from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

John Tortorella’s teams grind. They bang. They block shots. His teams come to work with chins tucked, elbows up, their good humor in a state of perpetual rehab. If the NHL were still a wooden sticks industry, Tortorella would call his Blue Jacket team meetings to order around a wood chipper in the middle of the dressing room, and force-feed opponent’s sticks three at a time into the auger.

“Gentlemen,” a wild-eyed Torts would shout amid the deafening grind, “do I have your attention?!”

So no surprise that the Blue Jackets outhit the Bruins, 89-73, in their first two games of their best-of-seven playoff series, or that they blocked 41 shots to the Bruins’ 24. As the Tampa Bay Lightning found out in their first-round car wreck (dismissed in four straight) vs. Torts & Co., the Blue Jackets are light on nuance and heavy on contact. They also have lost only once in six postseason games this spring.

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