1 Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips July 31, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets Cleveland Monsters/Prospects
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Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips July 31, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets impress in tune-up against Boston Bruins PAGE 04: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets look to get `game feel’ back vs. Bruins PAGE 05: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets’ Boone Jenner confident he’s up for task at center in playoffs PAGE 07: The Athletic: Ready for Leafs? Pierre-Luc Dubois thrives in Jackets’ tune-up win vs. Boston PAGE 09: The Athletic: What you need to know and watch for as the Blue Jackets open play in the bubble PAGE 14: The Athletic: 2020 NHL qualifying round preview: Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets PAGE 20: Sportsnet.ca: Tortorella has Blue Jackets in killer mindset for Maple Leafs PAGE 23: The Hockey Writers: Blue Jackets Sharp In Only Postseason Tune Up PAGE 25: The Hockey Writers: Blue Jackets Need Atkinson, Murray, Texier & Anderson to Step Up Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 27: The Athletic: What will the officiating look like for this unique NHL postseason? PAGE 33: The Athletic: Duhatschek: On the NHL’s brave new world and the possibility of a cliffhanger PAGE 37: Sportsnet.ca: How living in a bubble could foster relationships between players, officials PAGE 40: Sportsnet.ca: NHL Playoff Power Rankings: Best of the Bubble Edition PAGE 44: TSN.ca: Hockey Diversity Alliance, NHL struggling to find common ground PAGE 47: USA Today: NHL power rankings: With 24 teams left in field, here are the Stanley Cup favorites PAGE 49: USA Today: NHL restart: Here are biggest questions as season resumes in two hub cities amid pandemic 1 Columbus Dispatch / Columbus Blue Jackets impress in tune-up against Boston Bruins By Brian Hedger – July 31, 2020 Bring on the qualifying round. After almost five months, the Blue Jackets finally returned to game action Thursday night in Toronto. It was only an exhibition against the Boston Bruins at Scotiabank Arena, staged merely for each team to feel actual game-like conditions again, but the Jackets’ 4-1 victory served an important purpose. After five scrimmages in a two-week training camp, this was their lone dress rehearsal before facing the high-scoring Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night in the start of a five-game series at Scotiabank Arena to determine which team qualifies for the usual 16-team playoff field. If the way things went against the Bruins are an indicator, the Blue Jackets look ready. "We did a lot of good things in some different situations," said defenseman Seth Jones, who played for the first time since fracturing his right ankle Feb. 8 against Colorado. "We just wanted to get our feel back, not only physically but mentally. It’s still an exhibition game, so we’re not going to look too hard into it. Obviously, the intensity’s going to be another level come Game 1 against Toronto on Sunday, but we liked a lot of the things we did." Boone Jenner, Zach Werenski and Gustav Nyquist each scored goals in a dominating first period for Columbus, which went 1 for 3 on power plays, and rookie Alexandre Texier scored into an empty net with 1.5 seconds left to seal it. The Blue Jackets outshot Boston 13-7 in the first period and 31-24 for the game. They also had a 12-9 edge in shots in the second, despite allowing the only goal of the period by David Pastrnak. That goal, scored shortly after Elvis Merzlikins swapped spots with Joonas Korpisalo in net, cut the Columbus lead to 3-1 just past the mid-point in the period. It remained that margin to start the third, but could’ve been wider. The Jackets twice hit the crossbar in the second, denying goals to Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jenner, and Oliver Bjorkstrand sent one off the right post on a power play that period. "We just wanted to concentrate on some checking, as far as playing away from the puck," coach John Tortorella said. "It’s a little tough to get your players to do that in these scrimmages, when you’re going through the (training camp) we have, and we really wanted to try and use this game to work on that. I thought we did a pretty good job." Korpisalo started in net for the Blue Jackets and looked sharp, despite facing just 11 shots. Merzlikins also looked good after allowing Pastrnak’s goal off an unfortunate bounce, stopping 12 of 13 shots in the game’s final 30:06. Each net-minder impressed during separate stints in the regular season and both entered this restart camp with a chance to earn the starting role against Toronto. Tortorella said that decision still hasn’t been made, but expects to make the call Saturday. It’s unlikely to become public knowledge until Sunday, hours before one of them gets the initial nod to play. 2 "As I said when we started this, when we were allowed to start playing again, ‘We’re not in the bubble if we don’t get the play from our two goalies that we did this year ... we’re not even close," Tortorella said. "So, it doesn’t surprise me what they did tonight. I thought they both played very well." As for the Jackets’ skaters, things couldn’t have gone much better against Boston – which earned the Presidents’ Trophy with the most points (100) in a pandemic-shortened season. The Bruins will now play in a round-robin of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference against Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia for seeding purposes in the next round. At times, it looked that way too. Jenner made it 1-0 just 4:27 into the game by tapping the puck into the net off a great backhand cross- ice feed from rookie Liam Foudy and then two more Columbus goals made it 3-0 late in the period. Werenski made it 2-0 with 1:42 left on a one-timer from the blue line – a 4-on-4 goal scored seconds after Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk skated out of the penalty box – and Nyquist pushed it to 3-0 on a power-play 18 seconds later, one-timing a shot through goalie Tuukka Rask’s legs off a feed from Dubois. In all, six Blue Jackets finished with at least a point and Bjorkstrand led the way with assists on the goals by Werenski and Nyquist. "It’s hard, as a player, to go through all those days (in training camp), playing against your buddy and really nothing meaningful," Tortorella said. "I thought we had some juice coming here to the bubble. I thought it dipped a little bit on a couple of our days (here), but the (Wednesday’s) practice, I thought we were crisp and you could see the enthusiasm, because they’re going to be playing games that mean something." 3 Columbus Dispatch / Blue Jackets look to get `game feel’ back vs. Bruins By Brian Hedger – July 31, 2020 Last season, the Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins battered and bruised each other in one of the hardest- hitting series of the 2019 NHL playoffs. The Bruins took the series in six games, both sides leaving with stinging reminders. They’ll meet again Thursday night in Toronto, but the stakes will be much lower — in fact, no stakes at all — as the teams play an exhibition game in Scotiabank Arena. "It’s just to get the guys to play a game," said Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, who will use the exhibition to make a few lineup decisions for Game 1 of the postseason Sunday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. "These guys want to play against another uniform." The fact that the uniform belongs to the Bruins is a bonus. "Not that we have a lot of history, but just the history last year with the Bruins in the second round there, it’s definitely going to be a good chance to work on our systems we’ve been working on in (camp)," right wing Cam Atkinson said. "It’s going to be fun." It might also be a little strange, as Atkinson and other Blue Jackets get used to playing against actual opponents instead of teammates. Neither Atkinson nor defenseman Seth Jones have played since Feb. 8 in Columbus in a 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. "For me, (it’s) just getting your touches and your reads down," said Jones, who needed surgery in February to repair a high-ankle sprain and hairline fracture in his right ankle. "That’s what I’m going to do in the exhibition game, just try to get that game feel back. I haven’t played since the first week of February, so it should be interesting." Atkinson honored The NHL released the nominees from all 31 teams for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy on Monday, and Atkinson is the Blue Jackets’ pick. The award goes to "the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice, and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to his community." Atkinson wears an A as one of the Jackets’ alternate captains and helps off the ice through a charity he co-founded with his uncle, Rob Robben, called the Force Network Fund. The organization raised $40,313 in June for the OhioHealth Foundation through a virtual 5K. The money was designated for the purchase of a rapid response COVID-19 testing device at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital — where Atkinson’s two young sons were born.