Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason didn't try to hide his frustration after the longest night of his short NHL career.

He was upset with the team's performance last night in a 9-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, candid about the repeated breakdowns he has seen this season and miffed at derisive cheers directed at him in the final minutes.

Mason allowed a career-high eight goals. He was replaced by Mathieu Garon midway through the first period, but was reinserted to start the second period because coach Ken Hitchcock did not believe Mason was to blame.

"It is one game, but at the same time, there was a game with a season full of mistakes there," said Mason, who stopped 27 shots. "We have a lot of cleaning up to do.

"There were poor choices, turnovers, not winning board battles -- stuff we've been talking about all year. The Red Wings highlighted those for us."

Mason, the NHL Rookie of the Year last season, has yielded six goals in two other games this season. The Jackets entered play last night ranked 27th in goals-against average at 3.59 despite a 9-6-2 record.

"We have been in a good position all year, but we haven't really earned it," Mason said. "We have not played that well for the entire season."

Mason was victimized by deflections off teammates, redirections from the Red Wings and plenty of traffic in his crease. He is often quick to take responsibility for bad goals but thought he was at fault for only one goal last night: the eighth one -- by Justin Abdelkader -- that beat him between the pads.

With 1:05 remaining, he caught a long shot from Patrick Eaves and heard mock cheers from the remaining fans, many of whom were probably Red Wings supporters. "The fans giving me the cheer when you stop an easy long shot, but when you look at the game, there was only one goal that was a stoppable puck," Mason said.

"It's not nice to hear that from your home fans. You are out there trying your best, and things aren't going your way. Hearing them do that is not a great feeling, but at the same time, they paid to see their hockey team play a good game, and we didn't come out with that."

Hitchcock was told of Mason's reaction. "It goes with the territory," the coach said. "We all should have got it."

Torres injured

Jackets left wing Raffi Torres was struck in the face with a deflected puck late in the first period. He did not return and is not expected to play Friday.

Torres, the team's second-leading goal scorer with eight, was hit in the jaw or cheek, Hitchcock said. Torres was parked in front of the Detroit net when Marc Methot's point shot got deflected high in the slot by the Red Wings' Darren Helm with 2:50 left in the period.

Torres got to his feet almost immediately and was helped off the ice.

Slap shots

Last night's crowd of 15,304 was the smallest to witness a Jackets-Wings game in Nationwide Arena. The previous mark was 16,089 on Oct. 24, 2005. ... Since the Jackets' record-setting 8-2 win in Detroit on March 7 last season, the Wings have outscored them 31-8, including the playoffs.

treed@dispatch.com