SvoNotes: Familiar mistakes send Jackets to fifth straight road loss

It's not hard to figure out why the Blue Jackets have fallen into a bit of a rut, a 1-5 stretch that has tempered one of the hottest starts in franchise history.
There are a lot of factors that go into it, but the simplest answer is the team keeps making the same mistakes.

And those problems were on display yet again Tuesday night in Toronto. Columbus fell into a 3-0 hole after one period, a 5-1 deficit after two and then couldn't fight all the way back in a 5-4 loss at Scotiabank Arena despite two goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand and scores from Sean Kuraly and Max Domi.

There were some unique aspects to this one -- the Jackets were down big early, and what had been one of the strongest penalty kills in the league took it on the chin for once -- but there were also some things that should look familiar to CBJ fans of a team that has given up 27 goals over the past six games (4.50 per contest).
Another road struggle: It's a pretty stark breakdown over these past six games, as Columbus is 0-5 on the road and 1-0 at home, results that move the team to 4-8-0 away from the capital city and 9-3-0 in Nationwide Arena.
We can argue whether there is causation or that's just the way it's worked out, but the numbers do show a pretty big difference. Are the Blue Jackets simply riding the wave of the home crowd in Nationwide Arena in a way that's tough to duplicate away from home? Are teams taking advantage of the Jackets' young roster by using last change to grab advantageous matchups? Or is it just the way the schedule has worked out, with the recent road swing against tough opponents matching up with a stretch in which the team is working through some issues?
It could very well be some combination of all three, but with a five-game road trip looming after Thursday night's home game vs. Anaheim, it's something that looms over the teams upcoming schedule.
"We're not in front of our crowd and we're not getting last change, so those are the two things you look at right away," Kuraly said after the game. "That would be something for us to look at and get better and grow upon. You're gonna have to win games on the raod if you want to be in the playoffs, and I know that's where this team wants to be. We have a road trip coming up and we have a chance to win games on the road. It'll be exciting."
Back-to-back goals: It's starting to go from a curiosity to a bad trend, as in four of the last five losses, the Blue Jackets have given up multiple goals in less than a minute.
In the game that started the road trip two Saturdays ago in St. Louis, Columbus gave up two goals in the first two minutes of the second, turning what had been a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit the Jackets never recovered from.
The next game in Nashville, the Predators tallied twice in a nine-second span of the first to take a 3-0 lead, then cruised home to a 6-0 victory.
Two nights later in Dallas, the Blue Jackets held a 2-1 lead in the late stages of the second period, then gave up a pair of goals in 49 seconds that allowed the Stars to take the lead for good.
Then on Tuesday night in Toronto, the game got away quickly. The Leafs did lead 3-0 after a period, but the Jackets played a good second and were right back in the game at 3-1 thanks to Bjorkstrand's power-play goal. Then the Maple Leafs scored a power-play goal at 18:34 with Bjorkstrand in the box, then tallied on an odd-man rush just seven seconds later, making it a 5-1 game.
In a contest that finished 5-4, that looms large.
"I thought we were generating," Larsen said. "We weren't giving up nearly as much. We were skating. It was a good period, and then in 10 seconds -- I don't even know what it took - but it was bang-bang. That's it."
Whether it's just bad timing or a trend, it's sunk the Blue Jackets in recent games.
"I shouldn't be taking that," Bjorkstrand said of the penalty. "It puts us in a tough spot, and then we can't let them score right after that. It's things like that."
A big shot gap:Columbus was outshot 40-32 on the night, marking the 10th straight game the Blue Jackets finished with fewer shots than the opposition.
Now, shots on goal are not the end-all, be-all, but it's also fair to say you don't want to be giving up 35.8 shots against on a nightly basis, as the Jackets have averaged in the past 10 games.
A better judge might be scoring chances against or expected goals against, Kuraly pointed out, but using Natural Stat Trick, we see that hasn't been kind to Columbus either. In the past 10, Columbus been given up 279 scoring chances to 201 (41.9 percent share to CBJ) and have just 39.0 percent of the expected goal share.
Everyone has a different definition of a scoring chance -- Natural Stat Trick's are based on shot location only, whereas the team's internal metric is much more observation-based -- but those margins are simply too big.
"We know if we're getting outchanced, we're not playing our game," Kuraly said.
At the moment, the Blue Jackets are. Any team is bound to go through rough stretches in the season, and it has been a tough row to hoe with a lot of road games against difficult teams on the docket.
As Larsen has often said, it's a learning experience for his young team, but that also means taking the occasional lump or two.
"It's a good challenge for us," he said. "As a young team, you start playing these really good hockey clubs, you start to feel the NHL schedule, you start to feel the difference. These are all great experiences for us we have to continue to fight through because we're gonna be on the road a lot here coming up."

Stats and Facts

• That doesn't mean there aren't positive things to take out of the game. Per Natural Stat Trick, Columbus had a 56-49 edge in shot attempts at 5-on-5, a 30-27 edge in scoring chances and a 9-9 draw on high-danger chances. "Did a lot of good things, I think," Bjorkstrand said. "We battled. We just gave up some goals and put ourselves in a tough spot."
• But Toronto had a big edge of 36 shots on goal at 5-on-5 to the CBJ's 21. One reason? The Maple Leafs blocked 20 shots on the night.
• Bjorkstrand's play would be at the top of the list of positives, as after a seven-game streak without a goal, The Maestro potted two to bump him up to 198 career points (91-107-198). He also had seven shots on goal and nine total shot attempts, including one on the power play before his goal that drew a spectacular diving glove save out of Jack Campbell.
• It was the second multigoal game of the season for Bjorkstrand and the 13th of his NHL career.
• Kuraly, meanwhile, tallied for the second game in a row and is up to five goals on the season. That leaves the Dublin native just three tallies shy of a career high.
• Alexandre Texier had the assist on the Kuraly goal, setting him up at the net front, and now has a 6-5-11 line in his last 15 games.
• The Blue Jackets started Elvis Merzlikins in goal, but he was replaced after two periods having given up five goals on 30 shots against. It was the second time he was subbed out in three starts, as he didn't make it through the first period in Nashville last Tuesday as well. Daniil Tarasov stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief.
• Toronto scored on 2 of its 3 power-play chances, the fourth time this year Columbus has given up multiple goals on the penalty kill. The Blue Jackets had been second in the NHL on the PK since Oct. 31 at 89.7 percent.
• Auston Matthews had two of Toronto's goals, giving him tallies in seven straight games and bumping him up to a tie for third in the NHL with 17 markers. It was his 43rd multigoal game, second most in the NHL behind Alex Ovechkin (45) since Matthews' debut in 2016.
• The Maple Leafs are now 16-3-1 in their last 20 games and have 38 goals in their last eight contests (4.75 per game).
• Zach Werenski had nine shot attempts and Justin Danforth six; each also drew iron during the game.