I spent nine-plus years covering Ohio State football in a past life, five of them when Jim Tressel was the coach.
Tressel was nothing if not predictable, and he had his sayings that he liked to include in his press conferences. One was, "You get as your works deserve," which is probably a fair assessment of last night's loss to the Canes.
Another, though, was an old coaching maxim, and it went a little something like this -- when you put on the tape, you're never as good as you think after a huge win, and you're never as bad as you think after a rough loss.
I don't remember the exact wording -- that didn't exactly roll off the tongue -- but the coach was right. We like to think of games as black and white, but there are always shades of gray -- chances that could have gone either way, pucks that missed sticks by an inch, shots that catch the post and either go in or don't. Sports really is a game of inches, and hockey might be a game of millimeters.
That's not to say last night's game was pretty by any stretch. Credit to Carolina, first off, which attacks aggressively in waves and makes it so hard to get out of the defensive zone, especially when your team is struggling to find confidence in that realm. And I'm not suggesting Columbus was great last night, either -- it's very clear this team has work to do defensively.
But a couple of things made me think after last night's game. First off, look around. Toronto lost a 5-1 lead in a 6-5 overtime loss to Ottawa, while defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay gave up six in a loss to rival Florida. These things happen, especially this year, with goals up all across the league.
Secondly, I was looking back to see the last time Columbus gave up seven goals, and I had forgotten it happened twice last year -- both times in October, as Columbus suffered a 7-2 loss to Pittsburgh in its second game of the year and then a 7-4 loss at Philadelphia later in the month. That team ended up being a pretty good defensive squad, if you remember correctly.
That's just to say bad days happen, and things can turn around. It has to happen quickly this year with the truncated schedule, but history shows it's still far too early to close the book on what this team can become, even amid the current frustrations and inconsistencies.
"We have to be way better than that and play a lot harder and have a little bit of arrogance and just get back on the right track going forward and look back at some of the good things we did, because there were some good things," Cam Atkinson said after the game.
I think he's right on the swagger front. Right now, the Blue Jackets are looking for it. And the thing about sports is you never know when you're gonna find it.
