Columbus Blue Jackets miles from Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins

It took longer than usual for the Blue Jackets’ locker room to open Tuesday night. 

Nobody confirmed that a postgame meeting had taken place, but confirmation wasn’t necessary.

Another meltdown had just concluded with a 5-3 gut punch delivered by the Pittsburgh Penguins, whose gleeful black-and-gold clad fans overran Nationwide Arena, again, and flooded the ice, again, with a shower of lids for Sidney Crosby's 16th career hat trick (second in Columbus).

So, how yinz doing? 

'Yinz' probably better than the Blue Jackets, who added their virtual signatures to an apparent agreement with Pittsburgh to hand over majority ownership of their team to Crosby & Co., LLC.

“They’re always big games against these guys,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “We knew it was going to be a fast game. They play with pace. We want to play with pace, and I think we could’ve been a bit more physical. We just got away from that at times.”

They always seem to do that against the Penguins, don’t they?

Other than the bizarre circumstance last spring, when the Jackets damaged their own NHL lottery odds by defeating Pittsburgh in overtime, this so-called “rivalry” has been a painfully one-sided deal.

Including two first round playoff romps, the Penguins keep staking ownership of the Blue Jackets. They improved to 9-0-1 in the past 10 meetings, and the all-time numbers of the series are every bit as ugly for Columbus.

When they’re not overcoming four-goal deficits for stirring comeback wins or blowing the Jackets’ doors off at PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins typically roll into Nationwide Arena a few times per year to collect rent and play with their food before devouring it.

It happened again Tuesday, courtesy of Crosby’s three goals and four points in a disturbing movie that now plays inside the Blue Jackets’ minds on endless loop.

It's Lucy holding the football upright for Charlie Brown, only Lucy gets progressively crueler. She even spun the laces out and everything this time. In fact, you could almost hear her beckoning after Alexandre Texier pulled the Jackets even at 3-3 with 7:15 left. A power play for the Blue Jackets 28 seconds later only made her more demanding.

"Go ahead, Chuck, give it a kick!"

Many teams would’ve done just that, booting the ball through the uprights with a power play goal to take the lead. Not these beleaguered Blue Jackets. Nope. Despite launching nine attempts and putting five shots on target during that power play, they couldn’t put the puck in the Penguins’ net. Tristan Jarry turned all those shots away and Crosby scored the winner a minute later, extending the Jackets’ winless skid to six games and dropping them to 4-8-4 overall.

They've been close big victories several times now, but remain so far away.

“It’s close,” Texier said, “but not enough. I’ll put it that way.”

Here’s what else we learned from the Blue Jackets’ latest collapse:

Columbus Blue Jackets need stars to shine

There aren’t many proven NHL “stars” on the Blue Jackets’ roster, which puts a bigger onus on the ones they do have to play up to their billings. 

It hasn’t happened yet with Johnny Gaudreau, Patrik Laine or Zach Werenski, whose salaries, combined, make up a whopping 35% of the Blue Jackets’ $79.5 million salary cap number. 

The only goals Gaudreau and Werenski have scored were into empty nets, and Laine’s off to a sluggish start that was divided by a nine-game absence due to a concussion. Boone Jenner, the Jackets’ hardworking captain, is holding up his end of the bargain with seven goals, two assists and nine points to co-lead the team in scoring with four others, but the Blue Jackets need their top three to get it going.  

Gaudreau has 1-5-6 with a –6 rating in 16 games, Werenski has added 1-8-9 with a –3 rating in 14 games and Laine has just 2-1-3 in his seven games. All three are likely to inflate their numbers significantly in the remaining 66 games, but how long will it take for that to happen and how many further losses will the Jackets endure? 

Fair questions to ponder.

Columbus Blue Jackets’ power play lacks power

The Jackets went 0 for 4 on power plays against Pittsburgh and now rank 27 in the NHL with a success rate of just 12% (6 for 50). They’re 0 for 10 in the past four games and have only scored on a power play once in the past nine. 

Laine’s return hasn’t helped, which might be related to his unit’s struggle to send set-up feeds for one-timers to his usual spot in the left circle. Last season, while Werenski was out, the Blue Jackets’ top power play group found success with defenseman Adam Boqvist running the point.

Boqvist, who’s been scratched in all but four games, has a right-handed shot that makes it easier to feed Laine passes from the top of the Jackets’ 1-3-1 formation. Werenski, a lefty, needs a longer time to send Laine feeds to his favorite shooting location. That wouldn’t change by flip-flopping Werenski and Ivan Provorov, who runs the point for the second unit.

Laine and Gaudreau lining up with the same unit is also an issue, as both prefer to set up in the left circle. Laine’s booming one-timer with a right-handed shot is most effective there, while Gaudreau is more comfortable sending passes from that spot on his strong side as a left-handed shooter.  

The second unit is also struggling with Emil Bemstrom and Yegor Chinakhov – wingers who have strong one-timers – on their strong sides rather than “off” hands for one-timers. Simply put, the Blue Jackets’ power play is a mess right now and they need to find a solution to the conundrum soon.

It’s getting late early for Columbus Blue Jackets

The term “it’s a long season,” isn’t something a team wants to utter this early in a season, especially when it’s used to soften the blow of a bad start. There are 66 games remaining on the Blue Jackets’ schedule, yes, but this season is already headed off the rails if they can’t put a skate in the proverbial ice to stop it. 

The Blue Jackets are dead last in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference and there’s a four-point gap between their 12 points and the Penguins’ 16 in the East’s second wild card spot. There are also seven teams between them, including the Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils. Unless the Blue Jackets string together a significant winning streak, the term “it’s a long season,” could soon become a much less optimistic phrase.