Who wants a 3-1 lead against a divisional foe in a first round playoff series? Ask any coach in the league this question and they’ll ask you how many fingers they need to cut off to make the deal. Maybe I exaggerate but as a fan watching this series, I think you’ll start to find more and more CBJ or Pens fans superstitiously weary about that scenario. In the 3rd game in a row of what’s been a great series so far, the team to jump out to a 3-1 lead has lost the game with a final of 4-3. The Blue Jackets did it in an exasperating 2 minutes and 13 seconds. While throughout most of the game the Jackets were getting outshot by a margin of 3:1 or more, for the first two periods it felt like they were still largely in control. Even after allowing the dreaded ‘within the last minute of a period’ goal for the Pens (1.8 seconds, actually) they responded with a quick strike just a minute into the third period when Dubinsky thought it would be neat to deflect a goal off of his own player.
That seemed to send a message of “go ahead and score, we’ll just even it up”. Sadly as noted above the Jackets couldn’t back up that talk. This is a tough loss, no doubt about it. The goal of any road series is to steal at least one game from your opponent. The Pens have done that with just one game in the books under the roof of Nationwide Arena. This only makes Wednesday night all the more important. Obviously a CBJ win evens things back up and we’re looking at a best of 3 series. A Pens win would create what must be considered a nearly insurmountable deficit of 3-1, returning to Pittsburgh for game 5.
Tonight’s three stars are a bit of a mess due to the stars being called in and then a scoring change being made that directly affected the first and subsequent other stars. Bear with us.
3rd Star: Paul Martin
Man, what a tough customer. Dude munched some serious minutes (28:34 for those keeping track at home) and was instrumental in two of the Penguins’ goals. His play at the blue line to keep the puck in prevents the waning seconds of the period from being wasted and get the puck to Beau Bennett who dishes a beauty to Brooks Orpik. His 2nd A comes in the form of a compact shot from the point that is credited as tipped by Sutter but in real-time sure looked like it went in on its own. I can’t argue Paul Martin’s star-ness but I can sure argue he might deserve to be higher on the list.
2nd Star: Brandon Dubinsky
Man, Dubinsky really seems to be built for the playoffs. I’ve liked his output even if I haven’t liked some of his undisciplined penalties. Thankfully there was none of that foolishness tonight. Like Martin, Dubinsky brought two assists to the score sheet tonight while once again doing a great job of neutralizing Sidney Crosby. Dubinsky’s 1st assist is as simple as keeping a play alive and throwing the puck at the front of the net to allow his line mates the opportunity to capitalize on a rather scattered Fleury to start the game:
As referenced in the intro, Dubinsky did a great job of leveraging Cam’s position and stature (trying to keep things light) to net the puck past Fleury yet again:
I’d say this star is well earned.
1st Star: Olli Maatta
This is the one that gets confusing as Maatta was awarded the 1st star under the assumption that he netted the GWG but that was changed to Jacket-killer Jussi Jokinen after further review. Maatta had a solid game but I could have happily put Paul Martin first, Brandon Dubinsky second and our own Jack Johnson third. He was defensively sound most of the night, contributed major minutes and scored his third goal in as many games. I’ve really liked his playoffs so far.
Stud: Sergei Bobrovsky
I’m actually torn giving this one out. While Bob made some huge saves and saw plenty of rubber tonight, there were also a goal or two that I imagine he wanted back. The fact of the matter is he kept us competitive in a game where we were outshot by a margin of more than 2:1. That’s what you want out of a playoff goalie.
Dud: The officiating
Is there any way to complain about officials without sounding like an absolute homer? If so, I’ll take any and all tips but I thought tonight was absolutely dreadful. While neither team struck pay dirt on the power play tonight, the bad calls certainly did create huge momentum swings at inopportune times. In my mind the two sequential ‘protecting the net minder’ penalties were the most absurd: one where Boone gets thrown into Fleury by a Penguins D man and one where Foligno gets 2 minutes for a snow shower that wouldn’t be classified as even flurries and happens multiple times a game.
For 40 minutes or so, the Jackets were winning this game by forcing the Penguins to play our style of hockey and it was effective. It seemed to me that in the last 20 we seemed to stop playing our own brand of hockey and that’s when things derailed. Playing Blue Jackets hockey isn’t easy but if we want to have success in this series it’s the only option we have. Let’s hope the boys can understand that and be up for the challenge on Wednesday.
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