COLUMBUS, Ohio — There were times last season when former Columbus Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said he was afraid to pick up the phone when head trainer Mike Vogt was calling. Even the losses couldn’t keep pace with the injuries and illnesses in 2022-23.

The last month of this season has felt eerily and unfortunately similar.

It’s felt as though the Blue Jackets have been fighting up a weight class all season, but their lineup these days is so ravaged as to be unrecognizable as an NHL roster. They fought the good fight for 2 1/2 periods again Thursday before falling to the New York Islanders 4-2 in Nationwide Arena.

Just before faceoff, the Jackets announced that leading scorer Johnny Gaudreau was out with an illness. He joined eight other lineup regulars on the shelf — Adam Boqvist (concussion), Yegor Chinakhov (upper-body injury), Adam Fantilli (lacerated calf), Boone Jenner (family matter), Sean Kuraly (lower-body), Kent Johnson (shoulder surgery), Patrik Laine (NHL/NHLPA players’ assistance program) and Elvis Merzlikins (illness).

But this is how it goes for the Blue Jackets right now:

• Goaltender Daniil Tarasov suffered a head or neck injury when he was clipped by Blue Jackets rookie defenseman David Jiricek late in the first period, requiring the help of two teammates to leave the ice under his own power. He did not return.

• Defenseman Jake Bean suffered an undisclosed injury in the third period — he didn’t play the final 7 1/2 minutes — and his chances for a return this season don’t sound great. “He’s going to be out for a while,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said.

For those scoring at home, the Blue Jackets are now playing without two-thirds of their top line, both of their top two faceoff centers, their top two goaltenders, one-half of their top defensive pair and four of their top seven goal-scorers.

“The guys played hard; there’s no question there,” Vincent said. “It’s hard to see (Tarasov) go down like this. He’s been playing so good. He’s created some momentum for himself and for the team. Just unfortunate.

“Adversity and challenges will define who you are as a person. Yes, we get hit in the guts right now. How we approach and fight through that, these are great lessons. The guys are showing a lot of character.”

Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and interim general manager John Davidson told The Athletic last week that the club would take a deep look at its training habits and conditioning this coming offseason, just as they did one year ago.

“I understand people looking at us and looking at the numbers and saying, ‘Something’s wrong,’” Davidson said. “It’s our job to figure out if something’s wrong.

“But when you think about some of the injuries that have happened… ”

Davidson’s point was that so many of these injuries are not preventable.

Jenner missed a month this season with a broken jaw. There is no amount of training that can make one’s face impervious to vulcanized rubber moving at 90-plus miles per hour.

Fantilli has missed two months and may miss the rest of the season after the back of his calf was sliced inadvertently by an opponent after a check. He was wearing cut-resistant socks, or the injury would have been much worse.

Nobody’s neck is meant to bend the way Tarasov’s did late in the first period on Thursday.

The Blue Jackets, though, are at 279 man-games lost, a number that has taken a sharp uptick in recent weeks. They’ve had more than 1,000 man-games lost over the last three seasons, including a franchise-record 563 last season.

“I’ve been here for three years, and it feels the same for three years,” said Vincent, who was an assistant for two seasons before being elevated to head coach this season. “We’re highly injured. It’s something we need to talk about this summer, and if there’s anything we can do… ”

It is widely held in the NHL, and all other professional sports, that there is no bigger abomination than a moral victory. But can we not make room for respectable losses? Thursday’s game by the Blue Jackets fits the bill.

The Blue Jackets came back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits in the first period.

Dmitry Voronkov scored a power-play goal at 9:45 of the first, when he redirected a Marchenko shot and pounced on his own rebound after his initial attempt hit the crossbar and kicked back into the crease. That was Voronkov’s 18th goal of the season.

Marchenko scored his own goal later in the second off a tremendous individual effort. He lifted the stick of Isles’ defenseman Noah Dobson to take possession of the puck below the goal line, then flipped the puck off the side of goaltender Ilya Sorokin’s mask and banked into the net.

That was Marchenko’s 21st goal of the season, matching his total as a rookie last season.

KIRILL BANKED IT IN! 😳 pic.twitter.com/abEpxh8mEx

— NHL (@NHL) April 5, 2024

But that was the end of the highlights for Columbus. At one point, they were getting outshot 38-15 by the Islanders, but they kept hanging around. Goaltender Jet Greaves, who stopped 24 of 25 shots after taking over for Tarasov, was pulled with 3:31 to play for an extra skater.

Not until the Islanders scored with 38 seconds remaining did hope leave the building.

The Blue Jackets’ third line — center Justin Danforth between James Malatesta and Mathieu Olivier — would have been the fourth line two weeks ago. The fourth line — center Brendan Gaunce between Trey Fix-Wolansky and Carson Meyer — was playing together for AHL Cleveland in early March.

Mikael Pyyhtia, who has zero points in 11 NHL games, played in the top six on Thursday.

“Every game is tough without our players,” Marchenko said. “Every player tried to fight and come back in this game. We had some chances.

“Every player is tired because the season is close to over. But we try to keep energy in the locker room. Every player is trying to give energy.”

(Photo of Blue Jackets goalie Daniil Tarasov and head trainer Mike Vogt: Ben Jackson / NHLI via Getty Images)