Columbus Blue Jackets general manager and head coach Jarmo Kekalainen and John Tortorella had still not digested the elimination of theirs in five games at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, two days after s’ be shown the exit door of the “bubble” in Toronto.
A two-goal lead with eight minutes left in the game, the Ohio team allowed two goals before seeing their opponents complete the comeback in extra period.
“We’ve done so many good things during this series,” said Kekalainen, whose words were reported on his team’s website during his end-of-season media meeting. It’s a pill that’s hard to swallow right now. I really thought we would have played tonight [vendredi] and who knows what would have happened in match number 6. I was convinced to have a match 6 and to see the turnaround, it’s difficult. We need to learn from it and move on. ”
Few predicted much success at the Blue Jackets before the start of the 2019-20 season. The organization had seen some important players, like Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and Matt Duchene, leave their ranks to other skies.
However, before the National Hockey League suspended its operations due to COVID-19, the Blue Jackets had preserved a 33-22-15 record, which placed them ninth in the Eastern Conference. Columbus even allowed himself to eliminate the Toronto Maple Leafs in the qualifying round.
A good group
His results can be largely attributed to the goalkeeper duo, consisting of Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins. In addition, the emergence of some players, such as Pierre-Luc Dubois who has kept an average of one point per game since returning to play, has allowed the team to remain among those fighting for a place in the playoffs. .
“Conversations after elimination make me sick,” Tortorella said. What do you take away from the playoffs? Are there any positive points? What do you think of young players? I’m fed up with these conversations.
“I still have to be honest on some points and we have a good group of players. They believe it in the locker room. It didn’t start in the “bubble”. It started at the start of the season. This team can compete with anyone if they put the effort into it and they [les joueurs] have really accepted the mentality that they have to play as a team. ”
Kekalainen won’t have a lot of free agent files on his team, but he will have a very large one, as Dubois becomes a free agent with compensation.
