Blue Jackets

Post Battle #32 vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Dec 14, 2015 • 10:52 pm

Final Score: Lightning 2 – Blue Jackets 1

Game Summary

Welcome to the NHL Joonas Korpisalo. He had to face a ton of shots, the Lightning outshot the Jackets 29-26, but he played well making 27 saves. Unfortunately the Jackets were not able to capitalize on their great chances and fell to the Lightning 2-1.

Korpisalo looked strong in his NHL debut. He made some very big saves and looked sharp. He didn’t seem to get rattled or nervous about the game. Granted Tampa was playing shorthanded only starting the game with 11 forwards and then having to play with 10 as Joel Vermin got hurt early in the first. He did his job keeping the team in the game and giving them a chance to win. Neither of the goals he allowed were even remotely his fault.

The first goal was off a terrible turnover form Alexander Wennberg. He made a bad pass to David Savard which ended up on the stick of former Jacket Jonathan Marchessault who was alone in the slot. The second one was a shorthanded two on one, another tough play for Korpisalo.

It will be interesting to see if Korpisalo plays tomorrow in Dallas. He has definitely earned the next start but I would be a little tentative to start him on a back to back against the league’s best offense. It might not be a bad time to rest him and get him ready to take on Arizona. I mentioned the chances, the Jackets had PLENTY tonight. The out chanced Tampa 36-19 in the game and 27-16 at 5 on 5. If that wasn’t impressive enough they also managed to destroy Tampa in high danger chances 19-3! Leading the way for the Jackets were Brandon Dubinsky and Boone Jenner who each had five.

The big play of the game was the non-call late in the third. The puck was loose in the crease and the Tampa Bay player appeared to put his hand on the puck. That should have been a penalty shot. Since it was not an official scoring play it was unable to be reviewed. Not saying the Jackets would have tied the game on the penalty shot but it would have been nice to have had the chance.