When John Tortorella says he wants his team to "find a way" to win, this is what he had in mind.
Not always pretty, not always awful, but steady enough to get it done.
As they navigate choppy seas through the month of January and wait for injured players to get back, this is the type of effort they'll need. Their 3-2 shootout win over the Panthers gives them two important points to ensure they'll start the week in no worse than a tie for third in the Metropolitan Division.
SHOOT THE PUCK
Tortorella has been on his team to shoot the puck. They have to, and can't afford to be selective. Tonight's game was a volume-based approach; the Blue Jackets put a season-high 48 pucks on goal tonight, and James Reimer was up to the challenge for Florida.
It's the approach they have to stick to if they're going to come out of this injury wave in good shape. Shoot the puck, retrieve it, and try to create second and third opportunities. It doesn't have to be a work of art – it probably won't be on most nights – but if the puck's going in, that's all that matters.
POWER UP
Tortorella still refuses to talk about the power play, despite a good night at work for the league's 31st-ranked unit. "It's not fair," he reasoned, saying he doesn't want to talk about the power play only when it's scoring and then decline when it's struggling.
Ok, fair enough.
But we'll talk about it. Their approach was straightforward tonight and they managed to scrape a couple of goals through. Pierre-Luc Dubois (who we'll talk about in a minute) set up Nick Foligno in the first period for the captain's first goal in 11 games. Nice goal, well-executed, exactly what you want to see.
Seth Jones found Dubois in front of the net in the second period, another power play goal that came after a failed 5-on-3 but a goal that gave Columbus a 2-1 lead. Simple plays, playing to the outnumbered situation...just what they needed to do.
BOB SAVES
With Reimer keeping the Blue Jackets at bay, Sergei Bobrovsky needed a big night and he came through. He made 42 saves (.955 save percentage) and didn't have much of a chance on either Florida goal. In the shootout, he made one more save than Reimer to lock down the second point.
DISASTER AVERTED
The shootout line used by Tortorella was...questionable. Yeah, let's go with that.
He said post-game that GM Jarmo Kekalainen was giving him a hard time for tabbing Markus Hannikainen, and he could've presumed he had it coming. Hannikainen is a solid young player, but he's a fourth-liner who doesn't see much ice time and hasn't displayed much skill. An odd choice, but one of a few.
The Blue Jackets managed the win the shootout with Boone Jenner, Jack Johnson and Hannikainen shooting before leading goal scorer Josh Anderson, who (you guessed it) scored the game winner in the eighth round.
P-L-freakin-D
Another impressive night for the kid. He's coming along nicely and had two points (goal, assist) and played 24:59 – second-most among Blue Jackets forwards, behind Artemi Panarin – and had a noticeable impact on the game. Tortorella re-assembled the "PB&J" line and felt it would give them a spark, and he got the desired result.
Dubois is up to nine goals on the season and becoming one of Tortorella's most trusted forwards at only 19 years of age. It sure looks like Kekalainen and co. got this one right.
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