Friday night in Winnipeg, the Blue Jackets got on the board first, built a multigoal lead, played from ahead and finished off a 4-1 victory over the Jets.
Sunday night at home against Detroit, the Blue Jackets let Detroit score first and build a multigoal lead, and playing from behind, Columbus never quite could catch the Red Wings in a 4-2 loss.
There are more comeback wins than ever before in the NHL, but just four teams so far this season have a winning record when giving up the first goal. It underscores the value of not making it too hard on yourself to win games, and the Blue Jackets said they simply made it too difficult on themselves to get the victory two nights ago in Detroit.
"I think it was just execution and some systems stuff, but plays with the puck, we just hurt ourselves there," captain Boone Jenner said. "They were able to build momentum on it. By the time we found our game, we were in a hole, and it's always tough to play out of that. I think it's just earlier starts, get to our game right away. It wasn't there for the first little bit, and we have them chances, let them get into the game, and it ended up hurting us."
The Blue Jackets don't have time to reflect too much on that performance, but the reality is they hope to be better as they go into another difficult atmosphere in which to play tonight against Pittsburgh.
"We need to learn and move on," defenseman Marcus Bjork said.
