PITTSBURGH VS COLUMBUS
NATIONWIDE ARENA – COLUMBUS, OHIO
7:30 PM EST. CNBC/ROOT SPORTS
PENS LEAD THE SERIES 3-0
I kinda feel like I owe everyone an apology. When I said things were gonna get weird in game 3, I didn’t expect it to take 11 seconds to get there. Woof.
Anyways, Merry Sweepmas Eve to you and yours.
Tonight the Pens return to Shittier-Cincinnati for game 4 in an arena I definitely did not need to look up the name of before the series started.
As this series has worn on there’s been times where I’ve felt genuinely bad for Blue Jacket fans. This is their only pro-sports franchise, they’ve never won a playoff series, their most famous fan is a tie between Kirk Herbstreit and that guy who takes his shirt off and dances at games. If CBJ had won Sunday night it would have been unequivocally the greatest win in franchise history. That’s depressing as hell.
But then you see shit like this….
The future is a just and full string of nows.
Lines: The big news here is that Zach Werenski is out for the rest of the playoffs with a broken face. I’m guessing they’ll bring in Marcus Nutivaara but Kyle Quincey is still in the NHL too evidently. Calvert will be back in the lineup as well after his acquittal. Who knows what Torts is gonna do with his lines now. The Pens have no reason to change anything or rush anyone back. (UPDATE: Harrington broke his face too I guess so both Nutivaara and Quincey will draw in tonight)
Pittsburgh:
Mayor of Columbus-Crosby-Sheary
Rust-Malkin-Kessel
Wilson-Bonino-Hornqvist
Rowney-Cullen-Kuhnhackl
Dumoulin-Hainsey
Cole-Schultz
Maatta-Daley
Fleury-Jarry
Cbus:
Atkinson-Dubinsky-Foligno
Saad-Wennberg-Bjorkstrand
Jenner-Gagner-Hartnell
Calvert-Karlsson-Anderson
Jones-Savard
Johnson-Carlsson
Nuutivara-Quincey
Bob-Korpisalo
Being down 3-0 is about as a mentally challenging position as a team can be in. The Jackets are either going to come out both cannons blazing and go down in a hail of big dumb slow hitting cannonballs or they’re gonna roll over and die without so much as a whimper. The Pens have been victimized all series by poor starts, probably because each Lumbus player touches this before hitting the ice to get them to maximum jam level.
Inspiring stuff.
It’s all about the long game now for the Pens. This becomes an important one because if ever there was a team who could use an extra few days off to get healthy it’s this Pens squad. Slow starts be damned they need to come out fast and finish this series off.
Get your brooms ready.
GO PENS
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