Power play focal point for Blue Jackets

The key to Monday night’s critical Game 6 would be power plays, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella predicted before the game.

Although the Capitals’ power play has been potent throughout the bestof-seven series, the Jackets’ had gone “stale,” Tortorella said, after a pair of powerplay goals in each of the first two games.

“That’s what gets your best players the numbers,” Tortorella said. “Hopefully, our power play will kick in a little bit and help us there.”

Entering Monday’s game, the Capitals were 8 of 24 on power plays in the series and had scored at least one goal with a man advantage in each of the five games. The Jackets were 0 of 13 over the previous three games.

The power play fizzled for the final time Monday, going 0 for 4 in a 6-3 loss that ended the Jackets’ season.

Defenseman Seth Jones said the Jackets needed to more be more effective handling the Capitals’ pressure high near the blue line, and improve their entries. The Blue Jackets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois, left, and the Capitals’ Tom Wilson collide during the first period.

Meanwhile, Jones stressed the importance of Jackets players staying out of the box — an issue they emphasized before the series but have struggled with. In the regular season, the Jackets ranked second in the NHL in penalties

(251) and third in penalty minutes (565). In the first five playoff games, they were penalized 24 times for a total of 59 minutes.

Tortorella said his team would be “in trouble” Tuesday if it committed more than three penalties.

“It’s something we’re trying to cure … especially the stick fouls,” he said. “That’s what we have to get out of our game. We have to check through our legs and not use our stick for checking because they’re calling it very closely on both sides.” Added Jones: “That’s on us to be smart.”

Veteran wing Matt Calvert’s three goals through the first five games were a teamhigh, and a surprise considering he had nine in 69 games in the regular season.

“He’s been one of our best players,” Tortorella said. “I don’t think anybody would see it coming after five games in a series.”

Said right wing Cam Atkinson, “There’s something about the playoffs that gets him jacked up. He’s just a playoff player. … Him scoring that overtime goal in Pittsburgh (in the 2014 playoffs) to seal the first Blue Jackets playoff win ever, he just seems to rise to the occasion. He elevates and brings everyone into the fight.”

Tortorella praised Calvert for being fearless and having “some old-school in him,” but also quipped that he wished Calvert would play this well in the regular season.

“He’s up and down, sometimes, like a toilet seat, as far as how he’s dead-on, and then he makes a huge mistake,” Tortorella said. “He went through a little bit of that.”

Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was named the Jackets’ nominee for the 2017-18 King Clancy Memorial Trophy. The NHL award, won last season by teammate Nick Foligno, is presented annually to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to his community.”

Tortorella shook up the line combinations to start Game 6, putting Calvert with center Alexander Wennberg and Josh Anderson on the second line and Oliver Bjorkstrand with center Nick Foligno and left wing Boone Jenner on the third line. Thomas Vanek, who has one point since Game 1 and has a minus-2 rating for the series, dropped to fourth-line wing, where he was paired with center Mark Letestu and Brandon Dubinsky.