Blue Jackets head into the All-Star break in last place with overtime loss to Washington

Feb 1, 2023 - 3:09 AM

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The Columbus Blue Jackets lost an entertaining game to the Washington Capitals in overtime tonight by a final score of 4-3. The Blue Jackets battled back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game late in the third period. Joonas Korpisalo looked strong once again and the “kid line” of Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson, and Kirill Marchenko was fun to watch even if they didn’t factor in on the scoresheet.

Overall the Jackets showed well in front of another big crowd at Nationwide arena. In addition to a fun Tuesday night game, they give the fans a meaningless point (and free chili) before heading into the painfully long All-Star break.

The reverse-retro curse lives on. Seriously though, have they won a game in any version of these? I don’t think they have.

Anyway, here’s how it went down...

First Period

Less than two minutes into the game the Blue Jackets were given a great chance to do something they aren’t too familiar with: play with a lead. They had an early power play oppportunity thanks to a holding penalty by Marcus Johansson. Both teams had a few decent looks including a breakaway chance for Washington, but no goals were scored before the two minutes expired.

Just two more mimnutes later the Capitals did find the back of the net. A bruising forecheck on Jack Roslovic caused him to turn the puck over in the defensive zone. A shot from the point by Lars Eller appeared to glance off of both Garnet Hathaway and Gavin Bayreuther before beating Korpisalo glove side.

1-0 WSH (Hathaway from Eller)

With a little over 12 minutes offsetting slashing penalties were committed by Kent Johnson and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

With five and a half minutes remaining, Washington struck again. Once again it was a shot from distance that got past Korpisalo. It went through traffic and it didn’t appear as if Korpisalo could track the shot until it was past him.

2-0 WSH (Van Riemsdyk from Aube-Kubel)

This time the Blue Jackets had an answer. Just seconds later, Andrew Peeke scored on a point shot after receiving a pass from Patrik Laine. He wired a shot towards the net, and he was the beneficiary of a double deflection off Alexander Ovechkin and Trevor Van Riemsdyk. It was Peeke’s 5th goal of the year, which is good for the lead amongst defenseman.

2-1 WSH (Peeke from Laine)

The Blue Jackets played a pretty strong opening period, sans a few fluky goals. It was a back and forth period with both teams generating a few quality chances, with the Jackets arguably with the better of them. Still, they trailed by a goal headed into the intermission.

Second Period

The blue Jackets came out of intermission with their legs working, pressuring Washington in the opening minutes of the second. The “kid line” of Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko just missed tying up the game on a nice passing sequence. Entering the zone on a 3-on-2 Johnson dropped a pass to Sillinger who found Marchenko crashing the net. Marchenko attempted to direct the puck into the net from the pass, was denied by the post.

Washington tallied again just around the midway mark of the came. Washington was controlling the puck in the zone and was on the cycle. Kuznetsov skated the puck behind the net and found Trevor Van Riemsdyk all alone in front for a tap in goal. Marcus Bjork had the stick of TVR tied up in front of the net, but stopped to pursue Kuznetsov behind the net as the second man on the puck carrier leaving his man all alone for the goal.

3-1 WSH (Van Riemsdyk from Kuznetsov and Gustafsson)

With nine minutes to go in the period the Jackets once again drew to within a goal when Eric Robinson tallied his fourth of the season. Mathieu Olivier fed Eric Robinson with a perfect pass on a 2-on-1 and all Robinson had to do was tap it. For as much as Larsen deploys’ them, it’s nice when it pays off.

3-2 WSH (Robinson from Olivier)

It was another entertaining period that all-in-all was pretty even. A couple of fluky goals remained the difference in this one. That’s close to all you can ask for at this point.

Third Period

The Blue Jackets didn’t make their comeback attempt any easier for themselves, committing a penalty under two minutes into the final period. Kirill Marchenko sat for a hooking penalty breaking up an odd-man rush. It was a “good” penalty by #86 considering the Washington player would have been all alone with Korpisalo.

The Jackets’ penalty killers put forth a strong performance, denying Washington on the power play. Alex Ovechkin did miss an open net as time was expiring, but overall they denied him the one-timer that makes that power play so effective.

Columbus did a good job denying Washington the momentum after the penalty and got back on the offensive, testing the Washington netminder.

Joonas Korpisalo came up very clutch halfway through the period making a series of strong saves to keep the Jackets within a single goal. The big Nationwide Arena crowd paid him a standing ovation after back-to-back saves on Lars Eller and Alexander Ovechkin.

The saves became even more crucial just a few minutes later when Gavin Bayreuther’s lob pass out of the defensive zone found Johnny Gaudreau hovering around the Capitals’ blue line behind the defense. Johnny Hockey took the pass and did the rest, sniping a wrister past Lindgren’s glove, tying the game.

3-3 (Gaudreau from Bayreuther)

At this point, it was the Blue Jackets’ game to lose, they had the momentum and had Washington on their heels. A game they most likely thought would be a cake walk was coming down to the wire.

The Blue Jackets were the better team in the latter half of the game, and were buzzing heading into the overtime period.

Overtime

In a totally anti-climactic ending, the Blue Jackets lost 26 seconds into overtime. A blown coverage allowed Evgeny Kuznetsov to rip a shot from the slot that beat Korpisalo under his arm.

It was a fun game, but with an ending like that, I’d rather the have Jackets gotten 0 points.

Up Next

(Most of) The Blue Jackets are headed on vacation for the next week for their All-Star break. Johnny Gaudreau will be representing the Blue Jackets in South Florida this weekend.