The Columbus Blue Jackets flirted with earning a Stanley Cup Playoff spot last season, but faded down the stretch and ultimately fell short. And to this point within the 2025-26 NHL season, their record leaves plenty to be desired, and head coach Dean Evason wasn’t shy about letting them learn about it.
The Blue Jackets were defeated on home ice at Nationwide Arena by the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Thursday evening, a 4-1 final rating. And afterward, Evason said he felt that his club showed an excessive amount of respect to the talented Avalanche.
“That’s an excellent team, but we probably gave them way an excessive amount of respect and didn’t get to our game and play the way in which we play, and that was the disappointing thing tonight,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said via NHL.com.
“They’ve good players and so will we. That’s not how we play. We were passive tonight. We were soft. We’ve got to play hard. If we’re going to win hockey games, we’ve got to play hard and we didn’t play hard enough tonight to win.”
Evason continued by saying they simply didn’t compete at an adequate level.
“The primary three (games), we liked the way in which we played. We didn’t like how we played tonight,” he said via Jeff Svoboda on X. “We didn’t play hard enough tonight so as to win — ignore playing against that team, against any team within the (NHL).”
It was also the second straight game that Dean Evason blasted his team within the wake of a loss, as he did after their 3-2 defeat by the hands of the Latest Jersey Devils on Monday.
The Blue Jackets have won only one in every of 4 games to start this season
The Blue Jackets have not gotten off to the beginning that they wanted to this point this campaign, having won only one in every of their first 4 games.
They won 7-4 over the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 11, but that is still their only victory. They’ve dropped contests against the Nashville Predators, Devils, and Avalanche. Due to their 1-3-0 record, they’re second-to-last within the Metropolitan Division standings.
The Blue Jackets may have a probability to attempt to right the ship of their next game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Nationwide Arena on Saturday evening.