Bedard: Tortorella's Game 6 guarantee shows Bruins' top line, Rask in Columbus' heads

I don't blame John Tortorella one bit. And neither should you.

The Blue Jackets' pugnacious bench boss took to the podium after his team's crushing 4-3 Game 5 defeat to the Bruins at TD Garden — after he tossed in a, "Don’t ask stupid questions right now guys. Ask me some questions that mean something..." — to deliver the type of bulletin-board material that is the stuff of Bill Belichick's Super-Bowl Week dreams.

"We’ll be back here for Game 7," the Concord native said.

Given a chance to explain his boast away, Tortorella doubled down.

You said you'll be back here for Game 7...

"We will," he said.

... what gives you the confidence to say ...

"Because we will," was the final retort from Torts before he dashed off, back to Columbus to meet the Bruins in a do-or-die Game 6 for his club.

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Anyone who follows hockey knows that Tortorella is a quote machine, and not afraid to throw his bravado around, whether it's to fire up his club or belittle the Knights of the Keyboard. So that it was him making this "guarantee" was not a big deal. Joe Namath has nothing to worry about.

But Tortorella, while a curmudgeon, is also very smart. He may come off as the cranky uncle that the nieces and nephews are afraid of at family reunions, but he knows exactly what he's doing and how his words will play. He knows he'll give the Bruins a little extra juice for Game 6 — Brad Marchand smirked and said, "No," when asked if he had a comment — but Tortorella knows deep down, after what just transpired in the past two games, that he had little choice put to push his chips to the center of the table.

Why?

Because the way Tuukka Rask has taken over the series and now that the Bruins' top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak has awoken to full capacity, Tortorella had no option but to play head games with his team and the Bruins heading into Game 6.

Despite "giving up" three goals in Game 5, Rask is still doing his best Tim Thomas imitation. The first goal went off his defenseman and had to be reviewed for about 15 minutes before Toronto could stick to the Bruins again.

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The second, which Rask would probably still like back, featured an unexpected late cross-ice pass and then a back-bar down finish from Ryan Dzingel (he's still on the team?!).

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And the final goal, which tied the game with 6:02 left and erased Boston's 3-1 advantage, was an uncovered howitzer from Dean Kukan that was perfectly pocketed into the top right corner of the net.

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And in the waning seconds, just to remind you he's still on his game, Rask came up with a dandy right pad save to thwart Columbus' last threat with 14.6 seconds remaining.

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"Yeah we were shooting the puck, getting it on net, he made some huge saves late in the game ... really throughout the game, we had some chances in the slot and around the net, he made some big saves for them," said Columbus defenseman Seth Jones.

Nobody needed to tell Bruce Cassidy what kind of roll his goaltender had been on (Rask had posted 118 minutes and nine seconds of consecutive non-net interference scoreless hockey prior to Jones' tally).

"But Tuukka ... listen, you don’t advance without excellent goaltending, timely saves," Cassidy said. "We got it right to the last 15 seconds out of him."

So while the proverbial hot goalie is working against the Blue Jackets heading into Game 6, the bigger problem for Torts & Co. is that the Bergeron line has emerged from its slumber to dominate the last two games.

How does six goals and 11 total points in two games sound? Oh, and they're a combined plus-11 in Games 5 and 6.

Prior to Game 5, the terrific trio had put up just one goal (off Pastrnak's skate) and were a collective minus-3.

If you're Tortorella and Blue Jackets, look out.

"I think tonight was an excellent game for them," said Cassidy. "When your offensive guys and players like those guys that put a lot of pressure on themselves to lead, both production-wise, effort-wise, details … you know, if it doesn’t go your way there’s a level of frustration. They’re humans.

"So now they break through the other night and tonight they’re back to feeling good about themselves and listen, you’ve seen them around here. They’re dominant when they’re on ... If they start feeling it, it’s a tall task for the other team."

Just don't expect Marchand to give in to the sentiment that the Perfection Line is just now doing what they've done all season.

"I think it's funny how you say we had a great game tonight and in other games we had more opportunities than we did tonight, we just happened to win tonight," Marchand said. "It's funny how you can dictate a good game from a bad game."

Pastrnak then injected a little levity into the interview room by saying he would take the next question, "because Marchy's a little crispy tonight."

That's how much this line is in sync at this point: they even know when to pick each other up in the post-game press conference.

In all seriousness, Pastrnak's rapid ascension in this series could be the determining factor if the Bruins go on to close it out. He's gone from being a possible bench consideration to getting on the board with his skate, posting a goal and an assist in Game 5, to rescuing the Bruins from a possible crushing blown victory with two goals in the third on Saturday night, including the game-winner.

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"We’ve been waiting for that for a while," Torey Krug said. "He put a lot of pressure — I wouldn’t call it pressure — but he put a lot of onus to get himself out of the funk and we need him to win hockey games and that showed tonight. If we can get that consistency factor out of him, we’re a scary team.

"They’re a scary line, they come at you and they attack you, now pucks are going in for them. I said before, once we get that line going consistently, we’re a very scary team."

John Tortorella realizes that, probably more than anyone. Desperate times call for drastic measures. With Rask almost impenetrable, and Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak back to their dominating selves, the Blue Jackets are indeed in dire straits heading into Game 6.

That's why he said what he said.