A still-battered Blue Jackets team fell 6-3 tonight to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, owners of the NHL's best record. It was a dominant Golden Knight victory that included two goals by former Blue Jacket William Karlsson, who now stands tied for second in the NHL with 27 goals. Here's the reaction from inside the Blue Jackets' locker room.
John Tortorella
On the game: "I just don't think we were competitive enough. I thought we had some good minutes along the way, but overall, we just lost too many battles on the puck. [The Golden Knights] are a quick team, they capitalize on winning battles, second period obviously it just got away from us."
On the pace: "It's not so much the pace, I just thought we needed to have the puck more."
On Nick Foligno: "I'm not gonna pick on guys in a bad way, I'm not gonna pick on guys in a good way. I want to look at the video."
On whether the team was tired: "It was one shift and we couldn't get off the ice. Our [second line] D [Seth Jones] and [Zach Werenski] got stuck on there. It's tough in the second period when you don't win the battles in the end zone, I think they turned over their lines a couple of times within that section, but it's not that the team was tired."
On the odd-man rushes allowed by the Blue Jackets: "There's a couple where we just, we don't reload, we get caught below the puck, hoping the puck gets back in behind the net, and against this team you can't do that."
On William Karlsson: "I don't like him scoring two goals against us tonight, I'm thrilled for him though as an ex-coach."
Nick Foligno
On the game: "[The Golden Knights] play so hard at home and they're a hard-nosed team. They're a team that plays heavy over the puck, good sticks, and we just did not want to compete in that second period and that's unacceptable."
On the pace: "Our legs felt fine, we just got behind the eight-ball because we were whacking pucks to nobody and then all of a sudden now they're coming, they're coming again. You get tired, you get guys caught out there for two minutes."
On the the Blue Jackets in general: "Before everything else, before the skill, before all that we're just a hard-working, physical team. When we don't do that, we're just as average as anyone else."
Seth Jones
On the Blue Jackets' defensive play: "We just gave up odd-man rushes, grade-A chances. That can't happen."
On the third period: "We did some good things, I think. And yet, three chances in one shift there in the slot, one of those go in, y'know a different game. It's 4-3 at that point."
