Crew cut down in second half at Razorblade Stadium
Also: Why Mathieu Olivier is so important to the Blue Jackets
If you are a Crew fan, you were feeling pretty good by halftime of the game at Razorblade Stadium Saturday night. The Crew were dominating the New England Revolution. They had a 1-0 lead. Maybe, you were wondering if the glorious chance that went unconverted was going to come back to haunt the visitors. But they were playing so well ...
Disrespected Media's Technical Director, Patrick Arace, breaks down the game in five paragraphs, albeit with a couple of sentences of Faulknerian length. I warn you, he uses soccer-speak:
In a reversal of the playing patterns in the previous match, a promising first half for the Crew unraveled later on Saturday night in Foxborough in a 1:2 defeat against an unexpectedly in-form Revolution. Columbus was playing their first match without their ACL-shorn talisman Wessam Abou Ali.
New England looked feckless in the first half, but their manager, Marko Mitrović, got the better of Henrik Rydström at halftime by a large margin. The Revolution changed their tactics to bypass midfield and attack quickly down the right with the bulk of the team clumped in the right corridor within 20 meters of the ball, which was usually possessed by Carles Gil. This pattern led to the free kick from which the Revs equalized on a lovely glancing header from Dor Turgeman, the penalty from which they took the lead through Gil, and several other decent chances.
The source of this defensive problem for the Crew was Max Arfsten at left midfield, who was imperious on the ball in the first half, including scoring the opening goal after a counter spearheaded by Diego Rossi's quick thinking. Arfsten was caught upfield on numerous occasions without adequate lateral adjustments from Andre Gomes and Dylan Chambost. Chambost in particular seemed to struggle to map the play behind him and understand how the center backs would react to movements, and the center backs continued to look unsure about gap control in line-break situations sprinting backwards.
Perhaps it's time to try Sean Zawadzki in a three-man midfield so Arfsten can play higher up the pitch with fewer defensive responsibilities and Gomes can focus more on building up the game instead of tracking who is running in behind? Switching to a 4-3-3 would facilitate this. It might also get the best out of Taha Habroune, missing with illness against New England, who would be given a free role as a wide attacker in this setup. It's quite possible to play a 4-3-3 with compact defensive lines and relational grouping around the ball in tight spaces in the way Rydström seems to desire.
Despite looking vulnerable without the ball, lacking the kind of compactness and rigidity a team needs when playing with a 4-4-2 system, the Crew still created enough chances to win on a chilly night in an away fixture. But they are continuing to make games more difficult than they need to be with a lack of cutting edge in the final third, an issue which will only grow in magnitude without Abou Ali to make his own chances. So, any help they can get in buildup and especially without the ball needs to be explored.
Restless natives
There's a lot of this going around on social media. Much of it is coming from season-ticket holders.
Ticket prices keep going up. Customers are beginning to question front-office roster decisions as much as, or more than, they are blame the coach. That's my feel for what's out there, anyway.
Next up for the Crew: The LA Galaxy visit Fertilizer Field in Columbus Wednesday night.
The Olivier effect
Nobody has to tell Blue Jackets fans how their team went from second place in the Metropolitan Division to out of the playoffs by stumbling down the stretch with a 2-8-1 record over their last 11 games. The good news is the Jackets get to lose another lottery.
Right winger Mathieu Olivier missed eight of those last 11 with an "upper-body" injury (presumably, a broken hand). Top-pair defenseman Damon Severson missed the last 10 due to an "upper-body" injury (which required shoulder surgery). And weighty winger Dmitri Voronkov missed the last nine games with a hand injury.
The Jackets lost nine of their last 11 games because they spit the bit, and not because of injuries to Olivier, Severson and Voronkov. That said, Severson left a hole in the lineup – and Olivier seemed to leave a hole in the team's soul.
Olivier, as well as being the NHL heavyweight champion, has developed into one of the Jackets' most impactful forecheckers. He's an important facet of the team's identity.
The comments sections beneath the last couple-three Blue Jackets posts have made for some excellent conversations. I read them all and, eventually, I dive in and answer all that I can. They all make me think, and some even compel me to get off my keister. The following comment – from the "Sean Kuraly gut-punches Columbus" post last week – got me off my keister.
