Blue Jackets at Avalanche
The Columbus Blue Jackets produced a better effort in new coach John Tortorella’s debut Thursday despite losing for the eighth straight time to open the campaign. The Blue Jackets attempt to find their best form defensively and end the second-longest slide to start a season in NHL history on Saturday, when they visit the Colorado Avalanche.
“There were a lot of good things that went on with our club,” Tortorella told reporters after a 3-2 loss at Minnesota. “But now we’re 0-8. Moral victories aren’t going to help us.” Columbus is last in the league in goals-against average (4.63) while the Avalanche have managed just one tally in their last two games and six in the past four after scoring 10 times in the opening two contests. Colorado was blanked 1-0 in overtime by Carolina at home Wednesday despite allowing only 19 shots. Captain Gabriel Landeskog and John Mitchell have recorded four goals apiece for the Avalanche, but the team needs Matt Duchene (one goal, minus-5 rating) to warm up.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Ohio (Columbus), Altitude (Colorado)
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (0-8-0): Tortorella benched leading scorer Ryan Johansen (six points, minus-6), who has gone three games without a point, late in the loss at Minnesota. Johansen totaled 59 goals over the previous two seasons but has just one in the first eight games, as does captain Nick Foligno (tied for a team-worst minus-10). The Blue Jackets also stand last in the league in penalty-killing (65.2 percent) and Sergei Bobrovsky, who stopped 20-of-23 shots Thursday, owns an .840 save percentage in six games.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (2-3-1): Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon lead the team with six points apiece while defenseman Francois Beauchemin has chipped in with a club-high five assists. The Avalanche have yet to register more than 28 shots in a game and have surrendered at least 30 four times while Semyon Varlamov is off to a slow start (1-2-1, .861 save percentage). The Avalanche sent 18-year-old Mikko Rantanen to San Antonio of the American Hockey League Thursday and recalled fellow forward Dennis Everberg.
OVERTIME
1. Colorado's Tyson Barrie will finish serving his three-game suspension for an illegal hit and fellow D Brad Stuart (back) is considered day-to-day.
2. The 1943-44 New York Rangers are the only club to lose more games (11) to start a season than the Blue Jackets, who won 4-3 at Colorado in 2014-15.
3. Avalanche RW Jarome Iginla, whose two goals this season give him 591 in his career, is two games shy of becoming the 35th player in NHL history to appear in 1,400 contests.