Tortorella: Blue Jackets 'laid an egg' in Game 4
John Tortorella spent several minutes explaining what he felt went wrong for his Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals, but after a while, he got right to the point.
"We weren't good," the Blue Jackets head coach told reporters following a 4-1 loss when asked about the chances they had to trouble Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby.
"There's no sense in asking me things about the game," he continued. "I'm telling you, we laid an egg, so I'm not going to break it down for you. We sucked. We sucked. So let's move (on) and see if we play better Saturday afternoon (in Game 5)."
Tortorella said the Blue Jackets "laid an egg" multiple times in his postgame comments Thursday, and likened his club to robots in the defeat on home ice that drew the Capitals even in the series at 2-2 after Columbus won the first two games in Washington.
The Blue Jackets actually drove possession in Game 4 by a slim margin (52.63 to 47.37 percent at 5-on-5), and held the edge in scoring chances at 5-on-5 as well (51.06 to 48.94 percent), but Washington outshot Columbus 33-24 and Holtby stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced.
The puck is scheduled to drop for Game 5 after 3 p.m. ET on Saturday in D.C.
(Analytics courtesy: Natural Stat Trick)