They certainly won’t reach for excuses, but the Blue Jackets were up against it Monday night and they were in a dogfight with the Winnipeg Jets.
At one point in the second period, Columbus was down to 11 forwards and just four defensemen…and then they had to kill a penalty after Fedor Tyutin took a high-stick on a follow through attempt.
Todd Richards and associate coach Craig Hartsburg employed Jack Johnson, Ryan Murray, David Savard and Nikita Nikitin in rotating pairings to try and keep them fresh, but it was a monumental task to kill the penalty and head to the third period down 1-0.
And that’s when things really got interesting.
Winnipeg and Columbus combined for four goals in less than 10 minutes in the third period, and the Blue Jackets found themselves down 3-2 with eight minutes left in regulation. That was following Tyutin’s fifth goal of the season to make it 3-2, which was timely even before considering he had just returned to the game after getting his face stitched up.
With whatever gas they had left in the tank, the Blue Jackets poured it out down the stretch but could not find the equalizer in a 3-2 final at Nationwide Arena.
Yes, everyone knows the saying about excuses, and neither the players or Richards were willing to pin the loss on injuries or personnel. Their start to the game was not very good and they registered just five shots on goal in the first period and had 11 through 40 minutes, and had a hard time really testing Jets goaltender Al Montoya.
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