Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen docks Johnny Gaudreau’s ice time in latest loss

For the first three months of this season, the hard-skating, point-a-game production of left winger Johnny Gaudreau was just about the only part of the plan that was going according to the script for the Blue Jackets.

But now, even Gaudreau, the club’s big free-agent signing over the summer, has fallen on hard times.

The Blue Jackets, though badly outplayed, somehow stayed within sniffing distance of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday until the early stages of the third period when the roof collapsed under ill-timed penalties.

The Lightning, who scored three power-play goals and swept the three-game season series, won 6-3 in Amalie Arena thanks to a four-point night from modern-day Jackets-killer Nikita Kucherov, who had two goals and two assists.

It was another loss in a season that’s already full of them for Columbus, but there was a wrinkle in the ice time — as doled out by Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen — that will most certainly raise eyebrows.

Gaudreau played a season-low 14 minutes and 35 seconds, drawing only four shifts in the third period. His 3:37 of ice time in the third period — he went only five minutes between his penultimate and final shift — was the lowest on the club.

“There’s better in him, you know what I mean?” Larsen told reporters in Florida. “He’s a leader. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing with. We’re missing 10 NHL guys (from the lineup), so whoever it (is) on the ice, you have to give it.”

Other than Carson Meyer, who left the game with an upper-body injury, the only player who played fewer shifts than Gaudreau (15) was second-year center Cole Sillinger (14).

For the third time in seven games, Gaudreau was held without a shot on goal. In the 13 games since center Boone Jenner suffered a broken thumb — the two played together from the start of the season — Gaudreau has 1-6-7 with a minus-12 rating.

The loss was the Blue Jackets’ 10th straight in regulation on the road, a new franchise record. The all-time franchise mark for being winless on the road (losses plus overtime and shootout losses) is 14, set during the 2002-03 season.

The Blue Jackets nearly got blown out of the rink in the first period. Tampa Bay scored only 100 seconds into the game when Jack Roslovic turned over the puck on one end of the ice and blew a defensive assignment on the other, allowing Kucherov an easy tip at net front.

“I feel like they’re one of the better teams in the league in making you pay for mistakes,” Larsen said. “They’re really good at that.

“I’ve said it before: they score easy. That’s not disrespect, either, that’s saying they know how to take a turnover and make you pay for it. Puck management is always paramount against them.”

It was 2-0 by the end of the second, with Tampa Bay churning up 21 shots on goal against an exhausted Blue Jackets starter, Elvis Merzlikins.

The Blue Jackets started to hang around in the second period, though, winning more puck battles and playing smarter with the puck. When Gavin Bayreuther scored at 7:04 of the second, they had new life, down 2-1.

Here’s something else Tampa Bay does well, though: score “answer” goals. Each time the Blue Jackets got within a goal, the Lightning responded, quickly, before any measure of confidence could build on the Columbus bench.

Only 3:21 after Bayreuther’s goal, Tampa Bay’s Vladislav Namestnikov scored to make it 3-1.

When Blue Jackets’ rookie defensemen Tim Berni scored the first goal of his NHL career to make it 3-2 at 4:35 of the third, Kucherov scored a power-play goal only 1:58 later to make it 4-2.

Merzlikins, coming off his best outing of the season on Sunday in Washington, D.C., played quite well in the first two periods for the Blue Jackets — but he was a part of his own unraveling. His delay-of-game penalty at 6:22 of the third put the Lightning on the power play before Kucherov scored.

It took only 11 seconds. In 24 career regular-season games vs. Columbus, Kucherov has 13 goals and 22 assists.

From there, Tampa played pile-on. Brayden Point scored a power-play goal at 12:22 and Ross Colton scored just 1:26 later to make it 6-2.

“You get to 3-2 and you’re feeling good,” Larsen said. “But then, yeah, that’s what happens and now you’re down two, down three real quick.”

The Blue Jackets’ final tally was by Kirill Marchenko, who has nine goals in 17 games but can’t get off the fourth line. He played only 13:13 on Tuesday and has seen limited ice time since scoring his first NHL hat trick on Saturday vs. Carolina.

After the game, Bayreuther, speaking to Bally Sports Ohio’s Dave Maetzold, said the Blue Jackets “gave up again” during the final stretch of the game on Tuesday.

“First and foremost, (Tampa Bay’s) power play is lethal,” Bayreuther said. “Kucherov is one of the best half-wall guys in the league.

“That being said, I think we gave up again. Guys get frustrated. It’s hard. It’s really hard to win in this league, clearly. But it’s very unfortunate.”

(Photo: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)