The first period couldn’t have been much better for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The second period — both the first minute and the last — couldn’t have gone much worse.
The Blue Jackets allowed five unanswered goals to lose for the 11th time in 14 road games this season, falling 5-2 to the Vancouver Canucks before 18,529 in Rogers Place. After starting this five-game road trip with a win in Chicago, the Jackets have lost three straight.
After losing defenseman Ivan Provorov to an apparent broken thumb early in the second, the game changed dramatically in the final minute of the period when goaltender Elvis Merzlikins made a truly bizarre decision, given the score and the situation.
The score: The Blue Jackets led 2-1.
The situation: The puck was skidding back toward the Blue Jackets’ end of the ice, the type of play that happens hundreds of times a game.
Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski was close to tracking and gathering the puck, and he appeared to have at least two strides on Canucks forward Teddy Blueger when Merzlikins inexplicably came charging out of his net to play the puck.
Merzlikins got to the puck first — Werenski backed off when he saw that his goaltender was committed to his read — and he tried to sail the puck off the glass and out of the zone.
Instead, the puck glanced off Blueger, bounced off the wall and fell at Blueger’s feet. Werenski raced to cover the net in Merzlikins’ absence while Jackets defenseman Dante Fabbro skated onto the scene to help a desperate situation, attempting to block the path to the net.
Blueger dropped the puck to Columbus native Kiefer Sherwood in the right circle, and Sherwood fired into the empty cage to tie it. As the Canucks celebrated and Rogers Arena roared, Werenski turned and skated toward Merzlikins to give him a hug.
“That hurt, right?” Columbus coach Dean Evason told reporters. “It’s a nothing play and it ends up in our net. Yeah, of course it’s frustrating. I know Elvis will be accountable for making that decision, but everybody makes mistakes, it’s just unfortunate it ends up in our net.”
Sherwood found a BLANK SPACE. pic.twitter.com/mbFdAk35k4
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 7, 2024
Much like the Blue Jackets’ failed goaltender interference challenge one night earlier in Edmonton, you could feel the energy get sapped from the Jackets after Merzlikins’ mishap. Merzlikins allowed three goals on the final nine shots he faced.
As for Provorov, Evason said the Blue Jackets were waiting on X-rays to determine the extent of the injury.
At 1:16 of the second, Provorov was tripped and fell into the boards, using his left arm to break his fall against the wall. Provorov was quickly in distress, and FanDuel Sports Ohio cameras showed him removing his left glove to reveal a badly misshapen thumb.
Provorov did not return to the game, and Evason said he was going to have X-rays at the rink in Vancouver before the team traveled to Winnipeg after the game.
If Provorov’s out for an extended period, it’ll be a big loss for the Blue Jackets. Provorov has been a top-four fixture all season, most recently playing on the second pair and drawing 23 minutes, 55 seconds of ice time per game, second on the club to Werenski.
The Blue Jackets have an extra defenseman with them on the road trip, so they wouldn’t have to recall a player from AHL Cleveland. Veteran Jack Johnson was a healthy scratch Friday for a seventh straight game.
Evason scrambled the Blue Jackets’ lines before Friday’s game. For the first time all season, No. 1 center Sean Monahan and right winger Kirill Marchenko were split up, with Monahan playing between James van Riemsdyk and Kent Johnson, and Marchenko joining a line with center Adam Fantilli and left winger Dmitri Voronkov.
For 20 minutes, Evason looked like a genius. The Jackets led 2-0 after the first period, outshooting the Canucks 17-2 and building a shot-attempts advantage of 31-10. Put another way, the Jackets had as many goals as the Canucks had shots on goal. Rogers Place was whisper quiet.
Mathieu Olivier and Damon Severson scored for Columbus in the first period, and the Jackets had numerous Grade-A chances to take an even larger lead.
“(The first period) was by far the best period of the year,” Evason said. “But, you know, we didn’t get the result. So it sucks.
“When you have a start like that, you have the momentum going your way, you have to play an almost boring game and not allow anything to happen. We didn’t do that, and obviously they gained momentum.”
The Blue Jackets allowed a power-play goal for the 12th straight game, a franchise record. The power-play goal was scored by Jake DeBrusk at 10:22 of the third period and pushed the lead to 4-2. By then, the Blue Jackets looked defeated.
An empty net goal by Pius Suter — his second goal of the game — capped the scoring with 1:05 remaining.
This is the Blue Jackets’ second five-game road trip this season. With one game remaining, Sunday in Winnipeg, the Jackets are 1-7-1 on those trips.
(Photo of Teddy Blueger blocking a clearing attempt by Elvis Merzlikins: Bob Frid / Imagn Images)
