In the victorious home dressing room Thursday night, Jack Johnson refused to take the bait.
"Do you think your team might be in the Blue Jackets' heads?" I asked.
"Can't answer that," he said. "You'll have to ask them."
"Them," of course, used to be his team for seven seasons in Columbus. He didn't have to answer, but he knows. The defenseman is a savvy veteran after all.
And if they were being honest with each other a few hundred feet down the hall at PPG Paints Arena, the Blue Jackets know it too. John Tortorella conceded as much Thursday morning when he named Joonas Korpisalo his starting goalie against the Penguins over a two-time Vezina winner.
See, there aren't supposed to be sure things in professional sports. Certainly not for the Penguins, a team that over the first 67 games of this season has shown itself to be wildly inconsistent from game to game, and even period to period. Except when the Blue Jackets are the opponent, of course. Against them, the Penguins are the closest thing to a sure bet.
Thursday night's huge 3-0 win made it eight straight victories against the star-crossed Blue Jackets, one of three teams -- along with the Hurricanes and Canadiens -- that realistically stand in the way of the Penguins sealing a playoff spot for a 13th straight season.
The Penguins' win in what, in essence, was a four-point game certainly improved the chances of that happening. They now sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division, four points ahead of the slumping Blue Jackets, who are now two points out of the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.
"They're huge," Johnson was saying of points Nos. 80 and 81 for his new team. "As the season winds down, each game gets bigger and bigger and bigger. We're just trying to get some separation from the teams behind us and catch the teams in front of us. We have another big one Saturday night, so we look forward to coming out and playing well Saturday."
The most direct path to a playoff spot for the Penguins is to eliminate the Blue Jackets. With the second game of this home-and-home series coming Saturday night in Columbus, that feels like it could be a mere formality. The Blue Jackets are just 17-16-2 at home, their 36 points at Nationwide Arena rank among the bottom third in the league. Then again, the Penguins have simply owned the Blue Jackets regardless of venue.
Mike Sullivan, who is now 15-2-1 against Tortorella, his mentor, couldn't even explain his team’s success in a league where there is allegedly more parity than ever.
"I'm not sure there's a valid explanation," the coach said. "All I can tell you is that every game we play them is a hard-fought battle and the margin for error is slim, and most of the games are close games."
Indeed, Thursday night was another close one. For a while anyway. The Blue Jackets, now 2-4 since their trade deadline haul, came out like horses in the opening period. They held a 10-4 edge in shots and a 67-33 percent advantage in Corsi For. The only thing they didn't have was the lead.
Phil Kessel took care of that for the Penguins. His power play goal, his first in 16 games, gave Matt Murray and Co. a much-needed cushion to work with just 2:22 into the first period. From there, the Penguins were able to play like a team that, despite its inconsistencies, is showing signs of rounding into postseason form.
"That's the urgency that we have to play with, that's the playoff mindset," Sullivan said.
The Penguins are now 4-0-1 in their last five, which flies in the face of their many injuries, particularly on the back end. Since their Feb. 23 loss in Philadelphia, the Penguins are limiting opponents to just 29.8 shots per game. Extrapolated over a season, that would rank them among the top seven.
"We're keeping a tighter gap, kind of forces our forwards to get back for us," Marcus Pettersson was saying. "We've been talking a lot about how we can keep the play alive in the offensive zone as defensemen and for us to do that, it kind of pressures the forwards to get back for us. It kind of goes hand-in-hand."
Much like last week's win over the Blue Jackets, the Penguins played as a team — and not just supporting the puck, either. They played "for each other" as Sullivan said.
Here's Jake Guentzel, the Penguins' leading goal scorer, not scoring in the second period. This is him standing in front of an Artemi Panarin wrist shot:
This is Garrett Wilson, who was briefly out of the game after blocking Seth Jones' slap shot in the first period, stepping up for Dominik Simon against Nick Foligno in the second and getting his forehead slammed on the ice for his efforts:
Play as they have these last five games and, minimally, the Penguins will be a tough out come this spring. It's almost too bad the Blue Jackets might not be around for the playoffs. Man, that might be a sweep.
***premium***
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Nick Bjugstad
Penguins center
See, someone other than Sidney Crosby or Jake Guentzel can score. And at even strength too!
2. Matt Murray
Penguins goaltender
Stopped all 25 shots he faced for his fourth shutout, matching a career high. It was the Penguins' first shutout since Jan. 4. Asked if he enjoyed playing this time of year, the goalie deadpanned: "I just like hockey. All year I like it."
3. Phil Kessel
Penguins right winger
At long last, our national nightmare is over. Kessel is back on the board (see below).
THE GOOD
Unlike the NFL, being announced as a starter in the NHL is really no big deal. At all. Other than standing on the ice for the anthem, there's really no great honor.
But if you've been slumping like Kessel has, maybe you need the affirmation of the home crowd. That, in part, was why Sullivan says he broke with the norm and opted to start his second line over the Crosby line.
"When players are announced in the starting lineup, they get a kick out of (it)," Sullivan explained. "And it's good for those guys. They're important players for us. Hopefully, (it) gives them a little bit of juice going into the game."
Kessel didn't score on his opening shift but he did just two minutes later, capitalizing on Scott Harrington's trip of Nick Bjugstad.
Actually, Kessel didn't even mean to score, it was a centering pass to Patric Hornqvist that Korpisalo put in his own net. But beggars can't be choosers. It still counts:
"It felt pretty good, right?" Kessel said. "It wasn't the greatest goal but I'll take it at this point."
It was his first since Jan. 30 vs. the Lightning. It was also his first on the power play since Jan. 18 and his first at PPG since Dec. 27 vs. the Red Wings.
