All the ingredients were there.
Physical game. Divisional rival. An ejection. A controversial call. A loss.
It was pretty much put on a tee for Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella after his team lost, 3-2, to the Penguins in a shootout Thursday at PPG Paints Arena, and ‘Torts’ knocked it out of the park.
The guy doesn’t miss often.
“Get out of the way, and let the players decide the games,” Tortorella fumed. “That’s what [stinks]. It’s just frustrating. There are some really good players out there. It’s a highly competitive game. I think a little bit of rivalry is coming into play here. Get out of the way, and let the players decide.”
A few specific things had Tortorella miffed.
First was a five-minute major penalty for slashing and a game misconduct handed to Columbus forward Boone Jenner at the end of the second period.
Jenner caught Jake Guentzel with his stick up high. Nobody wearing a Blue Jackets sweater could figure out why the penalty warranted what the officials handed out. It looked like Jenner may have pointed at Guentzel, signifying he was coming, but Jenner wasn’t around postgame to confirm or deny as much.
“I don’t get it,” Tortorella said. “It’s barely a two-minute penalty. I hope we take a long look at that, at least rescind it so we don’t have that on his record.
“It’s not even close to a game misconduct for me.”
If you haven’t figured it out by now, what Tortorella would like to see if the officials peel it back and let the players play.
The Penguins picked up a power-play goal during the balance of Jenner’s penalty. Playing a man down on the second night of a back-to-back surely didn’t help the Blue Jackets.
Later, another Columbus penalty — equally as strange — allowed the Penguins to pull ahead with another power-play goal.
Artemi Panarin, who was terrific all night, was the second guy waved out of the faceoff circle, which triggered a two-minute minor for delay of game. Rarely, if ever, is this called.
Nobody on the Columbus side had an issue with the enforcement of the rule, though. More that the rule exists in the first place.
“I have a hard time with that one,” Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. “These rules, it’s so hard from game-to-game, ref-to-ref. I don’t know why in a 1-1 game … both teams are going to try and get their guys in there. It’s too bad.”
As expected, Tortorella had much stronger words. He tip-toed around nothing.
“It’s a rule,” Tortorella said. “The teams can’t decide the games. Other people decide the games. It’s a rule. They made the right call. it’s frustrating that we don’t let the guys who are supposed to put on the show put on the show.”
Other tidbits
• Lukas Sedlak took exception when Ryan Reaves crushed fellow Columbus forward Markus Hannikainen into the boards — a hard but legal hit.
Sedlak responded by going after Reaves, but he lost the fight quickly and decidedly, on three punches.
“I think he’s dumb to do it, but high marks for doing it,” Tortorella said.
“He cares a lot,” Columbus defenseman Jack Johnson added. “He knew what he was getting into there. We’d rather he not fight him, but that’s just kind of the guy he is.”
• Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson said he and Kris Letang came together in the third period, jostled a bit, but mutually agreed to let it go because of the score and situation.
“I guess we both just didn’t want to sit for five [minutes] at that point of the game,” Anderson said.
• Evgeni Malkin and Foligno threw down at 19:31 of the second period.
Malkin was peeved that ex-Penguins defenseman Scott Harrington checked him along the boards. After Foligno sort of fell on Malkin, Malkin got up and delivered a haymaker, setting off another scrum.
“I had no idea what he was mad about at first,” Foligno said. “Then I got really mad after that. That’s part of hockey. It’s fun.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 22, 2017, 4:20 a.m.
