That was not a lot of fun to watch.
Just when it looked like they may have figured something out, the Columbus Blue Jackets served up one of their worst performances of the year in the second of two against the Stars.
Dallas had a 2-0 lead before the Blue Jackets registered their first shot on goal, and Columbus was shut out for only the second time this season as the 2015 NHL All-Stars jerseys picked up their first home win against Columbus in over five years, 5-0.
Here are three things from a sad Saturday night in Dallas.
NO GOOD NUMBERS
There were no good statistics from this game. No silver lining. No reason for hope. The Blue Jackets were miserable. They were on the power play, going 0-for-3 and looking lost nearly the entire time on the man-advantage. They had fewer shots, fewer hits, fewer faceoff wins (surprise, surprise), fewer scoring chances, the list goes on. Only Oliver Bjorkstrand and Zach Werenski, at three each, registered more than two shots on goal. If they measured intensity, it would have been a bad stat, too.
LAINE NEEDS SHOTS
Remember when Columbus traded for Patrik Laine and immediately acquired one of their best offensive weapons in team history? Remember those two wicked power play goals he scored in a February 23rd shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks?
He's got exactly zero goals and zero assists since then, a span of six games and 111 minutes, 27 seconds on the ice. During those nearly two hours of ice time, he has a total of 13 shots.
This is not ideal for your best player, especially when that best player has already expressed frustration less than 20 games into his Blue Jackets career.
IT SHOULD HAVE BETTER, THOUGH
Dallas went ahead less than three minutes into the game on a goal by Jason Dickinson that went to review and was upheld, though even the call standing seemed iffy at best.
Because the goal stood, the Stars were given a power play, and it took less than a minute for this to happen:
2-0 #GoStars
— Alison (@AlisonL) March 7, 2021
Sustained pressure on the power play gives Dallas the chances and the two-goal lead. #CBJ pic.twitter.com/yVeEziOFyJ
If that call is reversed, we're looking at a game that remains scoreless - and who knows what happens from there? Columbus did settle down for a bit and even looked poised to score on a few occasions late in the first period and early in the second, but Dallas scored their third goal of the game in the middle of the second to take a 3-0 lead, and when Nick Foligno came up short on the best opportunity of the night for Columbus, it wasn't long before the Stars would add their 4th and 5th goals of the night for the 5-0 win.
