What went wrong for Oilers, Jackets

A season which began with optimism for the Columbus Blue Jackets and Edmonton Oilers has now become a nightmare.

The Blue Jackets entered 2009-10 coming off their first playoff appearance in franchise history, while the Oilers — having made changes behind the bench and in goal — were expecting to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

Instead of being in playoff contention both clubs enter the New Year mired in the bottom of the Western Conference standings and in danger of falling out of the postseason chase.

So what happened to bring these two promising clubs down this low? It hasn’t been a single problem but rather several, some which both teams share.

Goaltending has been a common issue. The Oilers brought in veteran Nikolai Khabibulin last summer to be their starter but he struggled with a bad back which eventually sidelined him in late November. Backup Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers has done his best but it’s clear in relief that he’s not yet ready to be a full-time starting goalie.

The Blue Jackets made the playoffs last season in large part to the goaltending of Steve Mason, who won the Calder trophy as rookie of the year with his 33-win, 2.29 GAA, 10-shutout performance. This season, however, Mason is mired in a sophomore slump, with only 11 victories in 32 games, a bloated 3.18 goals-against average and only two shutouts. His backup, Mathieu Garon, has performed only marginally better.

Injuries have also taken a significant toll for both clubs. In addition to Khabibulin, Oilers forwards Ales Hemsky, Mike Comrie and Fernando Pisani were also sidelined for lengthy periods. Losing Hemsky, their top playmaker, for the season with a shoulder injury was the biggest blow.

The most significant loss for the Blue Jackets was defenseman Rostislav Klesla, out since early December with a torn groin. Prior to Klesla’s injury the Jackets were 13-9-4 and held one of the lower playoff berths in the Conference. Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 2 they’ve struggled without him, going 2-10-5.

Another shared factor is some of their young players haven’t performed up to expectations.

In addition to Mason’s struggles, sophomore center Derick Brassard is off the torrid pace of his rookie campaign prior to missing the second half of 2008-09 with a shoulder injury.

It’s been worse for the Oilers as Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert, Patrick O’Sullivan and Robert Nilsson were first-half disappointments, coming nowhere near their recent career-best numbers.

The two clubs are struggling at both ends of the rink. As of Jan. 3, the Oilers were 19th in goals-per-game average while the Blue Jackets were 24th. In goals-against average, the Jackets were 26th overall, the Oilers 27th.

On special teams, however, the Jackets — with the sixth-best power play and sitting 14th overall in penalty killing — were doing considerably better than the Oilers, who had the third-worst penalty kill and sat 17th on the power play.

The Jackets also had no problem generating shots — 11th overall in that department — but their low production on even-strength indicated their forwards weren’t capitalizing enough on their opportunities. That’s noteworthy when one considers, as the Columbus Dispatch recently observed, six of their last 10 losses were by one goal, never scoring more than two goals in those 10 losses.

Superstar winger Rick Nash, with 38 points in 43 games, is having another fine season but it appears the club is relying too much on his line for the bulk of their offensive production. Lacking second line support, particularly at even-strength, the Jackets aren’t mustering enough offense to get the job done.

As for the Oilers, they were getting good offensive production earlier in the season from forwards Dustin Penner and Gilbert Brule, but over the past 10 games their numbers have significantly declined. Brule had six points in December — half of those coming against the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 11 — while Penner had eight, half of those coming in that same game.

The coaching staffs of both clubs have done considerable line-juggling in recent weeks but nothing seems to be working.

Jackets general manager Scott Howson tried shaking things up with a late-December trade, sending speedy two-way winger Jason Chimera to the Washington Capitals for big blueliner Milan Jurcina and gritty checking forward Chris Clark.

It remains to be seen if these moves work out in the long run but in their first three games, the Jackets had a record of 0-2-1.

At least the Jackets could afford to attempt a potential season-saving trade.

Oilers fans are demanding GM Steve Tambellini move players like Shawn Horcoff, Sheldon Souray, and Lubomir Visnovky for younger, swifter talent but those three carry expensive contracts with no-trade clauses which are almost impossible to move in the midst of the season in today’s salary-cap world.

Could a coaching change help either team? In the case of the Oilers, having only hired Pat Quinn and Tom Renney in the offseason they won’t go that route.

As for the Jackets, it’s possible the players may be growing weary of Ken Hitchcock’s demanding ways, but it appears Howson has no plans on firing his coach.

With the season half over both clubs still have enough time to get back into the playoff hunt but if they’re unable to gain any ground in the standings in January those postseason hopes could be dashed, which could result in some salary-dumping moves at the trade deadline and perhaps coaching changes by season’s end.