No team news to start the day. Coach Tortorella wanted to keep the lines and lineup that took Boston to overtime intact. Joonas Korpisalo would get the nod again, making his 11th straight start for Columbus. Seth Jones looked to bounce back after a rough outing against Boston, his first real dud of a performance since he arrived in exchange for Ryan Johansen.
In fun news, according to Aaron Portzline Korpisalo’s family arrived in Columbus and will see him play in an NHL game for the first time. Let’s hope they see a win. To the highlights!
FIRST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Your CBJ starters: Scott Hartnell, Alexander Wennberg, Brandon Saad, Jack Johnson, David Savard, Joonas Korpisalo
Cam Atkinson picked off a pass and rushed up ice, but the play was broken up by Jake McCabe at 1:00.
Nice glove save by Korpisalo at 3:52.
End to end action for the first 5 minutes.
Jackets on the power play! Zemgus Girgensons went off for a hit to the head against Fedor Tyutin at 5:07.
Ryan Murray sent a shot over the net at 6:40.
CHANCE following a Seth Jones slap shot, Brandon Dubinsky sent a rebound just wide.
The Buffalo Sabres killed the penalty despite solid pressure from Columbus.
Buffalo power play. Columbus went down a man as Seth Jones went off for holding the stick at 8:29.
CHANCE. Brandon Dubinsky sent a shorthanded breakaway just wide at 9:00.
Columbus, odd as it may sound, controlled play while down a man, and successfully killed the penalty allowing no shots.
Brandon Dubinsky saw a shot saved by Robin Lehner at 11:50.
LEHNER ROBBED ATKINSON AT 12:00. It followed a stellar goalmouth feed from Boone Jenner.
Seth Jones on the ice with Dalton Prout. I just can’t even.
Buffalo on the power play. Dalton Prout went off for hooking at 14:49.
Buffalo goal. After a faceoff loss and a few rebound chances, Jamie McGinn was able to pot the rebound at 14:55. Assists to Jack Eichel and Rasmus Ristolainen.
Wennberg fed Scott Hartnell for a shot, though he maybe should have taken it himself.
Jackets on the power play! Mark Pysyk went off for interference at 18:03.
Sabres goal. David Legwand let a shot fly from the top of his own circle, and it took a wicked bounce past Korpisalo into the net. One in a million. It sucks that Korpisalo’s family is here tonight. The puck to a weird, and I mean WEIRD hop about 2 feet in front of him. There was nothing Korpisalo could have done; he was in perfect position 99.9% of the time.
At the end of the first, Buffalo led Columbus 2-0.
That…..that could’ve gone better.
Only the Jackets, man.
SECOND PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Buffalo killed the penalty.
Boone Jenner hobbled to the bench and down the hall after blocked a shot at 2:00. He took a slap shot from Zach Bogosian off of his ankle.
Korpisalo made a save at 4:00.
Korpisalo makes the save again at 5:00. He looked rather shaky tonight.
Buffalo power play. Jack Johnson went off for tripping Jack Eichel at 6:34. It was Buffalo’s 3rd power play of the night. The Sabres had 7 when they beat Columbus 4-2 earlier this season.
Korpisalo denied Ryan O’Reilly at 6:57.
After a Sam Reinhart redirection, Korpisalo made the save at 7:40.
The Blue Jackets killed the penalty as Matt Moulson tried to hammer one home.
Seth Jones and Ryan Murray were back together. Nice to see Torts isn’t totally crazy.
Alexnader Wennberg had won 7 of 8 faceoffs at the midway point. Yay positives.
Matt Calvert was denied at 10:15 by Robin Lehner.
Buffalo had 12 shots at the 13 minute mark of the second period. Columbus had 4.
Jackets on the power play. At 14:24, Zemgus Girgensons went off for hooking.
Brandon Dubinsky and Brandon Saad were both denied on the power play.
The Sabres killed the penalty.
