A healthy scratch on Friday, Scott Hartnell had a goal and two assists to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-1 thumping of the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves – photo by Lewis Bleiman
“There’s some highs and lows through the season,” Hartnell said. “You’ve got to have something snap you out of a funk and that (scratch) definitely snapped me out of my funk. It was a long day before the game, a long day yesterday … you don’t know what to do when you’re not in the lineup. Tonight I wanted to work hard, get on the puck, create some turnovers and make plays. We did a great job of getting pucks to the net and we were able to get a couple.”
Hartnell was in Jackets coach John Tortorella’s dog house and responded against his old team.
“It’s a reflection of us too,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. “It’s embarrassing for us to have one of our best players be out of the lineup. We should pull together. It’s never a singular thing; this is a team sport. It’s unfortunate that Scott had to go through that, but I think it made our team better and it made us realize that there’s no special treatment.
“And [coach John Tortorella] is very serious about the standard he’s setting here. And I think Scott handled it like a pro. You look at him, the way he answered today and the way he’s always been. He comes to work every day. You sit a guy out who you never question his work ethic, that sends a shockwave through the room. Message received.”
Tensions increased with Flyers frustrations – photo by Lewis Bleiman
The win broke a three-game skid by Columbus.
“With Scotty, he was so effective for seven or eight games when I first started,” Tortorella said. “And his game slipped and his discipline slipped. So it was sloppy. I don’t care how old, how many games they’ve played; if I think it needs to happen then it happens. But he’s a pro. For us to win, he has to be a big part of this. Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to sit and watch for a little bit, and he certainly answered tonight.”
Foligno scored twice and Jack Johnson added a goal for the Blue Jackets.
Michael Raffl picked up the lone goal for the Flyers who saw their four-game winning streak come to an end.
“It wasn’t a good one for us,” Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said. “From the start of the game we didn’t come out the way we wanted to. We didn’t play inspired hockey. You go back to the drawing table and figure out what you did wrong. … We’ve been playing pretty good hockey, but tonight wasn’t acceptable and I think we all know that.”
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