Defensemen creating on offense
TAMPA, Fla. — Early in a blowout victory at Florida on Thursday, coach John Tortorella saw a snippet of the aggressiveness he wants to see from his Blue Jackets.
On Josh Anderson’s second goal of the game, which came on a wrist shot from the middle of the right circle late in the first period, Anderson took a pass from defenseman Markus Nutivaara, who was below the hash marks. At the back post was defenseman Seth Jones. Not exactly the standard alignment, but it’s a standard Tortorella would like to see out of his defense.
“We are trying to do that all the time,” Tortorella said. “To create offense in this league you have to, it can’t just be forwards, it may not even be four guys, it may be five guys. So we have concentrated a lot on using all five guys getting up the ice.”
During the Blue Jackets’ shootout loss at Tampa Bay on Saturday, it was that sort of aggressiveness with the defense activated on offense, pinching in along the walls in the offensive zone, that helped fuel the thirdperiod comeback to tie it and earn the Jackets a point.
“When you are down by a couple, it releases you a little bit more but I want us to do that right from the get-go and we did that in spurts,” Tortorella said.
Some of those spurts happened in the first period on the first two goals scored by the Blue Jackets. Jones was down low along the right boards at the right circle when he put a shot on goal that deflected off Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman and landed in the Tampa Bay net for the opening goal of the game. On the second goal, defenseman Zach Werenski jumped into the play and found himself alone in front of the net to quickly one-time a feed from Pierre-Luc Dubois.
“That’s what makes us successful when we are getting guys in and out letting our D get in because they can see (forwards) are supporting them and being behind them. It creates confusion on the defense,” center Brandon Dubinsky said. “It allows us to have success offensively and it’s what we did so well in Florida and did it pretty well in the third (against Tampa Bay).”
Calvert injury
Left wing Matt Calvert left Saturday’s game in the third period and did not return after absorbing a hit from Tampa Bay defenseman Dan Girardi. The hit was shoulder-toshoulder, but Calvert took the brunt of the blow as his helmet was knocked off. Tortorella called it a “clean hit. Danny Girardi is not going after anybody’s head. It’s just unfortunate that Calvy gets banged up.”
The team traveled to New York on Sunday to prepare for Monday’s game at the Rangers, but Calvert was sent back to Columbus for further evaluation. The team listed Calvert as day-to-day with an upper body injury.
Slap shots
The Blue Jackets activated defenseman Gabriel Carlsson off injured reserve on Sunday and placed right wing Cam Atkinson on IR retroactive to Oct. 28. Carlsson missed the past 10 games with an upper-body injury suffered on Oct. 13 against the Rangers. Atkinson suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday against Tampa Bay. ... The Blue Jackets signed free-agent forward Maxime Fortier to a three-year, entry-level contract. The 19-yearold undrafted right wing plays with Halifax in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.