Top line cooking; Tortorella tinkers with others
WASHINGTON — Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella is an unapologetic alchemist when it comes to mixing his lines, be it game-togame, period-to-period or even shift-to-shift. To date, he has yet to discover gold.
There is a glimmer, though. Rookie center Pierre-Luc Dubois, 19, has had Artemi Panarin, 26, and Josh Anderson, 23, on his wings for seven games now. They comprise the one line that Tortorella is loath to touch right now.
“It really helps when all three guys are playing close together and we’re all touching the puck,” Anderson said. “You see how effective we are. We get a lot of scoring chances.”
Saturday night, in a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals in Capital One Arena, the trio generated 13 shots on Braden Holtby’s net, including six in the third period.
Dubois nearly tied the game with 107 seconds remaining in regulation. He burned a wrist shot through Holtby, but the puck somehow stopped dead a couple of inches in front of the goal line. Panarin thought it was going in: He threw his arms up in the air — rather than fight though a stick-check from Jay Beagle and try to make sure of it — and he’ll probably get some bilingual razzing for his premature celebration when they look at the film.
“I think (Panarin) has played well all along,” Tortorella said. “I just think the last two games he has upped his compete. I think he had a little lull there, but the last two games he has played strong. That line has been very good. We’ve got to get the other lines going.”
Anderson has two game-winning goals, four assists and 27 shots on goal in the past six games. Goodness, 27 shots on target over six games. That is something. Dubois has one goal, five assists and seven shots on goal in the past four games. Panarin has two goals, two assists, eight shots on net and is plus-four in the past two games.
Anderson leads the team with 10 goals. Panarin has a team-leading 20 points in 27 games, and it feels like he’s just getting warm.
“I’m looking for some consistency with our lines,” Tortorella said. “I’ve got one of them. I’m not sure where to go with the others, still. I know we’ve talked about that a lot, as far as me moving players around. I just can’t find a consistent line after Luc’s line. … We’re going to keep trying.”
Alexander Wennberg, Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno and Boone Jenner have put up points in the past, but they have struggled to score with any consistency this season. The problem is exacerbated given the fact that the Jackets have the league’s worst power play.
It’s not the end of the world. The Jackets are right there in the fight at the top of their division. Still, Tortorella must keep tinkering.
Saturday morning, defenseman Ryan Murray was placed on injured reserve; his roster spot was taken by Matt Calvert, who had missed the previous 12 games with an upperbody injury. Calvert scored a short-handed goal against the Caps. Every time something like that happens, you can almost see cartoon conversation bubbles appear above the heads of the coaches, and they say, “Maybe that will spark something.”
Down the stretch, Tortorella moved Foligno into the middle and stuck Calvert and Atkinson on the flanks, and he moved Oliver Bjorkstrand onto the right side of Brandon Dubinsky (and Jenner). The experiments will continue apace until another glimmer appears.