Dubois shifts to wing, nets two goals
In what will be his final exhibition game not behind the bench, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella was still looking to get a feel for his players Friday night. Specifically on that list was Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was being evaluated on the left wing after already playing center.
Tortorella had as good a view as anyone, then, as the third overall pick in the 2016 draft scored twice for his first preseason points in a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at Nationwide Arena.
“It looks like he’s getting
more comfortable,” said assistant coach Brad Larsen, who coached the game behind the bench while Tortorella watched from the press box. “Two big goals for us. We came back three times, which is a great sign for a young team.”
The Penguins scored 4:13 into the game and never trailed.
They got the winner with 1:33 to play when Scott Wilson’s shot from the left channel banked soundly off the end boards and came out on the other side of the net, where a charging Olli Maatta was there to score past Matiss Kivlenieks.
It overcame Dubois’ second goal, which came at 12:22 and only 21 seconds after Zach Aston-Reese had given Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead. He beat Kivlenieks with a soft knuckler from the left boards that floated over the goalie’s shoulder farpost, but then Dubois walked the puck in from the left circle and poked it between Antti Niemi’s legs.
In four exhibition appearances last year, Dubois did not score and had a minus-4 rating.
“It feels good, my first two goals in preseason,” Dubois said. “Unfortunately, we end up with a loss, but it feels good to get those out of the way and hopefully there’s a lot more coming.”
His first goal came 20 seconds into the second period and tied the score at 1.
Dubois took a pass from Nick Foligno and sent in a long wrist shot from the right blue line that beat Niemi glove-side.
In his first exhibition appearance, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky played the first two periods and made 15 saves on 17 shots.
The Penguins scored at 4:13 of the first period when Bobrovsky allowed a long rebound off a Jarred Tinordi one-timer from distance that deflected right into the path of a charging Sam Miletic, who converted the chance.
Then with little more than a minute left in the second, Blue Jackets forward Justin Scott whiffed on a clearance attempt in his own zone that was quickly nabbed by Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel.
He fed the puck to Aston-Reese, who charged up the right wing and sent in a backhand that Bobrovsky initially stopped with his left blocker but couldn’t secure.
Daniel Sprong jammed it past Bobrovsky at 18:59.
“I thought he was fine,” Larsen said. “I’m sure he wanted that second goal back, but at the same time he stops a shorthanded attempt and another pointblank attempt, too. I’m not really concerned with Bob.”
The Jackets will continue their search for their first exhibition win Saturday night in Chicago.
LOUDON, N.H. — Kyle Busch’s run in NASCAR’s playoff opener went from dominant to dud because of mistakes on pit road. Clean up those gaffes, and Busch again just may have the car to the beat.
Busch made it 2 for 2 in playoff poles, turning a lap of 135.049 mph to take the top spot Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He won his eighth pole of the season in the No. 18 Toyota.
“We just need to somehow figure out how to turn these things into good Sundays,” he said. “It would be nice to stay up front all day.”
Busch dominated early in the postseason opener at Chicagoland Speedway and had his 12th stage win of the season. He led 85 laps and was positioned as the driver to beat until his race unraveled in the pits.
Busch was forced to pit because of a loose tire, then his Joe Gibbs Racing crew was penalized when his gas man hopped the wall on pit road too soon.
The back-to-back mistakes were too costly for Busch to recover. He faded to 15th — though he only fell from third to fifth in the standings and is in little danger of missing the cutoff for the second round.
Busch, the 2015 Cup champion, hoped it was just a matter of first-race jitters for his new crew.
Joe Gibbs Racing swapped pit crews for Busch with teammate Daniel Saurez’s crew for the final 10 playoff races.
“I’m sure the consensus is that hopefully it’s out of the way and there’s no more jitters,” Busch said. “We can focus on looking forward and having the opportunity to race for the championship with this group of guys and have fast pit stops like they’ve been doing all year long.”
Kyle Larson, who won the pole in July at New Hampshire, joins Busch on the front row.
Larson was second in the first Cup race at the track.
Playoff drivers took 13 of the top 14 spots. The 16-driver field is sliced to 12 after next weekend’s race at Dover.
Top 10 spots for other drivers racing for the championship over the final nine races include: Denny Hamlin starts third, Ryan Blaney fourth, Martin Truex Jr. fifth, Kevin Harvick sixth, Kurt Busch seventh, Kasey Kahne ninth and Matt Kenseth 10th.
Truex won his fifth race of the season in the NASCAR playoff opener at Chicagoland.
Erik Jones was the highest non-playoff qualifier in eighth.
Kahne posted a strong run in the No. 5 Chevrolet in his first race with new crew chief Darian Grubb. Grubb replaced Keith Rodden with nine races left before Kahne leaves Hendrick Motorsports for a ride next year with Leavine Family Racing.