ESPN
Sachin Chandan, ESPN the Magazine researcher: The Columbus Blue Jackets took two games in Washington before dropping Game 3 to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night, but the red flag could be the type of games they've played. Each game in this series has gone to overtime. Because of this, the second-youngest team in the playoffs has been taxed with many high-leverage minutes.
Columbus defenseman Seth Jones leads all players this postseason with 32:42 average time on ice and 42 shifts per game. Cam Atkinson, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Artemi Panarin each average more than 27 minutes a game. Those three OT games were exciting for us, but they added 47 extra minutes for Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. Columbus has been shorthanded 17 times, most in the playoffs, and has allowed the Capitals to fire 34 shots -- again, the most in the playoffs. The Blue Jackets had the third-best win percentage (at .622) in one-goal games this year, but these minutes under duress can add up against a team like the Capitals.