1 Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips August 11, 2020 Columbus Blue

Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips August 11, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 3, Maple Leafs 0, Game 5: Five Takeaways PAGE 06: Columbus Dispatch: Alexandre Texier’s play in Blue Jackets’ playoff series bodes well for future PAGE 08: The Athletic: Familiar foes: A roundtable discussion of Blue Jackets-Lightning playoff rematch PAGE 13: The Athletic: 2020 NHL playoff preview: Blue Jackets vs. Lightning PAGE 18: Associated Press: Tenacious Blue Jackets shift momentum to advance in playoffs PAGE 20: NBC Sports: Lightning vs. Blue Jackets: 5 things to know about their First Round series Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 23: The Athletic: Pronman’s Mock Draft: Projecting the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft PAGE 27: The Athletic: Wheeler: 10 thoughts after the second phase of the NHL Draft Lottery PAGE 31: The Athletic: Predictions unplugged 2.0: Anonymous NHL scout, coach & exec pick series winners PAGE 36: The Athletic: Takeaways from the NHL’s return: Playoff expansion and round robin fallout PAGE 40: The Athletic: Down Goes Brown: The draft lottery power rankings, Part 2 PAGE 46: The Athletic: Player and coach poll: Should the NHL keep the 24-team playoff format? PAGE 49: The Athletic: Pronman: How Alexis Lafreniere would impact the 8 teams up for the No. 1 pick PAGE 51: The Athletic: As more NHL teams hit the offseason, get ready for a potentially wild one PAGE 54: Sportsnet.ca: Conn Smythe Power Rankings: Price, Aho, Toews among standouts PAGE 56: TSN.ca: Weeks: Garrett Rank sees U.S. Amateur as substitute for NHL playoffs 1 Columbus Dispatch / Blue Jackets 3, Maple Leafs 0, Game 5: Five Takeaways By Brian Hedger – August 11, 2020 Clearly, he’d lost it. After barely answering three postgame questions a couple days earlier and then not speaking with reporters at all the day before, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella finally emerged Sunday to meet the press. Actually, he emerged within the NHL’s Toronto quarantine "bubble" to Zoom with the press during a video conference from a hotel conference room, but why quibble with details? The point is that Tortorella addressed what happened at the end of his team’s colossal meltdown Friday night in the final 3:57 of regulation during a shocking 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs – including an unthinkable three straight 6-on-5 goals allowed without the Jackets scoring a single empty- netter. One might expect the coach of such a team, who then disappears for a day, to resurface with a dazed look on his face and several fist-sized patches of hair missing. Tortorella? Fresh as a daisy. Nonplussed. "Torts" was raring to go for Game 5 on Sunday night, which was the first winner-take-all scenario in the Jackets’ postseason history. Also, he revealed later Sunday that goalie Elvis Merzlikins – the poor guy who allowed all four goals during the Game 4 collapse – was hurt to the extent that he couldn’t play or back up Joonas Korpisalo. The good news, though, was that defensemen Zach Werenski and Ryan Murray were both going to gut through injuries that had caused them to miss all of Game 4 (Murray) or just the most critical parts (Werenski) – which actually counted as "good news" only by the most basic definition. At least the Jackets had all the momentum. (long pause) Say what now? The Jackets had the momentum going into Game 5? Hey, it’s 2020, there’s a pandemic still raging and there are "Murder Hornets" the size of Volkswagens giving "Ted Talks" in the Pacific Northwest. Why not? If the coach of an NHL hockey team coming off an epic failure to close out a playoff series wants to think all the momentum belongs to his team because of it … just roll with it, right? "Oh, we’re fine," Tortorella told reporters Sunday, roughly eight hours before puck-drop. "We’re fine. We feel we have the momentum." Oh, do you now? As the words left his mouth, you could practically hear the cackles of the Toronto media contingent – and, perhaps, the media contingent in other parts of North America and the world. 