Blue Jackets 5, Penguins 3

I was there with my daughter having bragged about how great Sid and Fluery were going to be and as they described later, it was the low point in the HCMT era before they began their 28 month climb to get to the SC finals.

Wow - great find Sarah

Wow my son and i were in the balcony along those boards never saw the hit, because the puck was all the way up the ice. Crazy that they caught the whole thing on camera.

Well I thought it was boarding before I saw this clip, but really it's a LOT more violent than I first realized....I thought he kinda slid into the boards, but wow, he flew into them. Tough to watch huh?

Unnecessary for sure and should have been interference at the very least.

Garage league

Doan mentioned he wanted to hold Chris up so he didn't get by him but if that was the case, he could have just got in his way. Letang was off balance and thus vulnerable which amplified the result of what basically was a push.

Yeah weak excuse by Doan....

Thanks for the clip Sarah. I love hitting and even fighting as much as the next guy but these players complete disregard for each others safety these days is astounding.

When I saw messages from people who saw Letang in Montreal yesterday, I thought the same thing - that maybe he went to see the specialist, I believe his name is Francious Chaput, who helped him get over the bad concussion he had from the Pacioretty hit.

When I saw messages from people who saw Letang in Montreal yesterday, I thought the same thing - that maybe he went to see the specialist, I believe his name is Francious Chaput, who helped him get over the bad concussion he had from the Pacioretty hit.

Thanks for that link, Sarah. The audio gives you an appreciation for the violence of the impact that the broadcast footage doesn't.

And the writer makes a good point that the hit was unnecessary. I know DK hates that term, but what it means to me is that Doan could have accomplished his stated goal without making that kind of play. It's the difference between a defender riding a guy into the boards to take him out of the play versus driving him into the boards. The Comeau non-call in this game - the Columbus player could have rubbed him out of the play without making the kind of hit that should have been called a penalty.

Would much rather see Pouliot with Cole as the 2nd pairing and Scuds with Chorney as the distant 3rd pairing.

Yep, they've really been barely at or below .500 since December.
And it's taken a career year from Fleury, to even do that.
Scary.

Granted that players 10-20 just absolutely stink on this team but I still blame the power play for the lack of scoring since November and give all the excuses you want but they have mostly had the same 5 on the PP most of the year.

Stat from Pens Radio Twitter - pens averaging 1.58 GPG without Geno and 2.95 with him(86.7% increase) - something like 19 goals in last 14 games without 71

Realistically Pens need to get a lead and have Flower in stoner mode today - if CBJ gets out fast it's over early

I guess they never practice this either aka shoot outs

Who knew we'd miss Moustache Boy??

Yeah. Really too many decisions are questionable.

His hockey IQ defines the low end of the scale

Thought Tocchet was here to fix that? Of course Tocchet was also supposed to fix the PP and their motivational deficiencies so I would say that Mr Tocchet has failed on all three counts.