Now, I'm a Mets fan, but that's beside the point. What caught my eye was the part about Olivier, "(seeming) to be a very important cog in making this lineup work. It made me dive into the archives. One possible takeaway: As the coaching and the team have improved, Olivier's importance has increased.
2022-23: Olivier played 66 games and had 5-10--15 and 178 hits.
This was Brad Larsen's second and final season as head coach. It didn't go well, but it was another rebuilding year. The Jackets went 25-48-9 and finished with the second-worst record in the league. Of course, they lost both lotteries and wound up with the No. 3 overall pick (Adam Fantilli).
That season, Olivier sat out 14 games due to injuries, and the Jackets posted a 3-8-3 with him in the press box. (That's not counting scratches. We'll get to those soon enough.)
2023-24: Olivier played 54 games and had 5-7--12 and 163 hits.
This was the year that Mike Babcock was hired, then forced to resign before he even got the chance to coach a game behind the Jackets' bench. Rookie Pascal Vincent took over on the eve of training camp and, well, he wasn't ready. The Jackets went 27-43-12 and GM Jarmo Kekalainen was fired. They finished with the third-worst record in the league. Of course, they lost both draft lotteries and wound up with the No. 4 overall pick (Cayden Lindstrom — remember him?).
That season, Olivier continued in a role as fourth-line enforcer and press-box popcorn eater. Officially speaking, he missed just one game to injury (the season opener, but it likely hampered him; he had played on a broken leg down the stretch the season before, complications arose during his offseason rehab, and he was still in recovery mode through training camp.
Vincent made a frequent scratch out of Olivier, mostly during the first half of the season. The Blue Jackets posted a 19-27-8 record with him in the lineup and an 8-16-3 record when he sat.
2024-25: Olivier played all 82 games and had 18-14--32 with 306 hits.
Dean Evason takes over as coach, the Blue Jackets post a 40-33-9 record and they miss the playoffs by two points. Olivier is healthy, his role is expanded and he responds with a career year. He signs a six-year, $18-million contract extension in the summer of '25. This raises some eyebrows. But Olivier has a player profile that GM Don Waddell – and most every GM in the league – covets, which is why Waddell wanted to lock him up at age 28.
Olivier can fight, but he can also play the game. He has an impact on almost every shift he's on the ice.
Here's Jody Shelley on the "Cannon Balls" podcast with me, recorded March 30:
Olivier is a perfect example of the modern-day tough guy. Eighteen goals last year. He's in double digits again this year. He's hard to play against. Holds on to pucks, holds on to pucks, can score goals.
I watch Olivier measure or keep the temperature of the game in many games when he doesn't fight. It's a look. He just has a look now. He just has to look at the other bench or say something. He'll say something to the other bench at times when I'm between the benches at ice level. He'll say something to some guy on the other team. And the other guys on the other team will either explain like, 'It wasn't me. I didn't do that.' Or he'll pretend he didn't hear him.
And the rest of the bench is going, 'What are you doing? Like, quit it. We don't want to wake that guy up. Because the next thing he's going to do, he's going to run somebody, and then someone has to go fight him and get beat up for you and your nonsense.'
"So it's a great dynamic and I hope it never leaves the game. Because just the fabric of a good team has that guy who can shake the gloves off. And I love the team toughness. That's really where I think it's at. Like with the Stanley Cup champions lately."
2025-26: Olivier played 61 games and had 15-11--26 and 209 hits.
Under Evason and Rick Bowness, who took over on Jan. 12, Olivier transitioned into a third-line role. There were stretches during the Jackets' 19-3-4 run (January-March) when the Cole Sillinger-Charlie Coyle-Olivier line could not be contained.
The Jackets finished 40-30-12. Their late-season swoon left them in fifth place in the Metro Division, six points out of third, and fifth in the Eastern wild-card race, seven points out of the No. 2 spot. Of course, they will lose two more lotteries.
Olivier missed 11 games from Nov. 25 to Dec.. 27 with an "upper-body" injury, believed to be a shoulder. The Jackets were 4-6-3 in those games. Evason was fired on Jan. 11.
Olivier missed the last eight games of the season, presumably with a broken hand. The Jackets were 2-6 in those games.
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Michael Arace
