The Columbus Blue Jackets played their third preseason game of the exhibition slate, and the Blue Jackets lost their third preseason game of the exhibition slate, falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3.
Pierre-Luc Dubois was the easy star of the show for the Union Blue, firing off five shots and lighting the lamp twice, once in the second period (20 seconds in) and again in the third after the Penguins took a brief 3-2 advantage.
Let me let you in on a little secret – I didn’t watch a majority of the game. Not out of laziness, but out of inability. But, from what I did saw, compared to what I didn’t saw – I think the team knew I wasn’t watching.
When I was watching, the Jackets were a team on their heels – they were spending 65%, maybe more, in the defensive zone, they couldn’t get anything together in the offensive zone and they were about a step and a half behind the Penguins.
But apparently that’s just a very small sample size because the numbers speak for themselves – they outshot the Pens 34-23 (including 23-12 in the final 40 minutes), blocked 13 shots and forced eight takeaways.
All of this is a long way of saying – I wish I could have seen the whole product because, on paper at least, it looked like a pretty entertaining game.
Where things faltered, however, were in two key categories: the Pens won 58% of face-offs and laid 18 hits on the Jackets, compared to Columbus’ 12.
Sergei Bobrovsky made his first start of the preseason, saving 15 of 17 shots. It was Matiss Kivlenieks who got the nod in the third period, saving six of the eight shots he saw, but was unable to stop a shot from Olli Maatta with less than 90 seconds to play to send the game to overtime.
Maatta put it home on a rebound in front of the net.
Hey, it’s the preseason so it doesn’t go in the books, but this was a lot closer than the last home game and it’s the second straight game to be decided by one goal.
They’re back at it tomorrow, going to Chicago.