On Friday, the Blue Jackets were in the second game of a home and home series with the Minnesota Wild. And for the second straight game, they looked like a really bad hockey team. So bad in fact, that I should have saved my rant about them in my last blog, and used it today.

You see, on Tuesday when they played, they scored four goals, which is really good for a hockey team that is lacking players who can consistently score or create opportunities for others to score.

On Friday, no one scored. They were shut out by the Wild on their home ice. On top of that, Jackets all-star goaltender, Joonas Korpisalo, who just returned from injury, was pulled from the game after giving up the teams 4th goal in the second period.

Now to Korpi’s defense, he didn’t have a defense. The defense has been a no show for the team since they lost Seth Jones. This has also been a problem for the team’s rookie goaltenders, Elvis Merzlikins, and Matiss Kivlenieks.

There were a couple of goals that were given up that should have been saved by Korpi, but other than that, the team’s goaltenders have been on islands lately, seeing shots from every direction.

The two teams were nearly even in shots on goal, with the Wild having 26 and the Jackets having 24. The Jackets had several scoring opportunities and managed to blow all of them. Whether it was a missed shot, botched pass, couldn’t bring the pass in on a break away. Literally, pick any way to mess up a scoring opportunity, the Jackets did it.

Like I said earlier, the defense wasn’t much better either. It’s hard to ask so much from a group of guys who were supposed to be with the organizations AHL team most of the year, if not all of it. Unfortunately, that’s what the team has been forced to do, and at first it was working, but recently, things have been falling apart rather quickly.

The Jackets will be back in Columbus, taking on the Canucks on Sunday. I feel like this is a winnable game for them, with the Canucks being a hit or miss team recently, going 4-5 in their last nine games. With that being said, the Jackets only have one win in their last eleven games so, who really knows.

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