Columbus Blue Jackets leave San Jose frustrated: 3 takeaways

Which stings more for the Blue Jackets?

Having their doors blown off in back-to-back games this past weekend against two of the NHL’s best teams or dominating the league’s worst team late Tuesday/early Wednesday and losing to the San Jose Sharks, 2-1, in overtime at SAP Center?

More:Columbus Blue Jackets vs San Jose Sharks score today: Live NHL updates, highlights

If it helps you decide, it should also be mentioned the winning goal was scored by former Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg, whose propensity to shy from shooting led to his contract being bought out in 2021. Also, while mulling an answer, here are three takeaways from the Blue Jackets’ third straight loss:

The Jackets dominated so thoroughly that you can pick almost any statistic and see how much it favored them. The only one that counted for two standings points, however, was the actual goal tally that gave San Jose a win.

“We did a lot of the things we talked about (Monday),” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said during his postgame television interview on FanDuel Sports Network. “We kept the puck out of the net (better). We had a ton of great looks. We just didn’t score (enough). As far as how we played? We’re very pleased with that.”

That’s because the Jackets owned everything else.

According to Natual Stat Trick, they finished with commanding advantages at even strength in attempts (75-45, 62.5%), unblocked attempts (58-34, 63%), shots on goal (43-25, 63.2%), scoring chances (40-17, 70.2%) and high-danger chances (21-8, 72.4%).

Looking at expected goals, the Blue Jackets finished with an edge of 4.68 expected goals to 1.41 for the Sharks at even strength, which is a 76.9% share. Including expected goals in all situations, it becomes a whopping 70.8% margin favoring Columbus (5.36 to 2.21).

“Very frustrating,” former Sharks forward Kevin Labanc said of his return to San Jose. “I think we did a good job bouncing back from the previous two games, but it’s a matter of finding a goal, and they got one in OT ... and there goes the game. That should’ve been a win for us.”

That it wasn’t, was astounding.

That’s a credit to Sharks goalie Vitek Vanecek (50 saves), who improved to 7-0-0 all-time against the Blue Jackets. It’s also a reminder of how inconsistent the Blue Jackets can be finishing scoring chances, something that has troubled them for two or three years now. They scored six goals in each of their first four victories, but only one in San Jose despite giant edges in offensive metrics.

This was a major missed opportunity to defeat one of the NHL’s youngest teams, and it won’t be forgotten.

There aren’t many players left in Columbus who were teammates with Wennberg, but two were on the ice when he won it for San Jose.

Zach Werenski was one of three skaters unable to stop Wennberg’s solo rush with stick checks, and Merzlikins couldn’t stop the shot that won it. That had to be a galling finish for those two plus those who weren’t around for Wennberg’s time with the Jackets – which, ironically, was notable for a tendency not to shoot. Wennberg didn’t pass up his shot Tuesday, after dangling the puck through Sean Monahan, Cole Sillinger and Werenski in OT.

“How it ended, we didn’t play that rush very well in the 3-on-3,” Evason said. “They make a good play on (Wennberg’s goal), but we could’ve corrected that, as well. They should never be able to come through the middle of the ice like that off a rush.”

Evason and his coaching staff keep mixing and matching forwards while looking for the best combinations up front. They’re shuffling forwards less often than Pascal Vincent did last season, but not by much.

Yegor Chinakhov and Cole Sillinger keep moving between the first and second lines as left wings, rookie Mikael Pyyhtia has played with all four lines, and that’s without mentioning Labanc, Zach Aston-Reese, James van Riemsdyk and Dmitri Voronkov all on the move in different roles. Voronkov’s early return from an apparent shoulder injury gave the coaching staff an extra forward, which threw off the Jackets’ early chemistry that was forming.

Aston-Reese was the odd man out in San Jose, a healthy scratch, while Pyyhtia flip-flopped with Labanc in the game – going from the second line to the fourth.

The Jackets also have Kent Johnson progressing in his rehab of an apparent shoulder injury. He could be ready by the end of November and will step back into the lineup when cleared. That will give the Jackets two extra forwards and even more options while searching for consistency up front.

It could take a while to settle on a regular lineup.

[email protected]

@BrianHedger