Scott Hartnell laid a hit on Cody Franson at 16:55, who immediately went down. Hartnell was hit with a 5:00 boarding major. He had been upset that Johan Larsson had tried to tee him up just seconds prior. It was absolutely the right call. Franson was in the corner and Hartnell teed him up from the faceoff circle. So stupid.
Buffalo penalty. Rasmus Ristolainen went off for interference at 17:26. 4 on 4 for 2 minutes.
Buffalo penalty. Marcus Foligno went off for high sticking Jack Johnson at 18:08. The Jackets had a 4 on 3 for 1:19 to close the period.
Lehner made a nice save on Wennberg at 18:40.
Lehner denied Nick Foligno at 19:15.
Buffalo killed the penalty.
At 20:00, Evander Kane went off for tripping.
Buffalo killed their own major power play by taking so many penalties. I’ve never ever seen that. Holy cow.
At the end of the second period, Buffalo led Columbus 2-0.
THIRD PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Buffalo killed the 8 second power play.
4 on 4 for 1:40 to begin the third period.
BRANDON DUBINSKY HAD A SHOT DENIED BY LEHNER’S SKATE AT 0:45
The terms returned to full strength with little fanfare.
Lehner made an outstanding save on a Kerby Rychel redirection from Nick Foligno.
SCRUM. Rychel and Zach Bogosian had words at 2:49.
Saad tried to walk around McCabe but it came to nothing at 4:00.
The Torts Line Blender™ went to work, as Foligno moved up to play with Wennberg and Saad, while Hartnell was with Rene Bourque and William Karlsson. Perhaps punishment for the boneheaded boarding penalty by Hartnell in the second?
Brandon Saad whistled a shot just high at 6:30.
Nick Foligno was absolutely leveled in open ice by Josh Gorges.
Sabres goal. Jamie McGinn, after some end to end action, put one home after a nice play by Jack Eichel at 7:16. Assists to Zemgus Girgensons and Jack Eichel.
At this point, the Blue Jackets had 33 shots on goal. 20 of them were from Dubinsky, Atkinson, and Jones, with Dubinsky taking an astounding 10.
Sabres goal. After Evander Kane was denied on a breakaway by Korpisalo, Sam Reinhard scored at 9:50. Assist to Kane.
Boone Jenner destroyed Zach Bogosian. He probably deserves a fine for that. It was a pretty dirty hit, and he should be better than that as a leader of the club.
Robin Lehner dropped the gloves to try to get Jack Johnson to fight, but Johnson wouldn’t go.
The Blue Jackets pulled Joonas Korpisalo for Curtis McElhinney.
Boone Jenner went to the box for a 5 minute major for boarding, 2 minute minor for hooking, and was ejected, Lehner was assessed a double minor, Jack Johnson for roughing, leading to 4 on 4 hockey at 11:30.
The 4 on 4 ended with no real chances.
Buffalo then had a 3 minute power play.
Gregory Campbell could not get a shot off shorthanded.
The Blue Jackets killed the major penalty.
FINAL: Buffalo Sabres 4 Columbus Blue Jackets 0
THREE STARS
*** Jack Eichel
** Jamie McGinn
* Robin Lehner
QUICK THOUGHTS
I’m becoming more and more okay with Scott Hartnell getting shipped out of town.
Also, Columbus should probably work on discipline and staying out of the box in the offseason. The amount of penalties this team has taken this season has been absolutely insane.
Alexander Wennberg did well in the faceoff circle. That was nice to see.
Boone Jenner, Brandon Dubinsky, and Cam Atkinson is unquestionably the number one line for this team. They were everywhere.
Special shoutout to Dubinsky. He was an absolute force on the ice tonight. Unfortunately, no one else was.
Nick Foligno had a pretty solid game tonight.
Robin Lehner had an absolutely outstanding game for Buffalo.
The Blue Jackets special teams were absolutely abysmal tonight.
The third period was an absolute joke, all around. Nothing positive to highlight. Nothing good to talk about. Mistakes, frustration, and penalties everywhere.
UP NEXT
The Blue Jackets finally leave Nationwide Arena on Monday to take on the Boston Bruins. Faceoff is at 7:00 EST.