The Columbus Blue Jackets were hoping to win their fourth consecutive game on Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Although they were able to force overtime, they couldn’t come away with the second point.
Nick Suzuki scored early in overtime to lift the Canadiens to a 4-3 win. While their record going into the Black Friday game against the Calgary Flames is a respectable 9-9-3, the Blue Jackets have an overarching issue that needs addressed.
On Thursday, head coach Dean Evason acknowledged this was an issue they’re working to correct. They’re allowing too many goals against.
Defense Work in Progress
While the Blue Jackets’ offense is amongst the league’s best in terms of goals for, they’re 29th in the NHL at goals against per game at 3.62. Wednesday night against Montreal, Evason said his team didn’t have the same kind of speed they did in their last few outings which were all wins.
“We didn’t like our speed in that game,” Evason said. “And not necessarily just how we skated, but we didn’t play as fast as we have and certainly in the three games prior to that. We were playing a real quick game. We went over the analytics (Thursday morning) and Montreal had a lot of possession time in our offensive zone which historically, they haven’t had this year but they did because they beat us to a lot of pucks. So they had first touches and then we struggled to get it off them because we were just a little bit slower.”
The Blue Jackets still managed to get a point despite not playing well for long stretches. That’s a testament to their ability to put the puck in the net. Zach Werenski’s goal in the third period, his 22nd point in 21 games, tied the game. The team is 7th in the NHL in goals for which is helping to offset their leaky defense.
Evason said on Thursday their defense is an area of concern that they’re trying to work on.
“We’ve had some challenges keeping it out of the net,” Evason said. “We’ve got to really dial that in even through this little stretch we’ve had. We’ve given up way too many opportunities. It’s an area of concern.”
“We’ve worked on it here. We had the two days of practice and we worked on our defensive zone a lot to keep it out of the net. Our PK has struggled a little bit here too because of that. That doesn’t help with the goals against. We’re making a conscious effort to try to keep it out of our net as much as we’re…
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