It was quite the surprise Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena as the Pittsburgh Penguins Marc-Andre Fleury was in net instead of Matt Murray. Fleury stopped 31 of 32 shots to earn the win. Despite looking outmatched in the first period of game one, the Penguins made adjustments and hung three on the Jackets in the second.
The Columbus Blue Jackets look to steal game two and tie up this series before heading home for game three. Penguins played good defensive structure all game long.
The Penguins will travel to Columbus for the next two games, starting with Sunday's game at 6 p.m.
I mentioned in my series preview that Pittsburgh is a little more top heavy than they were past year. After several hard years in the middle of his career, Fleury was as on top of his game in 2015-16 as he had been in years, posting an outstanding.921 SP and 2.29 goals-against average in almost 60 games. And I'm sure the Pens faithful feel the exact same way, play smart, not aggressive.
So yes, the Blue Jackets find themselves down 2-0 in the series. "He's not nervous. He made some subtle plays [in Game 1] and [Harrington] is just a competitive guy and has grown on us as they year has gone by..."
Last year, Fleury had a concussion and rookie Jeff Zatkoff started the first two games of the opening round series against the New York Rangers, winning the first and dropping the second. They're going to score some goals.
All four forward lines collapsed around the crease in the defensive zone and swarmed Blue Jackets netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to create chances at the other end.
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His club-record 102nd playoff appearance looked an terrible lot like his 101st, when he held the Blue Jackets in check during an early push then waited for NHL's best offense to find its footing.
Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist to help the defending Stanley Cup champions take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The trade deadline passed and Fleury was still a Pittsburgh Penguin.
Lovely placement by Phil Kessel.
After overwhelming the Penguins at the start, Columbus managed just 16 shots over the final two periods and never really came close to threatening as a matchup between the teams that finished with the second and fourth best records in the National Hockey League looked one-sided.
"I think we're doing fine", Sullivan responded when asked to assess his team's adherence to his "Just Play" mindset. In Game 2, he'll be asked to do the same.
Kessel is pretty darn good in the regular season, but he just seems to love the postseason - after Wednesday's goal, he now has 45 points in 47 playoff games.
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