Predictably, the home crowd loved every bit of it. In some cities, a player who makes $6.8 million and goes 16 games without a goal and has been responsible for many of his team's league-high 13 shorthanded goals-against might get a different reaction. Not in Pittsburgh. Here, Kessel is still a rock star.
"The fans and the city have been great to me since I've been here," he said. "I love playing here. I have unbelievable memories here. They've been nothing but supportive and I really appreciate it."
THE BAD
The power play. Granted, Kessel got off the schneid in the first period with his goal, but the Penguins had four other chances with a man-advantage and couldn't convert.
That included 1:55 of 5-on-3 in the third period after Foligno took a Gordie Howe-like elbow to Teddy Blueger's mush. Then, Boone Jenner clipped Crosby with a high stick — drawing blood — off the ensuing faceoff.
Sullivan even used his timeout with :06 left in the 5-on-3 to keep his first unit on, but it wasn't happening. The Penguins mustered just three shots on that power play and finished just 1-for-5 on seven shots against Columbus' third-ranked PK (84.2 percent)
It was an uncharacteristic lack of discipline from the Blue Jackets. Despite a heavy lineup, to their credit, they are the second-least penalized team at 6:41 per game, and their 171 kills this season were tied for fewest in the league.
THE PLAY
After being dominated territorially in the first period, the Penguins basically flipped the script in the second. They led 18-8 in shots and held a 59-41 Corsi For percentage advantage in the middle period. They just had precious little to show for it.
That was until Bjugstad scored the biggest goal of his Penguins career.
With a little over a minute remaining in the period, the new-look third line, which reunited Bjugstad and Jared McCann, were buzzing in the Columbus zone. From the left circle, McCann found Bjugstad in a soft area in the slot. The rangy center made a nice backhand-to-forehand move to shake Matt Duchene then launched a hard, low shot -- told you the dad-to-be can shoot it -- that beat Korpisalo through the wickets:
That gave the Penguins an all-important two-goal lead with 1:13 left. It was Bjugstad's fourth goal in 17 games since coming over in the trade with the Panthers and second in four games. McCann, who was bumped from his spot on the top line, didn't seem to mind much. He now has nine points in 17 games with his new team.
"We're starting to feel each other out and learn each other's habits," McCann said of playing with Bjugstad. "Once we have that defense-first mentality, we'll be fine."
THE CALL
The Blue Jackets played the final 57-plus minutes without their timeout after Tortorella unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference on Kessel's power-play goal. The Blue Jackets argued that the right skate of Hornqvist -- go figure -- impeded Korpisalo's ability to stop the shot.
Toronto reviewed the play, but the on-ice call of Sewickley's own Furman South was quickly upheld. Not sure if a timeout would've helped the Blue Jackets on this night, but it seemed fairly obvious that Korpisalo was not interfered with.
THE OTHER SIDE
The Blue Jackets' inability to beat the Penguins is nothing new but their inability to score is. And it's a real cause for alarm for a team that went all-in at the trade deadline by acquiring Duchene and Ryan Dzingel from the Senators. Both players have now gone four games without a point.
Columbus' last goal came when Cam Atkinson scored 52 seconds into Tuesday night's game against the Devils, meaning they've now gone 119:08 without scoring. In the five games since the Feb. 25 deadline, the Blue Jackets have been blanked twice and scored more than two goals just once.
In the end, it didn't matter whether the Blue Jackets' goalie was Korpisalo, Sergei Bobrovsky or Keith Kinkaid. Korpisalo more than held his own, stopping 28 of 30 shots.
"I thought our effort was much better tonight," Tortorella said. "I thought we did some really good things, but we just didn't win the game. You're not going to win a game if you don't score a goal."
After Saturday night's rematch against the Penguins, the Blue Jackets' next five games are against the Islanders, Bruins (twice), Hurricanes and Flames, all of whom figure to be playoff teams. Not sure the same can be said for the CBJ.
THE DATA
• Bjugstad, McCann and Erik Gudbranson, the new guys, were each on the ice for a team-high eight high-danger scoring chances for.
• Bjugstad's six shots on goal were a team high and a personal best this season.
• Hornqvist, who now has points in five of his last six games, led the Penguins with an 80.95 CF% at 5v5.
• Led by Brian Dumoulin with five, the Penguins doubled up the Blue Jackets in blocked shots, 24-12.
• The Penguins are now 9-1 in their gold third jerseys. Might want to break those out in the playoffs.
THE INJURIES
• Kris Letang, defenseman, missed his fifth game with an upper body injury. He did not skate Thursday due to illness, according to Sullivan.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 11 and is expected to miss a month. He’s on IR.
• Bryan Rust, forward, missed his fourth game with a lower body injury.
• Chad Ruhwedel, defenseman, missed his fourth game with an upper body injury. He is also status quo.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings that finished this game:
Guentzel—Crosby—Simon
ZAR—Malkin—Kessel
McCann—Bjugstad—Hornqvist
Blueger—Cullen—Wilson
Johnson—Schultz
Dumoulin—Trotman
Pettersson—Gudbranson
• And for the Blue Jackets:
Panarin—Dubois—Atkinson
Dzingel—Duchene—Bjorkstrand
Foligno—Jenner—Anderson
Nash—Wennberg—Dubinsky
Werenski—Jones
Nuutivaara—Savard
Harrington—McQuaid
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have an off day today. They will hold a morning skate Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at Nationwide Arena before taking on the Blue Jackets later that night. DK, Taylor and Sunday will have our coverage from Columbus. We'll have the whole gang back together the following night at PPG Paints Arena when the Penguins host the Bruins at 7:30 p.m.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Blue Jackets, PPG Paints Arena, March 8, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS