Trust the process
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
The Blue Jackets had a tough schedule in November – 15 games in 28 days, six at home and nine on the road and three sets of back-to-backs. It speaks to schedule congestion in an Olympic year, which some think is linked to a greater incidence of injuries throughout the NHL.
November numbers for the Jackets:
- 5-5-5 record.
- Power play: 5-for-35 (14%, yikes).
- Penalty kill: 25-for-29 (.862, improving).
- Goals for/against: 38-51.
- Shots for/against: 438-440.
Those numbers aren't brutal given what they faced last month. "Not brutal" is not soaring praise, but it could've been worse. What made it maddening, of course, can be described by another set of numbers.
By the end of November:
- The Jackets had blown eight third-period leads, including two two-goal leads.
- The Jackets had given up 15 first-period goals. Only nine other teams had allowed fewer first-period goals. There is a catch.
- The catch: The Jackets had given up 36 third-period goals. Only one team has allowed more third-period goals – the Vancouver Canucks, who sat in 30th place at the end of the month.
- The Jackets had a plus-4 goal differential in the first two periods. There is a catch.
- The catch: The Jackets had a minus-13 goal differential in third periods.
Michael Arace
“I’m sure you guys (media) are sick of asking about it,” defenseman Zach Werenski said on Nov. 28, about the succession of blown leads in the third period.
“I'm sure you're sick of asking about it," he said, "and I'm sure fans are sick of seeing it. So, at the end of the day, it's on us to just find a way to get a win and win in regulation and close the game out. That's in here. It's in this room and it just comes down to doing it now."
And then it snowed.
Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner went on injured reserve on Oct. 26 with an upper-lower-middle (take your pick because who knows anymore?) injury. While Jenner hasn't played since, he did return to practice earlier this week.
After one of those practices, Jenner was asked for his sideline-view of the team he leads.
"It's different when you're not in there, in the battle with the guys," he said. "Obviously, I think we've been playing some really good hockey. I know there's some games where we'd like to get two points, but we're collecting points right now. We're playing really well. Obviously, there's a few details we want to clean up, and we'll be a better team for it."
Obviously, Jenner finds frequent use for "obviously."
"So I think the way we're going – trust the process, trust each other in the room, and I think we have that belief in here," he said. "I think we've got to keep on building on what we've got."
That has been, essentially, the message from coach Dean Evason. He has looked at the blown leads, noted the mistakes that were made and weighed it all against how his team was playing overall. In his opinion. Which is an important opinion.
Michael Arace
Evason doesn't cotton to advanced metrics, but during the choke-a-thon, even he brought up the Jackets' xG as a piece of evidence to support his contention that the Jackets were generating a healthy number of third-period chances. He insisted the worm was going to turn so long as his charges continued to trust the process.
"All you can do is make sure the process is right every day," goaltender Jet Greaves said six days ago. "Today was just another day."
The general idea is to keep going rather than stopping to bash your head into the wall.
On the very night November turned to December, it snowed overnight. We got four inches of the stuff in Columbus. Even towns that never have snow days had a snow day.
Then came fight night in Newark Monday night. The Blue Jackets beat – and "beat" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here – the New Jersey Devils 5-3 at the Prudential Center.
In New Jersey, much was made about how the Jackets were dirty about the fighting. (Bah.)
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe saw Monday night's game through a red lens.
The Jackets sort of chuckled at all of that.
“The video doesn’t lie, right?” said defenseman Damon Severson, a former Devil. “When somebody comes after you, you’ve got to be ready to protect yourself. It’s just common sense. So, if you go after somebody and you don’t want to fight, that’s on you.”
I particularly liked the way Evason handled it.
“(Devils coach Sheldon Keefe) has no bearing on what happens in our room,” Evason said. “Our guys know what happened. Of course, we’ve had a chance to hear the comments. I don’t think they’re accurate. We don’t put a lot of stock in it.”
Trust the process. Much was made about the 74 minutes in penalties in the Devils game, including 64 in a second period that featured four bouts. But all the pugilism didn't overshadow some salient facts, not if you're the Blue Jackets, who played a composed third period, did not rattle when their lead was cut to one, added to their lead and managed well a long stretch of five-on-six. The Jackets won, 5-3, and became the second team to beat the Devils in Newark.
On to Thursday night, when the Detroit Red Wings were the visitors at Nationwide Arena. It was a weird, wild game. In a nutshell: leading scorer Kirill Marchenko, who'd missed the previous four games to injury, returned and scored a goal; the Jackets blew three leads and came back three times; the Jackets scored with the goalie pulled and 91 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime; the Jackets won in a shootout because Kent Johnson and Marchenko are money in shootouts.
"I feel fresh," Marchenko said. "I had a vacation."
The Jackets are 4-1 in shootouts this season.
The plan here was to make snow into a cleansing metaphor for December, and maybe quote Robert Frost. But another set of numbers is more poetic:
- The Washington Capitals, with 36 points, are in first place in the Eastern Conference.
- The Buffalo Sabres, with 26 points, are in 16th and last place in the Eastern Conference.
- The Blue Jackets, with 31 points, are five points out of first place and five points out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
If you are a Blue Jackets fan, it's your right to get agitated about one thing for another – but if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute.
Was that Mark Twain, Ring Lardner, Will Rogers or Anonymous who coined that famous phrase?
Yes.
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Michael Arace
