Well the Jackets forced a game 5 with their physical play and relentless never say die play. All that seemed to be missing from the series equation was for Sergei Bobrovsky to step up and steal one game away. Unfortunately, it seems the night Bob was able to do that, that the rest of team forgot the game plan. The Jackets thoroughly lost this game on their own accord. And don’t discredit the Penguins – they are an experienced skilled team that badly needed to step up and take a game definitively. They did that tonight holding the Jackets to 24 shots on goal while taking 51 of their own (Bob saw 50 of those). There’s a lot of complaining about the officiating on the twitters, but make no mistake – you can’t take less than half the shots your opponent does, and have possession (Corsi for) of 37.4% at even strength (5v5) and expect to win. You also can’t count on your “physical game” when you have only 3 more hits than the opponent when you usually best them by 20+ (particularly if you do NOT have the puck). The Penguins showed up tonight (and you knew they had to), took over the game, took the series lead and blew up the 4-3 score narrative…though apparently the “you don’t want to score first” narrative is soundly in tact.
Let’s look at the three stars of the game according to nhl.com:
3rd Star: Sergei Bobrovsky. Yep. IF there’s one Jacket that deserved recognition tonight it’s the goaltender. Bob faced the most shots in one game that he’s ever seen in his entire career and let in two. With that kind of shot count coming at you, and the kind of possession game the Penguins were playing (62.6% CF 5v5) without Bob playing as he did tonight, I fear this game would have been a blood bath – and not one that worked in the Jackets’ favor.
2nd Star: Marc-Andre Fleury. I kinda think this is more of a vote of “yay! You didn’t blow it!” Honestly, Fleury let in fewer goals than Bobrovsky but he faced less than half as many shots (24) and really wasn’t tested all night. Even with half as many shots his save % was still ever so slightly less than Bob’s: .960 for #72, and .958 for Fleury. If anything, I think Bob get’s second star and the Flower gets third but whatever.
1st Star: Chris Kunitz. Well at least it’s not Crosby, right? Kunitz scored the first Penguins goal on the power play and seemed to flip the switch for the home team to just start taking it to the Jackets. He also had an assist on the empty netter. So at least one more of the “big stars” of the Penguins finally tallied a goal…something the team has been much maligned for. Stacking that first line – Kunitz, Malkin and Crosby sure seemed to work for at least one of them.
Game in One Picture
Stud: Brandon Dubinsky. The work this guy continues to do is just outstanding. 5 games now he neutralizes the best player in the NHL. AND tallies the most SOG of the team with four, he blocked two shots in just over 20 minutes of play – with not a single penalty. What he is doing is amazing. Now the one area he fell down on the job tonight was faceoffs. He’s at 48.5% for the series, but was six of fifteen tonight. Particularly down the stretch when the team needed any possession advantage, he was one of the guys not getting it done tonight.
Dud: James Wisniewski. Hate to do it, but 21 isn’t looking like the same guy we saw in the regular season. Maybe he’s hurt, his stride looks a bit off. But he’s lingering with the puck, and shooting only when he is in his happy place – top of the right circle. He’s also committing horrific turnovers without the offensive production to balance that out. He also committed two big penalties – the second of which allowed the PP goal by Kunitz that seemed to get the Penguins’ ball rolling.
The two teams will return to Nationwide Arena once more Monday to see if the Jackets can show up and force a game 7. We’ve never seen a must win game like this – so let’s hope the Jackets of the first four games show up for it.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
