Among a number of maddening plays that led to the Blue Jackets' 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 10 iat Enterprise Center, one stood out as most fitting for an all-too-familiar meltdown in the second period.
Toward the end of the frame, after a 2-0 lead disappeared in a torrent of poor luck, lagging intensity and vanishing puck possession, the Blue Jackets shot themselves the skates again.
Seconds after finally getting something to go right on Conor Garland's hustle play to draw a penalty with 2:23 remaining, they quickly negated a 6-on-5 advantage during delayed penalty time and forked over a power play by committing a baffling error.
As goalie Jet Greaves reached the
bench for an extra attacker, forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Sean Monahan both went over the boards to give the Blue Jackets a 7-on-5 edge the officiating crew spotted right away. Nichushkin went first, gathering the puck and skating it low in the Blues' zone, before Monahan's skates hit the ice a second later.
Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness couldn't believe it.
He didn't single out players by name, but if the mistake was made by either Monahan or Nichushkin, both are seasoned veterans. Monahan played his 900th career game and notched an assist by sending a shot into the net off Nichushkin for a 1-0 lead.
"We never change like that," Bowness said. "I know who went out, who shouldn't have gone out. So, that's what I'm talking about. Brain mistakes, right? The brain stops functioning the way we need it to function to play the game the right way, and that's a perfect example."
Unfortunately for the Jackets, there were more in the third.
After Cole Sillinger tied it 3-3 at 6:51 of the third, giving the Blue Jackets a jolt from reconfigured forward lines, another spin cycle of mistakes led to the Blues' deciding goal.
Mathieu Olivier, challenging a play in the neutral zone, committed a tripping penalty in the process and watched the guy he sent flying, Jonatan Berggren, score off the second of two rebounds created by Mason McTavish with Greaves sprawled in the crease. McTavish and Berggren were left alone in front of the net.
"Go watch that fourth goal," Bowness said. "There's so many mistakes on that goal. So, that's just brain not staying mentally sharp, and the intensity part, you combine those two and you look bad out there. And there's times out there we look bad."
They also look dominant at times, and through four games it's an even split. Wins against the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins were impressive, while losses to the Utah Mammoth and Blues weren't.
The good news is that it's still early with 80 games remaining to iron out the wrinkles, but the concern is that some of the wrinkles are carryover issues that cost the Blue Jackets a playoff spot the past two years.
"We have to make the commitment," Bowness said. "You want to be one of the top teams in this league, man, you show up every period. You show up every night. And it's no good to play a good game, a bad game, a good game, a bad game. Like, we've got to stop that right away."
It can't just be talk either.
"In hockey, you can talk all you want, but it's about actually doing it," Monahan said. "We talked enough in here [about the second period], and I mean, we came out in the third and I don't think we did what we said. So, that's up to us to step up, to a man."
DispatchBlue Jackets/Crew reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mental miscues haunt Columbus Blue Jackets in loss to St. Louis Blues
