The Columbus Blue Jacket’s quest to end their four-season playoffs continues Tuesday when they are hosting the sinking Nashville Rovs.
Blue Jackets (33-30-9, 75 points) are two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the last Eastern Conference Wild card site. Columbus has another game to play than Montreal. The New York Rangers are also two points in front of Columbus, but they have two fewer games to play than Blue Jackets.
Columbus remains at the tip of a playoffs despite a largely forgetful Mars where the team went 4-8-1. The month included six losses in a row (0-5-1) and a distance where Blue Jackets scored only one goal over four matches.
Coach Dean Evason’s team will loss 3-2 loss on Sunday in Ottawa, a result that ended Columbus’s two-game winning line. Captain Boone Jenner and Kirill Marchenko scored Blue Jackets, who fell to a senator team that holds the conference’s top wild-card place.
“I would like to have a few minutes back during the second (period) there,” said defender Zach Werenski, who helped with both Columbus goals. “I feel we didn’t come to our game, but yes, (Ottawa’s) a good team. They also fight for the playoffs, and they didn’t give us much tonight.”
Werenski leads the team with 52 assists and 72 points. He has three assists in his last two matches after being held without points in six straight competitions. Marchenko has scored a goal in each of his last three matches after netting only one in his previous 10 races.
The predators (27-39-8, 62 points) have also fought too late and lost three straight and eight of the last 10 (2-7-1).
Nashville lost in Philadelphia 2-1 on Monday evening. Rookie Zachary L’Heureux scored goals, but a potential game-binding Steven Stamkos goal during the third period was waved due to disturbances, a conversation that the predator disputed.
The predators have only four goals in the last three matches, but it has not been due to the lack of effort. On Monday, they put 29 shots on the net.
“It has been this year’s history, is not to be able to take advantage of (on) the chance, and that is when it becomes frustrating,” Stamkos said after the loss to the flyer.
Stamkos is second in the team with 23 goals, but he has only one of his last ten matches after making five in a four-game.
Injuries are also a question for predators. The team lost the Center Colton Sissons to a left leg problem during a Saturday loss to Vegas Golden Knights and announced that he would be out for weeks. In the same statement, Nashville Centrum noted Jonathan Marchesault, who is second in the team with 30 assists and 49 points, each day to day with a lower bodily injury.
With Marchesault inaccessible on Monday, coach Andrew Brunette used an assortment of 11 forwards and seven defenders on Monday, and he can use that tactics again in Columbus.
However, a bright place for the predators has been their power-play device. Nashville had made with the men’s advantage in six straight matches before going 0-for-1 on Philadelphia.
Unlike the predators, Columbu’s power play endured a sad march and converted only two of its 28 possibilities (7.1 percent).
-Field level media
