The view from Columbus

The Kings certainly were quite the panacea for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Need a win? Need to make your defense, goaltending and penalty-kill unit feel better? Show up to Staples Center on a Saturday afternoon. The Kings didn’t look lethargic Saturday, as they have in previous matinee games over the past couple years, but they didn’t, well, score goals. The Blue Jackets hadn’t recorded a single shutout this season. They were 1-7-1 in their last nine games. They had allowed at least one power-play goal in five of their previous six games. So, what happened? The Blue Jackets shut out the Kings and went 8-for-8 on the penalty kill. To see how The Columbus Dispatch covered the game, check out the link below, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Blue Jackets’ locker room…

The Columbus Dispatch’s Blue Jackets coverage

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COACH SCOTT ARNIEL
(on the game…) “I think certainly Curtis (Sanford) was certainly the big story there. He played outstanding, made the big saves. But I have got to give a lot of credit to our team. We blocked a lot of shots. Penalty kill did an outstanding job. They [the Kings] did get shots but we really took away any of the backdoor, tap-in type of things. If there were rebounds we cleared them out of there. Our shot blocking (today) was one of the best I’ve seen it this year.’’

(on the third-period penalty kills…) “It was such a big lift after the kill. It really gave us a boost. … The guys were really doing a great job pushing each other after that kill. … You could tell guys were really getting into the game.’’

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RJ UMBERGER
(on the game…) “It was great (today) to get that close win. The penalty kill stepped up in the third and it’s nice to come on the other end of one of these close games.’’

(on the penalties…) “It was a little sloppy. I don’t know if it had something to do with the 1 o’clock start. Both teams were in the box quite a lot. Our special teams did a good job today and the penalty kill has been working hard lately and we finally had a game where we won one for our team.’’

(on Columbus’ road trip…) “Keep working here. Keep trying to build something. We have a chance on this road trip to come away with a winning record still, so we want go into Anaheim, a team that’s been struggling too, and we have a chance to catch them in the standings so let’s do that.’’