The Blue Jackets fought the Penguins evenly for about 30 minutes on Saturday night.
Then, the wheels fell off en route to a 7-2 drubbing. The loss put the Blue Jackets at 0-2 after two games. They've scored just three goals and given up 11. It hasn't been pretty.
However, it'll take a lot worse to change John Tortorella's expectations of his team.
"We'll be alright," said Tortorella, smiling.
The issues that the Blue Jackets have faced so far have appeared on both ends of the ice, but the biggest issue has been taking penalties.
"We're taking too many penalties," said Tortorella. He didn't elaborate, and it's clear that he expects the Blue Jackets to clean up their discipline.
There's not a lot of experience on this year's edition of the Blue Jackets, and it's showed in their first two games. A lack of experience isn't always a bad thing, but the Blue Jackets have been outplayed thoroughly thus far. They hung with the Penguins evenly for half of the game Saturday then lost their composure.
"The key for us — where we lost ourselves in Pittsburgh — is our composure," said Tortorella. "We were just trying to do way too much (after Pittsburgh's third goal) to get back into it, and we still had half the game."
Tortorella continued to harp upon the importance of the Blue Jackets' situational awareness.
"Up until that third goal we were playing really good hockey, but then we just lost our composure," Tortorella concluded.
The Blue Jackets will look to bounce back tonight against the Buffalo Sabres at Nationwide Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00 p.m.
