No one ever intimated that the move to the Eastern Conference would be easy for Columbus. Losing to Washington on the road (4-3 OT), and letting two points to a divisional rival slip through their hands, left a bad taste in their collective mouths. This was a game that looked as if it were going to roll their way. This loss definitely stung.
"It's disappointing", said defenseman Ryan Murray, "especially getting the lead there late and then losing it, again. It's just not the way we wanted it to go. They're tough to play against, but I thought we still did pretty well against them."
Yet, it didn't have the same characteristics as their previous losing in the five game losing streak. They played a more complete game, with their forecheck and faceoff wins the big standouts. They utilized the forecheck to keep Washington from swarming out of their own zone to decent effect last night in the Verizon Center.
Columbus head coach Todd Richards has said that possession of the puck through winning faceoffs is much better than having to chase the puck. Against Washington, they won 36 of 58 faceoffs, good for 62 percent.
Although they gave up the lead, only to regain it before losing in overtime, Richards see's some progress from their win over the weekend. "I think there were some good things in the game", he said. "I think we had some players, from the first drop of the puck, were involved. Our first period was okay, (but) we needed more out of certain guys."
"As the game went on, those guys started to give a little bit more. But, it's disappointing right now because we had a lead with three minutes to go in the game and the chance to get two points against a divisional team. Right now it's a disappointing, deflating feeling just because of how it ended."
Another positive aspect of the game was that they were getting guys to go to the dirty areas around the net, never an easy place to ply your trade. This paid dividends, as forward Jared Boll redirected a Wisniewski shot behind Washington's netminder and paid the price by being upended in the crease.
"It was a pretty good shift by our line", Boll said. "We were working it down low and got traffic to the net. Wiz threw it on net and it hit me. Every time we're out there, you try and make a difference."
His first goal of the season was bittersweet after leaving the points on the ice. "It's tough. Those are tough ones to swallow. Those are points we're throwing away. We fought back and had the lead with a couple of minutes to play and we blew it."
"We've got to sharpen up at the end of games as a team and close games out. Like I said, those are points we're throwing away."
They created opportunities throughout the game, yet couldn't capitalize on some of them. "We had opportunities on the power play and our power play was slow", said Todd Richards. "I don't think it was dangerous at all. We had a chance where Ryan (Murray) shot it off the post and I think they (Capitals) ended up scoring right after that."
"We had a chance to maybe get a lead with our power play and again, we're going out and not playing fast enough or quick enough to really execute and give ourselves opportunities to score. But, the positive thing is we were down 2-1 and it would have been easy based on we had a couple of bumps and bruises, and we missed some guys for an extended period of time so we had a short bench."
"It's not an easy place to play and it's not an easy team to play against, as far as their talent and skill. Our goalie made some good saves for us, some timely saves, and we scored a couple of big goals in the third. But, I still think we can be better and we need to be better."
When it was all said and done, they played a better game than their first meeting with Washington on October 19th (4-1 loss). This is a team still learning how to take control of a game. Forward Brandon Dubinsky summed the loss up thusly. "In crunch time, with the lead, good teams find a way to lock it down and shut the door. We weren't able to do that tonight."
The Blue Jackets continue the road trip Thursday in Boston as they take on the defending Eastern Conference Champion Bruins (11-5-1) at the TD Garden before returning to Columbus to do battle with the visiting Montreal Canadiens (9-8-2).
