Postgame Hat Trick: Another frustrating setback in Calgary

By the time you read this, it will be Wednesday morning, and let's just go ahead and forget about Tuesday, shall we?
Not only did
Columbus fall by a 4-2 score in Calgary
, not much else went the Blue Jackets' way as far as the playoff race goes. Montreal won to pull within one point of the Blue Jackets with nine games to play for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The two teams Columbus is right behind -- Metropolitan Division rivals Pittsburgh and Carolina -- played a three-point game, with Carolina's shootout win pushing the Pens five points clear of Columbus and the Hurricanes three points ahead.
So, you know, not a great day. But this time of year you can only go one day at a time, and Columbus remains on the right side of the bar when it comes to the postseason.

On top of that, it wasn't a bad effort in Calgary, but the Jackets made just enough mistakes -- and hit enough posts -- to lose. Here are three thoughts from the setback at the Saddledome, Columbus' first loss in Calgary since 2011.
1. Good, but good enough? Two time zones away from home against a team that leads its division and has already clinched a playoff spot, Columbus outshot the Flames and was there fighting tooth and nail for a win.
But they didn't get it.
The frustrating thing for fans has to be that this has become a bit of a theme of late. Just in the last two weeks, the Jackets played tight games vs. Pittsburgh, the New York Islanders, Boston and now Calgary and left with one point from those games.
Head coach John Tortorella says he reacts to games based on how his team plays overall, not the specific result, and that's absolutely the way it has to be given how random hockey is as a sport and the ebbs and flows of an 82-game season.
But there's another reality the Jackets have to face: With the playoff race fully on now with nine games to play, at some point, good games have to cede the floor to accumulating real results. After all, the Stanley Cup doesn't go the team that has the most good efforts in the playoffs, it goes to the team that wins 16 games.
The good news is if the team keeps playing solid hockey, wins should follow. For the Jackets' part, the players have kept saying the right things, and frustration doesn't appear to be setting in among the team. Belief that the pendulum will swing the other way still seems strong.
"We're not getting the results, which is frustrating, but the process is there," Matt Duchene said. "The second you deviate from the process is when you start to fail and deserve to fail. We'll keep going and we'll stay with it and take it one day at a time."
2. Play 60:Teams often talk of playing all 60 minutes, and unfortunately for Columbus, a handful of mistakes spoiled what was a pretty solid effort at Stampede Park.
Columbus started strong, creating chances and finally cashing in when Zach Werenski scored at 10:25 of the first period. But Calgary then made its push and took advantage to the tune of three quick goals -- including two just 43 seconds of game time apart on either side of the first intermission -- and Columbus had to chase the game from there. The Jackets did a fairly good job of that -- the first 11 shots on goal in the third were by the CBJ -- but couldn't tie the score.
That makes the mistakes that led to the goals so difficult to take, as they put the Jackets in the difficult position of playing from behind. Tortorella was left frustrated, as the team couldn't clear the puck and then got caught puck-watching a bit on the goal that made it 2-1 with just 7.2 seconds left in the first, then Michael Frolik's slalomed through the defense to make it a two-goal game just 35 seconds into the second.
"After they scored (their first goal), we lost a little momentum," Tortorella said. "We need to get out of that period 1-1. It's a terrible mistake in the slot late in the period. We did so many good things in that period, we need to at least be tied. But we give up two goals with our slot coverage that we shouldn't have at a terrible time, at the end of a period and the beginning of the period."
3. Ringing the iron:There were enough pings in this one that you might have thought you were looking down the driving range at a PGA Tour event.
Lukas Sedlak and Ryan Dzingel each hit the post in the first period, then Pierre-Luc Dubois had the unfortunate luck to twice hit the iron in the second. Even if Columbus scores just one of those, they probably leave Calgary with a point; instead, it's more talk of bearing down harder to make those scoring chances go in next time.
It's a tough line to toe -- shots into a goalie's chest aren't going in, either, and players have to aim for corners. But from there, the difference between a puck that goes bar down into the net and one that flies harmlessly away can be as small as a centimeter.
"We're playing good hockey, just not getting the offense that we needed," Duchene said. "We're finding ways to not score, I guess."