Thanks to some timely saves by Sergei Bobrovsky and a solid group offensive effort, the Columbus Blue Jackets reeled in a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night.
Here's the post game reaction from coach John Tortorella and company.
John Tortorella
On the game: "It's a confidence thing with our team. We're trying to find a way to string something together. You can talk about the word, you can say the word, you can spell the word, until you go through a number of games and you feel good about yourself it just doesn't happen."
On Sergei Bobrovsky: "Bob was outstanding. He was outstanding. To give us a chance, he's gonna have to be. 'Cause we're still not where we want to be."
On the power play goal: "We flipped 'em. Cam's just not gettin' enough shots to the net. We just felt it was stallin' off when Cam was on the other side."
On uncertainty surrounding the trade deadline: "They're human. We can sit here and say 'nah, you gotta be a pro, you gotta do this, forget about it.' They're human, and when a team has been inconsistent as we have, there's a lot of things that could happen."
On moving Anderson to the fourth line: "I wanted to surround [Jussi Jokinen] with some speed with him and [Nathan] Gerbe, two of the quicker players on the team."
On Pierre-Luc Dubois: "Other than Bob he was probably our best player.
"This is a guy that has to play all 200 feet as a center. Playing against all top lines down low, and he does not make a lot of mistakes defensively.
"I think people that have been in the league a lot longer than him should watch him play. Because he's just lettin' it happen. Makes two or three huge mistakes the other night, turnovers, but other than that, he comes back and plays three or four great shifts after."
On his comfort level with Dubois going up against number one guys: "I have no problem playing him against any top player. I think he's accepted that. He's got some balls. And I do, I think some of our guys can learn from him."
Pierre-Luc Dubois
On his goal: "As soon as [Artemi Panarin] got it I knew it was comin' to me, so I have to be ready. It was a really nice pass and it was a pretty easy play for me."
On Josh Anderson's game winner: "It feels good. The whole night, we competed, we worked really hard, we had a lot of chances and it wasn't going in, and to see him get that goal feels really good."
On the penalty kill: "Everybody contributed. Power play, PK, it was a whole system."
Cam Atkinson
On the meaning of this win moving forward: "Just confidence. Torts said it before the game, just go out there and play and have fun. We didn't really draw up any X's and O's before, just go out there and let go of the sticks, stop gripping the stick so tight. Don't be afraid to make a play. If you turn it over, whatever, just go out there and do it again, try again."
