What the Bruins can learn from a gritty Blue Jackets club following another OT loss

The last time the Bruins and Blue Jackets met at TD Garden, both clubs were embroiled in a pitched war of attrition during the second round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

That series might have gone to the Bruins in six games, but Boston’s road through the Eastern Conference was far from easy — especially against a Blue Jackets club showcasing both skill and the grit and tenacity that have long been hallmarks of a John Tortorella team. Of those six games, four were decided by a single goal. Two matchups needed overtime to determine a victor.

A little over seven months later, the stakes were much lower in Thursday’s rematch on Causeway Street. But the contest followed the same ol' script when it came to the product that Columbus put out on the ice in what was an eventual 2-1 OT win for the visitors.

Columbus is at its best when it's suffocating its opponents with a heavy, frantic forecheck and eating up pucks down the other end of the ice. Thursday night was no different, even if the roster Tortorella rolled out was a far cry from the crew that gave Boston fits last spring.



The 2019-20 Bruins are not all that different from the roster that fell just three periods short of a Stanley Cup title last June. Sure, there are a few new faces in the bottom six, but the usual suspects are still all accounted for in the B’s locker room. 

The 2019-20 Blue Jackets, by comparison, should be in a sorry state. This campaign had all the makings of a “bridge year” for this franchise, given the offseason departures of Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Sergei Bobrovsky after the club went all in at the 2019 trade deadline. 

To make matters worse, an already rebuilding Jackets roster entered Thursday’s matchup at TD Garden with a decimated lineup — with Joonas Korpisalo, Alexandre Texier, Cam Atkinson, Markus Nutivaara, Ryan Murray, Brandon Dubinsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson all down for the count due to injuries. 

But even with many regulars on the shelf, Tortorella’s club didn’t waiver from playing within their system. The Blue Jackets weren’t splitting the atom when it came to their scheme. Rather, they just adhered to simple, but awfully effective, hockey.

Whether it be extending O-zone possessions with sound puck recovery or negating multiple Bruins scoring chances with a timely blocked shot (15 on the night), the Blue Jackets hampered a B's team that was expected to start clicking again with the likes of Torey Krug, David Krejci and Charlie McAvoy back in the lineup. 

“We had some major blocked shots at key times,” Tortorella said. “I thought that (goalie) Elvis (Merzlikins) was solid when he needed to be. I just thought we played a good game right on through. It’s not like we went in the backdoor. (We) held them to twelve scoring chances. At times, against their top line, there was a struggle too, but right on through our lineup I just thought we just played a good, solid, structured game.” 

Whereas the Blue Jackets have had multiple newcomers and youngsters all pulling their weight when pressed into service, the Bruins’ offensive contributions beyond the top line remains a frustrating conundrum for Bruce Cassidy to solve. 

While Charlie Coyle stands as the team’s second-line winger “for the time being”, according to Cassidy, the domino effect of his promotion looms large over the bottom six, especially when it comes to getting the most out of Anders Bjork and Danton Heinen. 

And the results generated by a DeBrusk-Krejci-Coyle line weren’t all that appealing on Thursday, with Boston out-attempted by Columbus, 10-7, and failing to generate a high-danger scoring chance in that trio’s 11:55 of 5v5 ice time together.

Add in a so-so showing from the fourth line, which Cassidy is still looking to play “more to their standard,” and Boston’s depth is continuing to come up short. That stalled offense prompted yet another overtime contest on Thursday — and yet another loser point following Pierre-Luc Dubois’ OT winner just 52 seconds into the extra period.

All things considered, even with Thursday’s OT defeat, the Bruins are still in pretty good shape — steadily collecting points and maintaining an eight-point lead over Toronto in the Atlantic Division.

“We just got to go out and make one more play than they did,” Krug said of Boston’s OT woes. “Luckily they don't play 3-on-3 overtime in the playoffs. But for now, we're capturing points, but we got to find a way to capture a few more."

But for all of the talk about the Bruins’ strong start and still untapped potential, Boston spent most of Thursday night getting a much-needed reality check. 

The 2019-20 Blue Jackets may not possess the same ceiling as the 2019-20 Bruins, but injuries and a lack of established NHL talent haven’t precluded Columbus from putting together a 12-game point streak — currently the longest streak among all NHL teams.

For Tortorella's crew, the system in place — rather than the pieces on the roster — is what ultimately have allowed Columbus to defy the low expectations placed on the team this season.

Boston has the moxie, talent and pedigree to meet, if not exceed, its expectations down the stretch in 2020. But it’s going to need the entire roster to start pulling on the same rope if it wants to start piling on more than just loser points this winter.

“It’s a buy-in, it’s a belief,” Tortorella said of his team. “When you’ve got young guys coming up, just chomping on the bit to stay and try to impress, there’s a concentration level as far as the structure of it. You end up getting the results, and winning some games, and I think it gets tighter and tighter, and deeper and deeper as far as the belief, as far as playing as a team.

“That’s the key thing, as a team. So, you know, we’re gonna struggle eventually along the way here. That’s when you find out about what you really are. But, I just like the way everyone’s kind of hung in there together."