Columbus’ odds for recovery slim
Philadelphia’s series against Boston in 2010 and the one Columbus is in now.
“From what I remember of that series, we were playing really good hockey and just weren’t getting the results,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of this series.”
Whatever margin of error the Blue Jackets had disappeared at 13:10 of overtime in Game 3, when a Jake Guentzel shot eluded Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to give the Penguins their 3-0 lead.
At that moment, a difficult situation for the Blue Jackets became dire. Or worse. “Last game, we were in a tough situation,” left winger Brandon Saad said. “We looked at it as a must-win. Now, it is a must-win.”
Columbus has stressed the importance of strong starts and has gotten one in each of the first three games. Sunday, that translated to a 3-1 lead after just six minutes, 10 seconds of play.
In each game, however, Columbus faded at times after investing so much energy in playing well early.
The Blue Jackets contend that the issue isn’t that they’ve paid a physical price for getting a strong start, but that they haven’t handled the Penguins’ inevitable pushback well enough.
“They have a good team, and there are always momentum swings in a game,” defenseman David Savard said. “We just have to be able to control them.”
Tortorella said his team will endeavor to muster “the same type of desperation we’ve been trying to play with as the series has gone on,” and that it doesn’t plan any fundamental alterations to its style or strategy for Game 4.
“We’re not changing our approach, how we’re supposed to play,” he said.
Savard seconded that idea and stressed the importance of conducting business, as usual.
“We can’t panic in here,” he said. “It’s time to rally around each other and just play our game.”
Or accept that it’s going to be another sunny day in the Sahara.