Dubois' two goals lead Los Angeles Kings past Columbus Blue Jackets: 4 takeaways
LOS ANGELES — Another opportunity for the Blue Jackets to win consecutive games eluded them again Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
After having the game’s first goal by Johnny Gaudreau wiped out with a goaltender interference challenge, the Jackets never recovered and lost 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, a former Blue Jackets center, scored two goals, Quinton Byfield had two points (goal, assist), Drew Doughty had two points (goal, assist) and Kevin Fiala scored the second of two power-play goals for the Kings (28-16-10). Cam Talbot picked up the goaltending win for Los Angeles, making 33 saves, and Elvis Merzlikins took the loss.
Adam Boqvist scored the lone goal for the Blue Jackets (17-27-10), who’d won 4-3 on Saturday in San Jose. They haven’t won consecutive games since Nov. 22-24 over the Chicago Blackhawks and New Jersey Devils.
“We’ve got to ramp it up if we want to get wins in this league,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “I mean, that’s a good team, and we’re not there. Our compete level’s got to go up if we’re going to have a chance.”
Here are four takeaways:≍
Los Angeles Kings give Columbus Blue Jackets hard lesson in NHL maturity
The Kings were the more physical, owning the most dangerous arease at both ends of the rink. Using advantages in size, strength and experience level, Los Angeles steadily took over the game after a solid start for Columbus.
After the final horn sounded, the Kings had a wide edge in one of the most important statistical measures outside of goals. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blue Jackets faced a huge deficit in 5-on-5 scoring chances from high-danger areas (15-8). The Kings also finished with sizeable advantages in 5-on-5 scoring chances (26-21) and shots (33-25).
“Their physical maturity was quite evident,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. “That’s a real good team (the Kings) that can sustain O-zone play, because they’re strong physically. Their forwards are big. They can protect the puck and they get the other team on their heels because of that. I thought that was a major component of the game tonight.”
Jenner thought it was more about effort.
“The second half of the first wasn’t as good as the first half,” he said. “We just didn’t play hard enough or good enough to win tonight. It’s a stingy team and you’ve got to work for your chances – and we didn’t do that enough.”
Columbus Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau can’t buy a goal
Gaudreau’s goal drought continued thanks to a second straight game in which a goal he scored was wiped out by a coaching challenge.
The Blue Jackets have veterans who are fully developed in terms of strength and bulk, but most of their roster is comprised of younger, less developed “kids” for lack of a better termSaturday night in San Jose, it was a missed offside entry into the Sharks’ zone before Gaudreau jammed the puck inside the right post early in the second period. This time, it was goaltender interference that wiped out a goal that would’ve put the Blue Jackets up 1-0 in the first period.
Replays showed Boone Jenner shove a Kings defender into Talbot just before Gaudreau got to a loose puck and hit the back of the net with it. It continued a string of bad luck for the Jackets’ top left wing while shooting the puck.
Gaudreau hasn’t scored a goal since the calendar flipped to 2024, last getting one that counted Dec. 29 against Toronto.
There is a bright side, though, and that’s been his overall play since the Jackets’ swing through Western Canada, Seattle and St. Louis in January. Despite no goals to his credit, he’s added 12 assists in the past 12 games to help others put the puck in the net.
Pierre-Luc Dubois haunts Columbus Blue Jackets with two-goal game
There’s no sugar-coating Dubois’ first season with the Kings thus far, after Los Angeles traded a lot of assets to get him last summer from the Winnipeg Jets.
His production lagged immensely from what was expected, he plummeted down the lineup and the former Blue Jackets center has been depicted as a selfish locker room cancer.
It’s not pretty.
Without knowing that background, however, it would be impossible to know how rough Dubois’ season has gone just by going off his play Tuesday against the Blue Jackets. He scored two of the Kings’ first three goals on a shot off a power-play rush late in the first period and a slow shot underneath Merzlikins’ pads in the second.
Dubois even finished with a +2 plus/minus rating, which improved his team-low –16 by two points.
Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield pulls of jaw-dropping goal against Columbus Blue Jackets
Gaudreau’s overturned goal would’ve given the Blue Jackets the game’s first lead. Instead, it killed momentum kept the game 0-0 and allowed the Kings to score first on Byfield’s goal with 1:38 left in the opening frame.
Byfield’s goal was anything but a pedestrian effort.
The Kings skilled power forward beat Zach Werenski by putting the puck between his legs, went inside the Blue Jackets defenseman while also beating Boqvist and scored with a backhand after kicking the puck to his stick. Byfield was on one knee before getting the shot off.
It was a fantastic individual effort for his 18th goal, showing on one play why he was drafted second overall by the Kings in the 2020 NHL draft.
QUINTON BYFIELD, OH MY. WHAT A GOAL. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/5RCquDDksT
— NHL (@NHL) February 21, 2024
“I think our goal (by Gaudreau) should’ve been a goal but they decided it in Toronto,” Boqvist said. “There was so much time left in the game. It was early in the first, so you can’t think about that too much. You try to just get it out of the mind right away and move on, but that was a nice goal. I should’ve helped (Werenski) better there on that play, and it’s on me. It’s tough.”
Byfield didn’t experience immediate success in the NHL, but he’s starting to transform into quite a player. He’s the league’s latest example that just throwing top prospects into the NHL and expecting greatness is often a fool’s errand.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Dubois leads Los Angeles Kings past Columbus Blue Jackets: 4 takeaways
