The Blue Jackets had their chances.
There were numerous odd-man rushes, breakaways, and power plays throughout the game for Columbus, but the Blue Jackets struggled to score and had a disappointing offensive night, falling to the Bruins 4-1.
Tuukka Rask outdueled Sergei Bobrovsky for the win. Artemi Panarin notched the lone goal for the Blue Jackets.
The series is now tied at 2 heading into Game 5 in Boston on Saturday night.
Power Play Goes Cold
The Blue Jackets had four power play opportunities, but were unable to convert on any of them.
Their power play, which flipped the script in the postseason after a poor regular season, struggled to maintain zone presence a few times. When the power play did get in the zone, the Blue Jackets struggled to generate chances.
When the Blue Jackets did generate chances on the power play, Rask had an answer for every one of them.
Can't Finish Chances
Rask had a great game for the Bruins, but the Blue Jackets had so many chances to score — and they were unable to get more than one goal past him (a controversial one, at that).
Per Natural Stat Trick, the Blue Jackets generated 19 scoring chances and 9 high-danger scoring chances with 1.89 expected goals — a testament to both Rask's play and the Blue Jackets' ineptitude in scoring.
Most notable was Boone Jenner's penalty shot that Rask saved in the first period that would have tied the game at one. Jenner got a shorthanded breakaway and was tripped by Brad Marchand, but couldn't convert the penalty shot. The Bruins went on to score on that power play, and the Blue Jackets found themselves in a 2-0 hole that they weren't able to climb out of.
Too Many Penalties
Penalties happen in the game of hockey. It's a known fact. You simply cannot expect to take six penalties in a playoff game and expect to win.
The Blue Jackets gave up two power play goals, and spent 20% of the game on the penalty kill.
Their discipline needs to improve. While their penalty kill has been excellent as of late, they can't continue to rely on it.
Game 5 in Boston Saturday night is an excellent opportunity to right the ship and fix the things that went wrong tonight. This is a resilient team, and they'll be eager to prove that on Saturday.
