The Columbus Blue Jackets lost game one of their first round match up to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. As much as last night hurt it is still not time to panic or overreact. Let me talk you off the cliff on this Thursday evening.
The Columbus Blue Jackets did not play their best game last night. There were flashes of good play, mostly in the first and third period. Sergei Bobrovsky was his typical Vezina caliber self. The second period was the teams weakness, and it has been all season. Unfortunately this is the playoffs so mistakes are magnified and the hurting runs a bit deeper. It’s tough right now, but don’t panic just yet.
Columbus Blue Jackets
I’ll skip the lip service that the Jackets played well and we should be perfectly content and optimistic for the future. This organization is past that. There are no more moral victories at this point. Columbus either wins or loses, simple as that.
What I will ask is that we as fan base trust that this team is good enough to still win this series. This is a 108 point team. League leader boards are littered with our players. This team does not have to get lucky to steal a game on the road, they are quite capable of playing better than the Pens and winning the games straight up.
After re-watching last nights game, I’m not sure if the Pens could have played any better in front of Marc Andre-Fleury. They were amazing at protecting their net minder.
Anytime the Jackets put a shot on net, four Penguins were there to make sure the puck didn’t bounce in. Fleury’s teammates played out of their mind for him. Can the Penguins keep that up for another three straight games? I’m not sure. Can the Jackets take it to them Friday night and even the series? Absolutely.
One of the strongest narratives that emerged last night was that the Pens are just faster and more skilled than Columbus and our teams only hope of winning was to “goon” it up and hope to get lucky. I don’t buy that for a second. I think that is coming from a sector of the hockey community that hasn’t watch our games and just generalizes us based on John Tortorella’s past.
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They see the match up and our lack of star power and just assume its all grit and blocking shots. We know that isn’t the case for this team. As long as we know it, and keep the faith, then things will work out just fine. This team is good enough to keep winning, and they will, because that is what they’ve done all season.