The view from Columbus

It’s going to be tough sledding for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who sit in 12th place in the Western Conference and, with 15 games remaining, are 10 points out of a playoff spot. Not impossible, not not easy, by any stretch. Rick Nash finished last night’s game with a monster total of eight shots on goal but got on the score sheet with only one assist. Here’s how last night’s Kings-Blue Jackets game was covered by the Columbus Dispatch, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Blue Jackets’ locker room…

Kings 4, Blue Jackets 2: Jackets pay the price for penalties

Blue Jackets notebook: Anxious moments after hit on King

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COACH SCOTT ARNIEL
(on the game…) “I thought we played very, very hard in the first. We out chanced them 9-2, 15 shots on goal and we’re losing 2-1 on a deflection and a rebound goal. The second period, we took four minors and took the whole flow out of our game. We put the big push on at the end and had some chances. Brass [Derick Brassard] had that great opportunity at the end. We couldn’t find a way to get it tied up.”

DERICK BRASSARD
(on the game…) “It’s been seven games that we have come up short with four or five games (losing) by one goal. We did a good push at the end. We took a lot of penalties in the second and it broke the flow of the game, and it’s pretty hard to kill penalties in the game. We show up with emotion in the third and we came up short again.”