Joonas Korpisalo will be the Blue Jackets' goalie tonight against the Penguins, John Tortorella said emphatically Thursday morning. Period.
Columbus' fiery head coach even chided reporters to "stop asking" him about it. Well, Tortorella has certainly opened himself up for second-guessing by not playing Keith Kinkaid.
Presumably, the Blue Jackets acquired Kinkaid from the Devils for a fifth-round pick in 2022 to play specifically against the Penguins. Kinkaid, who will serve as the backup tonight, is 6-3-1 in his career against the Penguins after going 3-0-1 vs. them last season while with New Jersey.
Korpisalo is 0-2-0 vs. Pittsburgh with an .886 save percentage and 4.09 GAA in his career. One of those losses came at PPG Paints Arena on Nov. 24, when the Penguins scored four times on 36 shots in a 4-2 win.
"I think it's huge," said Korpisalo, who gave up five goals in his last start Feb. 18 vs. the Lightning. "It's going to be fun to play in this building today. A huge game for us, and I hope we're going to help the team to win today."
So, um, why not Sergei Bobrosvky?
For the record, Tortorella said he doesn't want to overwork the two-time Vezina winner.
"We feel he's played a lot of hockey," he said. "This was a game that we wanted to give to Korpy to try and give Bob a little bit of rest and work on his game. Bob's a guy that needs some days sometimes to work on certain parts of his game that you can't do when you're playing as much as he does. This is a good day for him."
BRADFORD'S VIEW
The obvious answer is that Bobrovsky hasn't beaten the Penguins in two years. While no one would ever admit it on the record, the Penguins are in the collective heads of the Blue Jackets, and their star goalie in particular.
In addition to playoff losses in the first round to Pittsburgh in 2014 and '17, Bobrovsky went 0-1-3 last season against the Penguins with an .889 save percentage and 3.82 GAA. In his one game this season against the Penguins, he allowed four goals on 26 shots.
Not sure of Tortorella's thinking in not going with Kinkaid tonight, but it would seem he doesn't want to make a panic move. Though the Blue Jackets haven't met expectations since the deadline, going with Kinkaid would be signaling that they fear the Penguins, even more so than by just sitting Bobrovsky.
If the Blue Jackets make the playoffs, Tortorella won't be on the hot seat. But if they fail to get back into the top eight, you'd have to believe that changes will be coming to Columbus.
