Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason didn’t mince words after his team’s 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Thursday at Nationwide Arena. “We were passive tonight. We were soft. We’ve got to play hard. If we’re going to win hockey games, we’ve got to play hard and we didn’t play hard enough tonight in order to win.”

The game didn’t start that way. After a pregame tribute to Cam Atkinson, who signed a one-day contract with the Blue Jackets so that he could retire in the city where he has lived with his family since joining the team 13 years ago, Columbus was able to keep Colorado off the board in the first period, then take a lead in the second.

With just 1:36 gone in the second frame, Ivan Provorov scored on a wrist shot from the left circle after taking a pass from Kirill Marchenko, who had circled behind the net. Except for two goals that were waived off for either a hand shot or hand pass later in the contest, the Blue Jackets wouldn’t threaten again.

The Avalanche, one of the fastest and most talented teams in the National Hockey League, dictated the speed and effort level the rest of the way. They answered Provorov’s score with three goals in the second period and an empty-netter in the third.

Cale Makar and Brock Nelson scored the first two for Colorado, with Valeri Nichushkin adding the final two of the night.

In their previous three games, the Blue Jackets’ special teams’ less than stellar play was at the heart of their 1-2 start. Columbus is dead last in the NHL with a penalty kill percentage of 50%, while its power play is scoring 11.1% of the time, 25th in the League. Against Colorado, the Blue Jackets killed off the only Avs’ power play, but didn’t score on their lone PP opportunity.

At the core of Thursday’s loss was a lackluster preformance that didn’t look anything like the Jackets’ drive in their first three contests. 

“I think it’s mostly on us,” said Columbus captain Boone Jenner after the game when asked if the loss was something that Colorado did or his team didn’t do.

“The last three games we played like we were supposed to. I know, in two out of the three games, we didn’t get the result that we wanted and probably deserved better, but today, I just don’t think we played the way we usually play.”

Columbus won’t have to wait long before having a chance to redeem themselves in front of the Fifth Line. Tampa Bay comes to town Saturday for a game beginning at 7:00 p.m. The team will continue to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a number of former players on hand, as well as the Blue Jackets’ first head coach, Dave King.