2 He wasn’t finished. "No matter what happened there, I think … you know, momentum’s a funny thing," Tortorella said, sounding like a college psychology professor. "If you want to give it back to ’em, you lose it. If you don’t want to give it back to ’em, you keep it on your side. That’s kind of a psychological thing. So, we’re good. We’re good and ready to play." You know that famous scene in the classic comedy film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," where King Arthur takes apart an insanely resilient knight one limb at a time? Well, Tortorella was the knight on that Zoom call, only this time the conflict ended with King Arthur being told, "Actually, I think I’ll have your leg." That, in essence, is what happened Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena, where the Blue Jackets used "momentum" from a nightmarish, gut-wrenching defeat in Game 4 to finish off the Maple Leafs by a fitting final score of 3-0 – the final goal, just as fittingly, scored by captain Nick Foligno into an empty net. Now, that’s psychology in action right there. "We’re not changin’," Tortorella said, concluding his mid-day psych lecture. "We (threw) it away on a couple of bad plays and just within a couple of minutes (in Game 4). We thought we played a good game and we’re going to go play the same way." That’s exactly what they did, too, and because of it the Jackets advanced to the official Stanley Cup playoffs for a seven-game quarterfinal rematch against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The series-opener is 3 p.m. Tuesday, the first of three afternoon starts in the first four games. What could possibly happen to top the series that just ended? Beforewe find out, here are five takeaways from a memorable night in Blue Jackets history: A wealth of goaltending Speaking of psychological challenges, remember that "Bob" guy who used to guard the Blue Jackets’ net? Well, Sergei Bobrovsky’s long gone now, getting paid a king’s ransom by the Florida Panthers, and the Blue Jackets are doing just fine without him. Korpisalo and Merzlikins have done nothing but impress this season, including their first tastes of the playoffs. Aside from the nightmarish fluke ending in Game 4 for Merzlikins and a three-goal hiccup for Korpisalo in Game 3, the Jackets’ goalie tandem was first rate against the Maple Leafs. Toronto’s Frederik Andersen was strong start to finish, but the Jackets’ duo was better – including Korpisalo pitching shutouts to start and finish the series. "We’re not in the bubble if we don’t have those two guys," Tortorella said. "We were all nervous, as the season started, when we had some departures. ‘Bob’ left and all that stuff, and we were nervous about what our goaltending was going to be. We don’t have a sniff of being here if it’s not for those two guys." Well put. 3 Foudy’s big night Watching him zip around the ice, weaving between Maple Leafs and creating scoring chances, it felt like the first four games of the series were just a tune-up for Liam Foudy to unfurl the performance he had. Skating against his childhood favorite team, not far from his hometown of Scarborough, Ontario in the Toronto suburbs, Foudy introduced himself to the hockey world on a big stage. This was the NHL’s only game going Sunday night and the 20-year old speedster looked comfortable in the spotlight. It was just the seventh NHL game he’d ever played, including the first two in the regular season, but you could see his poise and confidence grow with every shift. That is great news for the Blue Jackets, who are thrilled to have a guy with his kind of wheels, guts and talent. After nearly scoring a couple different times in the first two periods, Foudy’s first goal in an NHL game provided the Jackets with a 2-0 lead at 11:40 of the third. He also had one of his front two teeth on the upper rack cracked or pushed back to complete his transition into a full NHLer. "It was amazing," Foudy said. "Growing up being a huge Leafs fan, always (rooting) for them, and being able to come here and play in a series against them … and beat them and score my first NHL goal, it’s something I’ll never forget. It’s a special moment." All hands, on deck Getting back to Werenski and Murray, the two each contributed in their own way. Murray only skated 11:46 on the third defense pairing, not registering a single number on the official score sheet, but was solid defensively and made a couple nice plays to keep shifts alive in the offensive zone. Werenski played 22:44 on the top pairing and netted the game’s first goal with a clever wrist shot that he flipped toward the net from the blue line. Boone Jenner cut toward the net, drawing defenseman Tyson Barrie with him, and Werenski’s shot skipped off the Maple Leafs’ defender for a 1-0 lead 6:29 into the game. It was his first goal of the postseason and turned out to be the winner. The Jackets clung to that slim lead most of the game before Foudy’s goal in the third provided insurance.

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