couple of days as opposed to weeks. But they all realized they needed the time after seeing the injury. He didn’t specify what his exact injury was but did admit it was something he’s never had before.
As for Thursday, “I mean, nothing’s out of the question,” Jenner said. “I think as soon as I can. We’ve kind of talked about timeline before and no real timeline. I think it’s just a day at a time here. (Sunday) was big in the process and build on it and see where it takes us. So I’m just doing what I can control now. That’s taking the right steps each and every day to make it as soon as possible.”
Side Dishes
- Remember last week, Evason admitted Sean Monahan was playing banged up. Was there ever a time they considered sitting him out to heal? With a big smile, Evason said “Sure. You go tell him that.”
- Evason elaborated. “Listen, he’s a hockey player. And he wants to play hockey. And he’ll continue to play hockey and play very well. And he does a lot of things for our hockey team, right? So yeah, if he can play and he’s not injured and he’s just banged up, he’s going to play.”
- Evason also reiterated Friday’s third period issue was clear mistakes that led to the Penguins’ goals. This was in response to a question if he felt that some players weren’t competing like they should. “There’s no lack of compete. There’s no lack of try. There’s no lack of battle or whatever you want to call it.”
