Columbus Blue Jackets has dropped five games in a row on the way into a crucial road collision with Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
But when the Blue Jackets (31-28-9, 71 points) appear to be returning in winning ways, they sit back by Montreal Canadiens in the hunt for the Eastern Conference’s second wild card. More importantly, they hit the ice and believe that their wealth is changing after a strong excursion at home against Florida Panthers in a 1-0 overtime loss on Thursday.
“Are we trends in the right direction? 100 percent,” said Columbus coach Dean Evason. “We are not satisfied in that dressing room. There is no similar,” Oh, good, we played well against the Stanley Cup champions. “We are (upset).
Columbus forward Kirill Marchenko received a delay of the game late in the regulation time to send the puck over the glass in the defensive zone, and Panthers capitalized 29 seconds to OT.
That said, the blue jackets need a lot to find their crime, after making a total goal in the last four excursions.
“We played big 60 minutes,” said Columbus captain Boone Jenner. “Right from the beginning we were ready to go, play our style and just were not rewarded. We get there and got these chances.
“… we will go past this because we have a big game (Friday). We take the good from it, we played good hockey, and hopefully the breaks start to go and start (in Pittsburgh).”
Penguins (28-32-10, 66 points) need a successful Hagel Mary to make the playoffs, sit eight points with 12 matches left and need Vault over six teams, but they have not completely given up.
The Penguins had a winning line of four games that were snapped with a 4-2 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday and were very upset about it, knowing that they cannot afford any defeat.
“We just beat ourselves,” said Captain Sidney Crosby. “We made some mistakes. Obviously they will press … but it just wasn’t much pushback (from us).”
Making the loss sting more was that the penguins were 2-0 through two periods. New York then produced four unanswered goals and started the comeback on an odd man’s rush just 17 seconds into the third period.
“It’s still a 2-1 game. We still have a lead. We have to answer,” said Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan. “We had to answer and play properly, and we did not. We gave up Odd-Man rush. We didn’t stop on the right side of people. We were not physical enough in all three zones. We didn’t close people in the defensive zone. We just didn’t play hard enough.”
There were two milestones in the penguins in the collision. The Joona Koppanen collected its first NHL goal in its 10th career game and its first NHL collision of the season.
“Of course good feeling, but we are all here for a win, so can’t be too happy with it,” the copper said.
Crosby also did to publish its 1,670th point, which moved him past Wayne Gretzky for the fourth most of a player with a franchise. Crosby rides at an 11-match home-ice point.
-Field level media
