Blue Jackets believe shots will start hitting
Through two games, the Columbus Blue Jackets only have put two pucks past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
But they’ve certainly thrown plenty at him.
Columbus racked up a staggering 79 shot attempts in their 4-1 loss to the Penguins in Game 2 Friday night of the teams’ firstround Stanley Cup playoff series at PPG Paints Arena.
While only one of those got by Fleury — many more ended up missing the net or, more likely, blocked by a Penguins player — the Blue Jackets were generally happy with their offensive play.
“If we keep shooting like we are, they’re going to find their way in,” defenseman Zach Werenski said. “That’s a good recipe, when you’re putting pucks on net, putting pucks in the blue [crease] and getting guys there.”
The Blue Jackets had 60 shot attempts in Game 1, but just 13 came from inside the faceoff circles. In Game 2, that number shot up to 33.
Even though the result was the same — just one goal — Columbus coach John Tortorella said he was more pleased with the types of opportunities his team was getting in front of Fleury.
“I felt much more comfortable as far as what we were doing around the net,” Tortorella said.
“Hopefully we’ll just keep on banging away, maybe get some puck luck and see if we can get some goals scored. We played the way we need to play.”
Of course, just getting the puck to the net has been a challenge for the Blue Jackets, with the Penguins falling to the ice to block shots at every chance they get.
“They should be wearing goalie pads, too, with all the blocks they made,” Blue Jackets winger Nick Folgino said. “But that’s part of winning.” The Penguins blocked 23 shots Friday night, exceeding their Game 1 total by one.
“Credit to them, but we can do a little bit better to get shots through and find those rebounds,” Foligno said. “Once we do, there’s lots of opportunities there, bounces that were just going right by the net. As soon as those start going in, there’s going to be lots of goals to be had.”
While the Blue Jackets certainly aren’t thrilled to be going back to Columbus trailing, 2-0, in the best-ofseven series, there wasn’t a sense of panic or frustration in the locker room or from Tortorella’s post-game news conference.
To the contrary, Tortorella said he thought his team “played its [butt] off” Friday night, and that he was happy with where they were as a team, even if not where they are in the series.
Columbus players, too, expressed belief that if they keep doing what they did Friday night, more goals will come.
“I wish I had a magical answer,” center Brandon Dubinsky said. “You’ve got to stick with it. You get going by yourself out there, try and get it all back by yourself, score by yourself, it’s not going to work.
We’ve got to continue to try and execute as a team and I’m confident in this group. It [stinks] being in this situation, but it’s a good opportunity for us.”