What We Learned: EDM 7, CBJ 2

It didn't start great, it escalated quickly and then it just got ugly.
In the blink of an eye, the Edmonton Oilers turned a 2-0 lead against the Columbus Blue Jackets into a 7-2 rout on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena, scoring three of four goals in the second-period in the final 3:18.
It was swift. It was decisive. It wasn't over, either.
Columbus (19-11-1) rallied for goals by Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jack Johnson in the third, cutting it to 5-2 with 11:01 left, but the Oilers (13-16-2) tacked on two more for good measure - scored by Jesse Puljujarvi and Connor McDavid, who set each other up off 2-on-1 rushes.
"We just weren't ready to go, and they fed it to us tonight," Blue Jackets captain Nick FoligThis was a disappointing game. Sloppy. No execution, no … nothing. It wasn't us."

McDavid had a goal and three assists to lead Edmonton, which ended a five-game losing streak in this building that stretched back to the 2012-13 season.
Matt Benning, former Blue Jacket Mark Letestu and Puljujarvi each had a goal and assist for the Oilers, who finished a road trip 2-1-0. Laurent Brossoit made 28 saves, and even got on the scoresheet with an assist on Benning's goal.
The Blue Jackets entered the game with wins in their previous two games, after sweeping a back-to-back this past weekend. Those wins were a response to a letdown last week against the New Jersey Devils, and here they are again.
This time, their malaise led to Sergei Bobrovsky allowing five goals on 26 shots, and being replaced by Joonas Korpisalo for the third.
"We take a lot of pride in the way we play every night, and that usually results in whether you win or lose, and you might lose by one or two goals at the most," veteran forward Matt Calvert said. "We hung 'Bobby' out to dry tonight. We just kept sitting back, sitting back and he made some big saves for us. It's just too bad we did that to him. We didn't show up."
Here are six things we learned:
I: NO SPARK
They've tried all season to get more than one line clicking, but it just isn't happening yet. It stood out again, even when the game was close in the first period and early second. The Jackets' top line of Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Josh Anderson created almost all the scoring chances, as the other three lines struggled to generate much of anything.
Coach John Tortorella began mixing and matching lines, but still nothing worked. Meanwhile, the Oilers started taking over the game, especially after going up 2-0 in the second. They outshot the Blue Jackets 18-6 in that period, held the puck for most of it and scored three goals in less than four minutes to close it out.
The last one was scored shorthanded, during the Blue Jackets' second power play, to make it 5-0. The Jackets' season-long issue on the power play is well documented, and now their lack of offensive production outside the top unit is too.
It's an issue the Blue Jackets must figure out.
"I mean, we need to get going," Foligno said. "Let's be honest. We're not going to be a good team, with one line, for very long. We've got to find a way to generate, and take it upon ourselves to stop talking about it and do it. Hopefully we get some guys going after a really disappointing showing tonight."
II: NO 'MCDAVID RULES'
Seth Jones' father, Popeye, played against and with Michael Jordan during his NBA career. Jones has also seen the ESPN "30-for-30" documentary on the 1989-90 Detroit Pistons, and is familiar with the "Jordan Rules," which the Pistons devised as a way to defend Jordan during their back-to-back championship runs.
Jones, however, said there's no correlation between that sort of team effort to defend one player and what it takes to defend McDavid - one of the NHL's most dynamic players.
"Just keep him in front of you, that's the most important thing," Jones said. "Once he gets a little bit of space, it's tough to stop him. I do my best to gap it up, try to stay close to him. Still, even then, there's not much you can do sometimes. He's a great player. He's going to make plays no matter what."
The Jackets saw it firsthand late in the second, when McDavid assisted on two goals to blow the game open. They saw it again late in the third, when he set up Puljujarvi for his third assist and then tapped home a goal from Puljujarvi to complete the scoring.
"They're game-breakers," Foligno said of players like McDavid. "That's the biggest thing. You have guys in the league who can literally take over a game single-handedly. We kind of feel like we have one right now in Artemi Panarin. This guy [McDavid] is one for them. When he's firing on all cylinders, he's a very dangerous and scary player - not that we have the fear, but you have to respect him, because that's how good he is."
III: FOLIGNO'S SHOWS SOME FIGHT
Foligno finally had enough early in the third, trailing 5-0. Columbus did nothing with its carryover power-play time to start the period, and Foligno picked up a roughing call at 3:40. Sixteen seconds after getting out of the penalty box, he got into a fight with Edmonton's Jujhar Khaifa during a post-whistle scrum.
Foligno won the scrap decidedly, and Columbus soon scored its first goal. Bjorkstrand scored less than a minute after Foligno went back to the box, and Johnson followed with his goal less than three minutes later.
"Just [looking for] some sort of emotion, just something," Foligno said. "I was as [mad] as hopefully anybody in here, so it's something I can bring and I haven't done enough of it. It was just one of those things."
It was too little, much too late. But it was good to see some life pumped back into the Jackets.
"It was a spark," Calvert said. "A fight like that sparks our bench. To tell you the truth, the bench was dead all night, for whatever reason, and he obviously gave us a spark in the third. But we've got to find a way to do that earlier in the game, push back earlier and give ourselves a shot."
Late in the third, the Jackets had another scrap. That one didn't go so well, as center Brandon Dubinsky fought Kassian off a face-off. He barely had time to drop his glove before taking a straight left hand to the face, around his right eye. Dubinsky, who was bleeding, covered up immediately and was taken off the ice.
No update was given after the game.
IV: SHORTHANDED SURPRISE
It doesn't happen often at Nationwide Arena. In fact, it almost never happens. The Oilers, however, made it happen twice - scoring power-play goals against Columbus on the Jackets' home ice.
Entering the game, the Blue Jackets were ranked 1st in the NHL in home penalty killing (40-of-42), but went 2-for-4 in this game. It was the first time they allowed a home power-play goal since Oct. 30 against the Boston Bruins, ending a string of 22 straight successful home penalty kills.
V: LETESTU LEADS THE WAY
A former Blue Jacket made a difference for Edmonton, as center Mark Letestu had a hand in two of the Oilers' first five goals. That included the first goal of the game, scored by Zack Kassian at 5:55 of the first period.
Letestu made a great play at the right point to hold the puck in the Columbus zone, sent a pass to Anton Slepyshev and got a return feed while cruising to the net for a 2-on-1. He sent a cross-ice pass for the goal, and then scored shorthanded with less than a second left in the second period.
VI: TOUGH NIGHT
The first period was OK, but not great. Parts of the third were decent, but still pretty bad. Overall, it was a forgettable night for Columbus defensemen.
The top two pairings each finished with negative plus/minus ratings, including Zach Werenski posting a career-low minus-3, and two defensemen - David Savard and Scott Harrington - committed penalties that turned into power-play goals.
"The first thing that sticks out to me is, I think we gave up more 2-on-1s tonight than we have all year," Johnson said. "I think that's the most disappointing thing, is we didn't give ourselves a chance. We definitely didn't give our goalies a chance. That's probably the most disappointing thing out of the night, because we're a more responsible team than that."