After the Blue Jackets lost Game 3 of this Stanley Cup Playoffs series vs. Tampa Bay, head coach John Tortorella said his team "hit a wall" with all the hockey it has played since the postseason started Aug. 2.
Now the focus becomes fighting through that wall.
Columbus' first eight games of the postseason took place over a 14-day span, and three of those went to overtime, including the five-overtime epic that was Game 1 vs. Tampa Bay. It's a lot of hockey to be sure, and the Blue Jackets looked to finally have to pay the piper Saturday night.
In response, the Columbus coaching staff opted to cancel a planned practice Sunday to allow the team a chance to get the legs back before Monday's Game 4.
"I do know at certain times, even when you go through the regular season, you look at some of the games, you look at some of the minutes, sooner or later it catches up with the body," Tortorella said. "I don't have the equations or the analytics and all that stuff. I just judge by the athletes. That's why what I said what I said last night after the game, I meant.
"When it's a group of men that looked, to me it's not physically tired, it's mentally tired, made some mental mistakes. That's when I start thinking maybe we hit a wall there. That's why we canceled practice there trying to refresh ourselves and play the next game."
Tortorella went on to say he wasn't giving his team an out for Saturday night's performance, in which Columbus had a 9-2 edge in shots on goal over the first 10 minutes and then was outshot 32-7 the rest of the way by a resurgent Lightning team. He has often maintained a player can talk himself into being tired or out of being tired, but seeing an entire team feel a step behind made him realize the team needed to take Sunday to continue recovery.
Seth Jones, who memorably played an NHL recorded record of more than 65 minutes in Game 1 then told reporters he felt fine, still wasn't sure all the hockey was to blame for the team's performance Saturday night.
"I can't really think of a time where I've played this much hockey, but I think we all feel pretty good," he said Sunday. "We feel ready to go. We know we're involved in a series where you can't take games or periods or shifts off, and everyone has played the same amount of hockey so there's no excuses when it comes to being tired or mentally tired or things like that. We're professional athletes and we have to find a way to be the best we can be every time we hit the ice."
That's a good sign considering effort will be a key to any success the Blue Jackets have in this series. Columbus plays a high-pressure forechecking style, which is dependent on using skating to create havoc and turnovers and win races to picks.
The Blue Jackets have won every other game this postseason, which means the team has bounced back from each loss to this point with a 3-0 record after setbacks. That resiliency must continue on to Game 4 or Columbus will enter must-win territory.
"It's obviously a very important game," forward Eric Robinson said. "We know we have to be ready. We're going to do everything we can to be ready and come out ready to go."
Know the Foe
It took two seasons of playoff games against the Blue Jackets, but the Lightning finally played the game they wanted to play in Game 3.
After a nearly disastrous slow start -- three penalties taken in the first 10 minutes -- Tampa Bay woke up and controlled play from there. They scored in transition, got the net-front chaos they were looking for, limited the Blue Jackets' forecheck and left with a 3-2 victory that gave them the edge in the series.
"I thought we were very good with the puck today," defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We made plays when we had the opportunity. The second and third periods were the way we want to play. We made it hard on them. I think they had three shots in the third. Obviously very happy with the way we responded after that first period."
Through the entire series, the Bolts have seen more of the puck, with a total 159-102 edge in shots on goal and big edges in shot attempts and expected goals. But the final 45 minutes or so of Game 3 was the most dominant Tampa Bay had looked, as they had the Blue Jackets hemmed into their own zone at times and allowed only seven shots on goal the last 40 minutes.
Perhaps most importantly for the Lightning, they looked confident, and they got scoring from top players like Hedman and Brayden Point as well as tallies with the second line (Alex Killorn's goal) and the fourth line on the ice.
Through three games, Point leads Tampa players with three goals and four points, while linemate Nikita Kucherov has a goal and three helpers. Hedman and Ryan McDonagh each have two points, while in goal, Andrei Vasilevskiy has a .931 save percentage that well outpaces his .856 mark from a year ago.
3 Keys to the Game
Find energy: No strategic changes will matter if the Blue Jackets are chasing the puck as much as they did in Game 3. The team simply needs to find its legs to have a chance in Game 4.
Find the right combos: Tortorella has shuffled his lines throughout the postseason and really took the wrecking ball to them in the third period of Game 3 in an effort to find a spark. Something has to click and soon to create more offense.
Veterans bounce back: The CBJ veterans were at the bottom of the chart when it came to puck possession stats in Game 3. Simply put, the big players have to have big games.
Of Note
The Blue Jackets have allowed just 10 goals in 509:54 of 5-on-5 play in eight playoff games, an average of 1.18 goals allowed per 60 minutes. ... Pierre-Luc Dubois (4-4-8) leads Columbus in scoring in eight postseason games and has a goal and three helpers in the first three games of this series. ... Thirteen different Columbus players have tallied in eight playoff games. ... Of the 13 goalies to play in at least four games so far in the bubble, Joonas Korpisalo is tied for second in goals-against average (1.51) and first in save percentage (.956). … Korpisalo has 152 saves over the first three games of the series. … Two Blue Jackets goalies have scoreless streaks of at least 100 minutes in the playoffs thus far -- Korpisalo (111:04 in Game 1) and Elvis Merzlikins (105:38 in Games 3 and 4 vs. Toronto).
Roster Report:Columbus has used the same lineup in the previous two games but did switch up the lines in an effort to find an offensive spark late in Game 3. With the team off Sunday, it remains unclear if any changes to the lineup are planned.
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