Generating offensive chances was not the problem for the Columbus Blue Jackets in their 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the second round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Nationwide Arena in Columbus Thursday night.
Taking advantage of those opportunities was, as the Blue Jackets came up empty on 39 of their 40 attempts against Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, and that is something the players and coaches will look to do in tonight’s Game 5 matchup at TD Garden in Boston.
“We had some good chances. We just didn’t score. I thought when it was 2-1, we had a couple, more than a couple chances to tie the game, didn’t. I thought Rask made some big plays at key times.
“The most frustrating part for me is the penalties because I felt like once we got going, we’d take another penalty. We kill those back-to-back penalties off, and I think we’re going to take off from there. Couldn’t score. Didn’t score. Had some chances to and we didn’t.”
Blue Jackets alternate captain Boone Jenner generated six shots, the most among the forwards and second only to defenseman Seth Jones in the Game 4 loss, which evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.
Jenner even drew a penalty shot on a short-handed breakaway, but Rask was up to the challenge and smothered the attempt in the goal crease.
“How many short-handed chances did he have? Four or five?” Tortorella said of Jenner. “Yeah, he keeps working. I like what that line did at certain times, the penalty killing. Although we let two in, I thought we killed penalties off.
“Those back-to-backs, I thought that was going to give us a lift, but we’ve kind of prided ourselves on being disciplined. That’s the most disappointing part. Their top guys scored some goals on the power play and we gave them a chance to get going now, just by sitting in that box too much. That’s the hard part about this game here.”
While the Blue Jackets struggled on the penalty kill, it was Jenner who was generating chances despite being at a manpower disadvantage, and should such an opportunity come around again, he is looking to make sure the puck gets behind Rask and into the net.
Jenner is hoping that the offense will help the Blue Jackets take a 3-2 lead in the series back to Nationwide Arena in Columbus for Game 6 on Monday night.
“We’ve got to try to find a way to bury a couple more,” Jenner said. “I want to, obviously, put one of them in the back of the net.”