Jackets missing ‘ heartbeat’ without Dubinsky
PITTSBURGH — Brandon Dubinsky is only a week and a half into what could be a two-month recovery from a facial fracture, but his absence at center already has Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella wistfully wishing he’d return.
Asked before a game Thursday night at the Pittsburgh Penguins if he preferred Nick Foligno to Boone Jenner at center, Tortorella said he doesn’t think it’s a great position for Foligno, “but this is a situation we’re in,” then stopped abruptly.
“You know what? I miss Dubi,” Tortorella said. “He doesn’t have big numbers this year, he makes a ton of mistakes in the game, all the time, but I miss him on the bench. The boys miss him on the bench. He has … we miss him. He’s a little bit of the heartbeat of our team, but we don’t have him. We’re probably not going to have him for a while here. So we have to just kinda make it work here.”
Thursday marked the fifth game without Dubinsky, who was hurt in a fight with the Oilers’ Zach Kassian in the final minutes of a 7-2 loss Dec. 12.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen said two nights later of a potential trade for a center, “We’ve been talking about that all year, but I think this is a good chance for us to see what other guys can do at that position. Maybe it’s Boone Jenner, maybe it’s Nick Foligno that moves back.”
Tortorella initially tried Jenner at center.
“Early on, Jens struggled but worked himself through it,” he said. “It helped his game a little bit.”
Still, Tortorella moved Jenner back to wing Wednesday against Toronto and put Foligno in the middle. Foligno played center again Thursday. Tortorella said Dubinsky, who had three goals, nine assists and a plus-5 rating in 31 games, also had an impact off the ice.
“He’s emotional, and that’s important,” Tortorella said. “(You) talk about points that we wanted to cure — our emotion in the game. That’s fluctuated a little bit. Dubi doesn’t allow that.”
Dubois vs. Sid the Kid
Rookie center PierreLuc Dubois grew up admiring the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby. He had a poster and trading cards of Crosby, and even got Crosby’s autograph at age 8, thanks to his dad, who was coached the rival of Crosby’s team in juniors.
On Thursday, as the Jackets’ No. 1 center, he got to go head-to-head against Crosby on the ice.
“It’s going to be fun,” Dubois said before the game, grinning widely. “It’s fun now thinking about it. It’s going to be fun after the game, you know, knowing that I played against him. But during the game, whether I’m playing against him or anybody else … it doesn’t change anything when I’m on the ice.”
Slap shots
Sergei Bobrovsky started in goal Thursday after backup Joonas Korpisalo made a rare start the night before and made 39 saves in a 4-2 win over Toronto. … Zach Werenski didn’t play again Thursday because of an upperbody injury. Markus Nutivaara skated in the top pairing with Seth Jones for the second consecutive night. … Tortorella used different combinations on his third and fourth lines against the Penguins than on Wednesday, putting Matt Calvert with Foligno and Oliver Bjorkstrand. Lukas Sedlak centered Sonny Milano and Markus Hannikainen.