The Blue Jackets' record is now 39-28-12 with 90 points. They currently sit four points out of a wild-card spot, but only two points out of third in the Metro.
The Blue Jackets couldn't get a single puck past Buffalo Sabres goalie Colten Ellis. The young goalie, playing in just his 15th NHL game, played like he had won 100's of games in the league.
Ellis made 37 saves, including 11 while shorthanded, to blank the Blue Jackets 5-0 on Thursday night. Nothing the Blue Jackets did worked.
The CBJ didn't play badly at all; they just simply couldn't beat Ellis. Columbus took 37 shots on the night at an average distance of 34 feet. That's not terrible at all.
Columbus dominated in Corsi(63.2%) and Fenwick(61.1%), and overall shots. They out-chanced the Sabres 31-22, had 16 high-danger chances to the Sabres' 6, and had an expected goal share of 3.56 to Buffalo's 2.25. Ellis won this game for Buffalo.
For Columbus, Jet Greaves didn't play all that terribly either, despite the score. He made a few big saves but couldn't stop the ones that needed to be.
Where did the Blue Jackets' goal scorers disappear to? They've scored just 16 goals in their last 10 games while scratching and clawing for a playoff spot. Guys look completely different on the ice from how they did when they were winning games every night. They're not taking open shots, are always looking to pass, and miss the net a lot of the time. Something is wrong.
There's no time to fix it, though, as they have just three games left in the season. The good news is that they still can't be eliminated after Saturday's game against Montreal, but if they should lose in regulation, that would all but kill any chance they have to make it.
Quotes
- Boone Jenner - "It's disappointing when you don't get rewarded for, especially the first two periods of work we put in. We put our heart and soul into that game, and it's disappointing not getting the reward."
- Charlie Coyle - "It's not what we set out to do, so that stings. But we're still right in this thing. Wish we could have it back, of course. But that's not how it works. So we take our next best step forward here. That's Montreal. So, we need to prepare for that."
- Charlie Coyle - "I felt like we had some good chances. Their goalie played pretty well. I thought we had our looks. A few right in the crease there that could have easily gone in, but we don't help ourselves with my turnover there. We're a shot away."
- Rick Bowness - "We play like that again on Saturday, we'll be fine. Their goalie stole the game for them tonight. That was all us in the second period. That second period was one of the best periods we played all year, and we came out of it with nothing to show for it."
- Rick Bowness - "We don't have time to be frustrated, really. We'll talk about that on Saturday. There's no sense getting frustrated. All we have to do is get the right mindset going for Saturday night and go in there and beat Montreal."
- Rick Bowness - "Give their goalie all the credit in the world. That second period is one of the best periods we played all year, and we came out of it with nothing to show for it. If we play like that again on Saturday, we'll be fine."
- Rick Bowness - "It's all going to be mindset Saturday night. That's all it is. It's not going to be about X's and O's. It's about, okay, how hungry are we. We'll answer for that. We'll be there."
Final Stats
CBJ APPPlayer Stats & Notes
- Charlie had 6 shots and was a minus-4.
- Ivan Provorov was a minus-4 and 5 shots.
- Zach Werenski was a minus-3 and had 5 shots.
- Denton Mateychuk had 4 shots.
- Boone Jenner had 3 shots and 5 hits.
- Adam Fantilli had 5 shots, 2 hits, and 2 blocks.
Team Stats
- The Jackets went 0/4 on the power play.
- The Columbus stopped both Buffalo power plays.
- Columbus won 57.9% of the faceoffs - 33/57
- The Blue Jackets had 18 hits and 9 blocks.
Next Up For Columbus: The Blue Jackets are in Montreal to play the Canadiens on Saturday night.
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