This was a tough one.
For the third consecutive game, the Blue Jackets played well enough for large stretches to win a game against a Metropolitan Division foe. For the third consecutive game, they came away with no points.
The loss puts the Blue Jackets on the outside of the playoffs looking in. We've got post-game reaction from a steadfastly positive (yet brief) John Tortorella, as well as locker room conversations with Seth Jones and Zach Werenski following the game:
JOHN TORTORELLA
On his level of frustration: "There's no sense in getting frustrated. We've just gotta work through it and get ready for our next game. We had a number of chances, we just don't score at key times. But we certainly had some opportunities to do that."
On the team's offense: "We've had 20+ scoring chances the last two games, really the last three games, we just have to finish."
On the team's lack of luck: "You can't put it all on bad luck. You can whine about luck and puck luck, we gotta force it to go our way. I think we're on the right road. We've just gotta keep our wits about ourselves and keep banging away here."
SETH JONES
On the team's inability to finish: "I thought we played a pretty good game. I thought the penalty kill was pretty solid, the power play got a ton of chances, gave us a lot of momentum, just couldn't find the back of the net. We didn't give them much tonight but they capitalized."
On puck luck: "It's just on the power play, there, we had 6, 7, 8 chances there where it's just bouncing around in the crease and (Braden) Holtby has no clue where it is. And it just doesn't find its way in. We just gotta keep our heads up and keep moving."
ZACH WERENSKI
On coming back from injury: "I felt like I was good enough to go out there and play and help this team, and I was going to do whatever I could to get back out there in the third."
On the challenge of playing another game in less than 24 hours: "Playing the way we've been playing, it's pretty unfortunate that we haven't had a win these last couple games, I think we've played really well, but we've just gotta stick to it."
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