Columbus Blue Jackets fans got to experience playoff hockey at its finest in Game 3 – and unfortunately that's an experience that also includes heartbreak.
Columbus raced to an early lead, coughed it up, battled back, and finally suffered a crushing 5-4 loss in overtime to fall into a 3-0 hole in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
There was plenty, good and bad, to look back on in a game that showed the pace, drama and desperation of sport's greatest postseason.
Camsanity Starts It Right
In the pregame interview with CNBC's Brian Boucher, the Blue Jackets' leading scorer said the Jackets would win Game 3.
Just over five minutes into the game, Cam Atkinson had two goals.
Of course, if Atkinson wanted to go Full Messier, he needed a third goal that never came. But as far as guarantees go, Atkinson delivered pretty strongly.
His first goal came just 11 seconds in and provided the start Columbus needed when he stuffed a rebound past Marc-Andre Fleury. After Pittsburgh tied it, Atkinson made it 2-1 at 5:02 with a fine individual effort, stealing the puck from Sidney Crosby and sliding it coolly underneath Fleury.
Atkinson has upped his goal total each of his six NHL seasons, potting a career-high 35 this season. With that in mind, the diminutive forward with a nose for the net knew he had to do something in Game 3.
"I needed to be way better," he said. "I had good energy in the first period and I thought we were rolling. They’re a good team obviously, they stick around, and they wait for their opportunities to pounce and they take advantage of it."
'Balls as big as the building'
Well then, we might as well lead with John Tortorella's quote comparing Zach Werenski, his young stud defenseman, to Randy Marsh after taking a puck to the face in the second period.
By now, you've probably both heard Torts' quote and seen the photo Werenski tweeted after the game of his right eye nearly swollen shut above a line of freshly minted stitches.
The two words Werenski used to caption his photo – "playoff hockey" – are somewhat cliched (do we really have to insinuate LeBron, who has played more than 1,250 NBA games, is a wuss after every gruesome injury a hockey player plays through?), but the reality is the level of dedication to win a Stanley Cup is unmatched in sports. When twelve angry men armed with sticks and sporting knives strapped to their feet chase a frozen hunk of rubber around an walled surface for 60 minutes, some serious damage can and will occur. And Werenski deserves all the kudos in the world for playing through his injury as long as he could.
"Doesn't surprise me with him," Tortorella said after the game.
The shame is the injury cost the Jackets a goal in a much-debated but probably correctly called situation in which Evgeni Malkin scored before Werenski could skate to the bench with blood pouring from his face. It also cost the team the services of Werenski – whom Tortorella called the team's best player in postgame – in an overtime period in which his youthful legs could have helped immensely.
And it came during a game in which Werenski scored his first career playoff goal, an absolute beauty on the power play in the first.
You watch that shot and you forget the kid is only 19 years old. Then you watch him come back after his injury, the skin under his right eye a ghastly purple and black, and you can see why Tortorella already holds him in such high regard.
Tip your cap
Sometimes, when you're in the media, you have to ask an obvious question you already know the answer to. After all, you can think something, but you need the coach or player to say it in his words.
Such was the case after the game when someone asked John Tortorella why it was so hard to defend the line with Sidney Crosby on it.
One can imagine a few years ago Tortorella might have responded "Because he's Sidney &%#@ing Crosby." This time around, Torts gave a more reasoned response after Crosby had two assists, including one that set up the game-winning goal, and linemate Jake Guentzel had a hat trick.
"It's a pretty good line," Tortorella said. "I think the key with that line is trying to make a play in their end zone. Tonight, they had the puck quite a bit in our own end. I think the winning goal was defendable, we just left the slot a little bit naked there. We had a tough time getting the puck from them. They had a lot more possession in the offensive zone."
Sometimes, you gotta just tip your cap, and the Penguins have the kind of guys that make you do that, especially when you're missing talents like Werenski and Ryan Murray. The youngster Guentzel has been a great addition to a crew that already included stars Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel, and those are the kinds of players who make a team hard to defend from beginning to end.
It's also how Pittsburgh ended up with edges in shots on goal (47-37) as well as scoring chances (41-31) and high-danger chances (19-11) per Natural Stat Trick. And when it comes to heat maps, well, Pittsburgh was hot in the right area, and eventually it was too much to overcome.
The ecstasy and agony
There were a lot of talking points to analyze in this one. How about the play of Sergei Bobrovsky? (Not great, but probably not as bad as some think considering the Pens' offensive onslaught). The refs were brutal, right? (Also probably not as bad as some fans will want to think, but missing Phil Kessel's takedown of Seth Jones before the second goal wasn't ideal). Why didn't Sonny Milano play more than 6:42? (Probably because he was in Cleveland two days ago).
But the reality is the two teams in Columbus on Sunday night played exactly the kind of playoff game that makes NHL hockey so intoxicating. Every moment was fraught with danger and excitement. The speed of the game was elite, the desperation palpable, the game on edge from the very beginning.
Columbus finally got a few more things to go its way starting from the opening goal and blitz that made it 3-1, and Brandon Dubinsky's tying tally in the final five minutes showed the Blue Jackets' ability to respond to three unanswered goals for the Penguins.
It was exactly the kind of game that has made Columbus' lack of postseason appearances so difficult to bear. Playoff hockey is one of sport's true delights, and Columbus fans got to live it in all its glory on Sunday night.
That likely won't salve any wounds – spiritually for the fans, or literally in the case of Werenski – but there is hopefully comfort in the knowledge that one of these days, a game like this will go the way of the Jackets. And it will feel quite good.
So now what?
Tortorella said Columbus would come back and leave it all on the line again in Game 4.
"Same way we've done it all year long, come to work tomorrow and clear your head," the head coach said. "Sure, it's a tough loss. We know the situation we're in. Clear your head, we go to work and we play another game and play the best you can. That's all you do. That's what we're supposed to do."
But the reality is no one knows how Columbus will respond to the gutting loss. Some teams crumble in a situation such as this, knowing that a four-game comeback is next to impossible. Others are united by the adversity and able to put together a push to keep things going as long as possible.
It seems like, given the kind of year Columbus has had, the latter is most likely true of this team. We just won't know until Tuesday night.
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