PREVIEW: Blue Jackets complete road trip against Kraken

The list of things the Blue Jackets did well Monday night in Edmonton was long.

Columbus battled through an outbreak of illness to keep a high-powered and motivated Oilers team largely at bay. The Blue Jackets got a dominant performance from the line of Dmitri Voronkov, Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko, plus goals from veterans Boone Jenner, Sean Monahan and Ivan Provorov. They had clear advantages in possession time, shot attempts and scoring chances at 5-on-5.

But what went wrong was enough for the team’s losing streak to reach a season-long four games, as Edmonton rallied for a 5-4 victory in overtime. Two fantastic individual efforts from the best player in the game, Connor McDavid, kept Edmonton in it, then a final-minute shorthanded goal that was equal parts bad decisions and bad luck ended up in the net before former CBJ forward Jack Roslovic netted the OT winner.

It was a dramatic and stunning way to end the game, not to mention the second time in the four-long skid that the Blue Jackets lost after leading in the final two minutes. Afterward, head coach Dean Evason was left frustrated by how the Blue Jackets lost possession leading up to the tying goal but couldn’t be disappointed in the way his team battled.

“I thought our compete, our level of urgency, our willingness, our desperation to compete, to battle was great,” Evason said. “So was theirs, right? It was a good hockey game, but again, the majority of the play we think we had in our direction, so we'll move forward off of this one.”

It’s a bit of a double-edged sword in that Evason has been right – the Blue Jackets are playing good enough hockey to have deserved some better results throughout the start of the season. On the other hand, though, it’s a results business, and too many mistakes at critical times have taken crucial points away from the Jackets in the standings.

As Monahan noted after the game, “Losing sucks,” but the Blue Jackets can’t take their eye off continuing to try to build their game no matter how frustrating the results have been of late.

“I'll put it this way – I think if we play like we did tonight, we're going to win more than we lose,” Jenner said. “It's one of our more complete games, and I know it's crazy when you lose in overtime, but they get a couple of breaks. We don't want to be here with one point, obviously (we wanted) two, but like I said, if we keep going with that shift after shift like we were tonight, we're going to like the results more times than not.”

Playing just about 24 hours later, the Blue Jackets will have channel the disappointment of the result in the right direction and put together a similar effort to finish this road trip off with a victory tonight in Seattle.

“We don't talk a lot after games,” Evason said. “We did chat after this game that you got to get your heads up and we play again tomorrow, right? This game's gone. We'll learn from some stuff obviously, some of those mistakes, but we competed our (butts) off and that's what we want from the guys. We did that tonight. We'll do it again tomorrow.”

Scratches: F Cole Sillinger (illness), F Miles Wood (illness), D Dysin Mayo

Injured reserve/Non-Roster: Erik Gudbranson (upper body injury)

Roster Report: The lines above are what the Blue Jackets used last night, but Evason said the entire team will take warmups and then they will make a final decision based on how everyone feels based on illness and injury. One thing that is known is Greaves will get the start, making consecutive starts for the first time this season.

This Day in CBJ History

Nov. 11, 1997: Team officials announce that the name of the franchise will be the Blue Jackets, celebrating patriotism, pride and the rich Civil War history in the state of Ohio and, more specifically, the city of Columbus.

Nov. 11, 2011: The Blue Jackets swap defensemen with St. Louis, acquiring Nikita Nikitin from the Blues in exchange for Kris Russell. Nikitin would go on to play 158 games with 12 goals and 56 points over the next three seasons.

Nov. 11, 2017: Jack Johnson scores in the ninth round of the shootout to complete a 2-1 victory at Detroit. The Blue Jackets also captured the skills competition by a 2-1 margin, with Artemi Panarin tying the shootout at 1 in the second round before Johnson snapping a stretch of 13 consecutive missed shots with the deciding tally.

The Numbers Game

Damon Severson is set to play in his 800th career NHL game. … With an assist vs. Edmonton, Kirill Marchenko extended his career-best point streak to eight games (3-7-10) and has four points in the last two games. His 17 points are tied for fourth in CBJ history through the first 15 games of a season. ... Adam Fantilli snapped an eight-game streak without a goal against the Oilers and notched his second consecutive two-point game (1-3-4). ... Blue Jackets defensemen have scored in 10 of 15 games so far this year, and the team’s 12 tallies from blueliners lead the NHL. … Zach Werenski is tied for third in the NHL among defensemen in goals (four) and second in average time on ice (26:27). … Elvis Merzlikins has 98 career victories, two shy of 100, heading into the game.

Know The Foe: Seattle Kraken

Head coach: Lane Lambert (First season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 2.60 (29th) | Scoring defense: 2.87 (10th) | PP: 19.6 percent (T-14th) | PK: 69.2 percent (30th)

The narrative: The Kraken didn’t exactly follow Vegas’ path to dominance in the Western Conference but looked poised for big things after downing reigning Stanley Cup champion Colorado in the opening round of the 2022-23 playoffs, but two losing seasons have followed. Former Islanders coach Lambert was brought in to replace Dan Bylsma after just one year as Seattle placed seventh in the Pacific Division a season ago. There are some decent young pieces here but time will tell if the Kraken can score enough goals this year to be a contender.

Scoring leaders: Two experienced wings lead the way in the scoring department in 35-year-old Jordan Eberle and 33-year-old Jaden Schwartz, who have matching 5-6-11 lines through 15 games. Matty Beniers is still trying to match his production from a breakout rookie season three years ago and has two goals among nine points, while veterans Brandon Montour (3-6-9 in 11 games) and Vince Dunn (2-7-9) lead the defense in scoring.

In net: Joey Daccord (6-2-3, 2.83 GAA) leads the way with 11 starts but was placed on injured reserve this weekend. Philipp Grubauer (1-0-1, 2.49 GAA, .875 SV%) and former Pittsburgh netminder Matt Murray (0-2-0, 2.72, .900) have each played in three games, starting two.

What's new: Seattle has played in a ton of close games this year, with seven being decided in overtime and two others by one-goal margins. The Kraken earned points in seven of the first nine contests (5-2-2) but are 2-2-2 since, and they’ve reached the four-goal mark in just three games thus far. Injuries are also hurting the forward group, as Jared McCann has led the Kraken all four years in scoring but hasn’t played since mid-October, while offseason addition Frédérick Gaudreau has played in just four games with an upper-body injury.

Trending: Columbus won its first visit to Seattle back in 2021 but has dropped the last three games, including a 5-2 final Nov. 12. Overall, the Blue Jackets are 3-5-0 in the all-time series.

Former CBJ: None