SvoNotes: Blue Jackets start fast then fizzle in loss at Vegas

Las Vegas is the kind of place where your fortunes can turn pretty quickly.
It's also a place where it helps to have Lady Luck on your side.
Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, they found out those two realities the hard way Saturday night in 3-2 loss to the Golden Knights, ending a two-game winning streak.

A bit of bad luck was ill-timed, as an uncalled offside violation came in the moments before Vegas' game-winning goal late in the third period.
But the bigger problem for Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen was how the team went from playing one of its best first periods of the year to chasing the game for the final 40 minutes.
Columbus had a 2-0 lead after one period of play, held a 14-7 edge in shots on goal and earned 74.0 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick. In the final two frames, the Jackets gave up three unanswered tallies, saw Vegas hold an edge of 28-16 in shots on goal, and earned just 12.1 percent of the xG at 5-on-5.
"Solid first and then we were forcing things, turning pucks over, and then yeah, it unraveled," Larsen said. "It was hard to watch us play like that for two periods. That's not us. We haven't done that much lately, so to watch us play like that, it was really frustrating."
The start could hardly have been better, as veteran Gus Nyquist tipped home Jake Bean's shot just 45 seconds into the game to give Columbus a 1-0 lead. Just under eight minutes later, it was 2-0, as Alexandre Texier carried a puck into the zone shorthanded, made a fantastic move to deke past Mark Stone, then scored past goalie Laurent Brossoit to complete a stunning individual effort.

But whether Vegas found itself in the locker room in the first intermission or a young Blue Jackets team took its foot off the gas, the final two periods were something close to one-way traffic the other direction. Were it not for Elvis Merzlikins, who made two incredible stops on Stone in the middle frame, Vegas could have led after two, but instead Columbus had a 2-1 advantage after CBJ draft pick Keegan Kolesar got the Golden Knights on the board at 7:07 with the Jackets gassed at the end of a long shift.
In the third, Columbus went without a shot on goal for the first 11 minutes, and by then it was 2-2. Merzlikins was again sharp early in the frame as the Jackets ceded transition chance after odd-man rush -- his post-to-post save, doing the splits, on Evgenii Dadonov early in the frame was highlight-reel stuff -- but eventually the dam broke as Reilly Smith intercepted Jakub Voracek's cross-ice pass on a CBJ power play and scored on a breakaway.
Columbus started to find its game in the latter half of the period, but Mattias Janmark got the winner -- under controversial circumstances, which we'll get to in a second -- with 6:07 to play. Nicolas Hague's shot went wide, but Janmark collected it and snuck it in the net before Merzlikins, out to challenge the shooter, could get back to his post.

In the end, the biggest frustration might have been that the Blue Jackets not only lost themselves but committed an array of turnovers that fed right into the game the Golden Knights wanted to play, especially with the energy of the one of the NHL's loudest arenas building as the night went on.
"We just started turning pucks over, playing into the game they want to play," Zach Werenski said. "I think we played a really good first period. We played how we had to play in order to win, and we kind of lost ourselves a little bit. They started coming and started scoring some goals and getting chances, and the shorthanded goal in the third hurts.
"They found a way to win. We kind of got away from our game there, and they took it to us."

About That Call...

Every team in the league has its stories of how unfortunate calls or NHL rules have worked against them, but it sure seems like Columbus finds itself in its fair share of weird situations when it comes to the rulebook as the years go by.
The latest came on Janmark's winner, as in the end, the league got the call right but left Blue Jackets fans frustrated.
In the leadup to the goal, Janmark received a pass in an offside position, then went back into the neutral zone before the puck re-entered the zone. The linesman didn't blow the play dead, however, and the game played on until Janmark deposited Hague's shot behind Merzlikins to give Vegas the lead.
The Blue Jackets immediately saw the original offside violation and challenged, but after a review, it was determined to be a good goal. That's because the rule does, in fact, state that only the zone entry that leads directly to the goal is what can be reviewed.
It's a bit of a technicality, but in the end, the goal simply could not be overturned.
As the NHL Situation Room statement about the review read: "Video review supported the call on the ice that Vegas' Mattias Janmark was on-side prior to the puck entering the attacking zone before his goal.

"The play immediately before is off-side but the Linesman did not whistle that play dead. Video review cannot go back and review that play; the Situation Room can only rule on the latest entry by Vegas, which was on-side and resulted in a goal."
Larsen addressed the situation after the game, taking the blame for making a challenge that was doomed from the start and saying he supported the rule.
"That's on me, 100 percent," he said. "It's offside, but as soon as that puck exits, it's a whole new play. … I was frustrated. I couldn't help myself. ... I know the rule. I messed it up. That's where emotion gets the best of you, and that's on me."
Asked if it's an odd rule, especially given how it cost his team, the head coach said: "No, because then how far back do you go? The rule is right. It is what it is."

Power Play Struggles

Columbus entered Saturday's play 10th in the NHL in power play at 22.5 percent. It's been a welcome rejuvenation for CBJ fans to see, and among the reasons the Blue Jackets were able to win Thursday night's thriller in Arizona, a pair of power-play goals was pretty high on the list.
But the opposite was true on Saturday, as the Blue Jackets finished 0-for-4 on the man advantage. Not only that, the team gave up Smith's shorthanded goal in the third to tie the score; not only that, it seemed like the power play gave up more momentum than it helped create throughout the night.
The Blue Jackets had a golden opportunity to extend their 2-0 lead early in the second when Hague threw the puck over the glass just 1:28 into the period, but Columbus did little with the opportunity and Vegas turned up the heat from there. The power play that allowed Vegas to tie the game was a mess, with the Golden Knights having multiple other odd-man rush opportunities other than Smith's breakaway goal to score.
In all, one of the best parts of the CBJ game instead struggled.
"Yeah, a little off," Werenski said. "Obviously they scored a shorthanded goal, which is never good. They get another chance right after that. Just trying to force some plays. We didn't really take what was given to us. You learn from it and we watch some video. We have a big game Monday, just try to get back to how we have success."

Stats and Facts

• Merzlikins ended up with 32 saves on 35 shots against, and a number of them were of the spectacular variety. "We hung him out to dry," Bean said.
• Both Bean and Werenski finished with two assists, as Bean had the primary helper and Werenski the secondary apple on each CBJ goal. Bean has two multipoint games now, as he had two goals Nov. 3 at Colorado.
• Werenski, meanwhile, became the 10th Blue Jackets player and just the second defenseman to pass the 200-point mark with his pair of helpers. He has a 69-132-201 line in his tenure and a 2-4-6 mark in his last four games.
• Oliver Bjorkstrand led the Jackets with 12 shot attempts, four on net, while Werenski had 10 attempts and six on net.
• Texier has three goals in a four-game span and five in the team's last 10 games. His shorthanded goal was the team's first of the season.
• Kolesar was drafted in the third round by Columbus in 2015, then traded to Vegas at the 2017 draft for the pick the Jackets would use to select Texier, so it perhaps was fitting both scored in the game.
• Voracek was kept off the score sheet, meaning his seven-game point streak (1-9-10) ended.
• Columbus was 40-22 at the faceoff dot, with Boone Jenner going 19-11 and Sean Kuraly posting an 11-4 mark.
• Columbus fell to 2-2-0 all-time in Vegas and 4-3-0 in the all-time series.
• The loss was the Jackets' first this year against a Western Conference foe (6-1-0).