Blue Jackets embarrassed after allowing seven goals to Bruins

BOSTON -- The Columbus Blue Jackets did not mince words. They didn't have to. The results were there for all to see.
For the second time in a week, the Blue Jackets allowed seven goals, the first to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 12, the second to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Monday in a pair of 7-2 losses.

In a four-game span, which includes one win, the Blue Jackets have given up 20 goals.
"It's been a while that I've been this disappointed in a game," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. "The lack of emotion, the lack of care, just disappointing. This team, you don't use those words too often with our team, so to use those words tonight doesn't sit well with me."
And it especially didn't sit well, given what had happened seven days earlier: Seven goals then, seven goals now.
"That cannot happen," Foligno said. "We're a team that does not do that. There's going to be some deep thoughts here going forward.
"I don't think frustration's going to help get us out of it, but there's got to be some guys in here that just have to understand the way we play and the emotion that you need to play with in the NHL, the care that you need to have, and the pride you need to have to play in the NHL. We just didn't have those things tonight. We got shown up by a team that was just way hungrier than us."

It was all Bruins right from the start, but it got far, far worse in the third period when the Blue Jackets allowed four goals in a span of 6:20.
"We looked a little paralyzed," coach John Tortorella said. "For what reason, I don't know, so we're going to have to try to get better, try to figure it out, and try to get better. We just have to get better. Got to put some skin on ourselves here and take it right on the chin like we did it tonight, and try to get better for our next game. That's all we can do.
"I'm not going to spend a lot of time dissecting this, that, the other thing. Right through our lineup we weren't good. Obviously, this is the result."
The Blue Jackets had 18 shots, four in the third after entering the period still in the game, at 3-0. And of those 18 shots, eight came from forwards. Defenseman Seth Jones led Columbus with four, one on a goal with 14 seconds remaining.
"We're not hard enough," said forward Josh Anderson, who scored 8:32 into the third period bring the Blue Jackets within 3-1. "I think we're too easy to play against right now, and we were not executing passes tonight. A lot of missed opportunities."
The Blue Jackets have, at times, been prone to giving up big numbers, having allowed at least four goals 11 times in 34 games this season, three in the past week.
"Just really, really disappointing for a team that usually finds a way to answer," Foligno said. "That's what I'm most disappointed about. You chalk it up to a loss and you get ready for the next one, but we're always a team that prides ourselves on after a tough loss we come back and we answer right away. Well, tonight we didn't, and we did it the wrong way the whole game. It's disappointing."
No one in the dressing room was blaming goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has started each of the past four games, giving up 18 of the 20 goals. This was not on him, they said, not with the Bruins taking 45 shots, not with the lack of force and push and determination, as the rookie-loaded Bruins dominated, getting goals from three first-year players in Charlie McAvoy, Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk.

"To play like that for him at the end, it's embarrassing," Foligno said. "It's wrong."
It was, however, a view at what could be for the Blue Jackets, with Tortorella mentioning multiple times that Columbus is a young team that has "got to grow up a little bit."
For now, the Blue Jackets sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division. But in perhaps the toughest division in the NHL, every missed win and missed point and bad week could come back to haunt a team. And it hardly gets easier from here. The Blue Jackets return to Columbus to start a back-to-back on Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs at home (7:30 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, FS-O, NHL.TV), and Thursday at the Pittsburgh Penguins (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, ATTSN-PT, FS-O, NHL.TV).
"There's nothing I can give you guys that's going to be earth-shattering," Tortorella said. "Right through our lineup we were not a good hockey club tonight. We have been very inconsistent the last little while. We've got to try to keep our wits about ourselves, keep this stuff in the locker room as far as what we're trying to do, and just try to get better as an organization."