Blue Jackets at Sharks
The Columbus Blue Jackets have developed a troubling habit in the first month of the season of having to play from behind, one the team wants to eradicate entering a three-game road trip at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night. Columbus is coming off a listless 5-3 loss at home to the Detroit Red Wings, giving up the first goal for the sixth time in the past seven games.
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella was flustered by Tuesday's loss, a game in which his team fell into a three-goal hole in the first period before rallying to tie by scoring three times in the third. “You’ll have to ask them,” Tortorella said in a 57-second media briefing when asked if Columbus took lowly Detroit too lightly. “You’ll have to ask them, the players.” San Jose is riding a six-game point streak (4-0-2) following a 4-3 shootout loss to the New York Rangers but managed to snag a point on Tomas Hertl's goal with less than two seconds in regulation. “You’re disappointed you didn’t get two (points),” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “When I wake up tomorrow, I’ll look around the league and there’s a lot of good teams that get beat in these situations and get nothing. We’re finding a way.”
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Columbus), NBCS California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (6-5-0): Forward Markus Hannikainen has appeared in only 50 games during his first four years and did not make his 2018-19 debut until a week ago at St. Louis, but he collected his first two points of the season by setting up a pair of goals against the Red Wings. "Some days the power play isn't scoring, or the first line isn't scoring, the second line isn't scoring, it's our job to score. Now we did it," Hannikainen said of the fourth line. "It doesn't matter what the minutes are, you have to make the most of it." Forward Josh Anderson scored his six goal Tuesday to tie Cam Atkinson for the team lead.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (6-3-3): San Jose's two hottest players, defenseman Brent Burns and forward Timo Meier, each extended their point streaks to a career-high nine games with a goal and an assist apiece in the loss to the Rangers. Burns set a franchise record for a defenseman by notching at least one point in nine consecutive games while Meier continue his torrid surge by scoring six times during a five-game goal streak. Veteran Joe Thornton returned to the lineup Tuesday after sitting out nine games due to an infection in his surgically repaired knee and was a minus-1 with one shot on goal in 14 minutes, 19 seconds.
OVERTIME
1. Burns and Meier are the second pair of San Jose teammates with simultaneous nine-game point streaks.
2. Blue Jackets F Brandon Dubinsky (oblique), out since the second game of the season, will accompany the team on the road trip.
3. Sharks Fs Logan Couture and Hertl each have points in seven straight games.