Canucks at Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets continue to dig their way out of an 0-8-0 start and try for their first home victory of the season when they face the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Columbus, which is 0-5-0 and outscored 24-10 at Nationwide Arena as the only winless team at home in the NHL, is 4-4-0 since John Tortorella took over for the fired Todd Richards on Oct. 21 - Tortorella's first NHL coaching job since getting fired by Vancouver after one season at the end of 2013-14.
“We have to start making (Nationwide Arena) a tough place to play,” Tortorella, who coached Tampa Bay to the 2004 Stanley Cup title, told reporters. “If you don’t win home games, you don’t have a chance.” The Canucks have lost three straight (0-2-1) - all by one goal, including the first two on their season-long seven-game road trip following a 4-3 loss in overtime to New Jersey on Sunday - and are 2-4-5 in one-goal contests this season. "The close games have been slipping away from us," Vancouver left wing Sven Baertschi told reporters. "There's reasons for it. It might be tiny little mistakes. In the end, we have the group to win those games. We have smart enough players, we have enough skill to win those games. Eventually we're going to figure it out. Those games are going to be big for us." The Canucks went 0-for-6 on the power play Sunday - including a five-minute major - and are 0-for-13 over their last four games after starting the season 7-for-35.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, SNET Pacific (Vancouver), FSN Ohio (Columbus)
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (6-4-5): Defenseman Chris Tanev did not play Sunday because of an upper-body injury and remains day-to-day, leaving Vancouver without two of its top defenseman as Luca Sbisa missed the last four games with a foot injury and doesn't appear close to returning. Rookie center Jared McCann, the 24th overall pick by the Canucks in 2014, has a team-best five goals and is a plus-5 in 13 career games, but the 19-year-old hasn't scored in his last four contests. Vancouver recalled goaltender Jacob Markstrom from Utica of the American Hockey League, where he completed a two-game conditioning assignment after suffering a hamstring injury Oct. 6, and reassigned goaltender Richard Bachman.
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (4-11-0): Scott Hartnell's seven goals share the team lead with center Boone Jenner after the rugged left winger scored twice in Friday's 4-2 loss in Anaheim and Hartnell also boasts a team-best 21.9 shooting percentage. Sergei Bobrovsky yielded 23 goals while posting an .835 save percentage in his first five games (0-5-0), but is 4-3-0, .918 since Tortorella took over and is expected to play Tuesday. “I haven’t said one word to him,” Tortorella told reporters. “I don’t think like a goalie. I want him to stop the puck. That’s all I think about goaltending.”
OVERTIME
1. Columbus is 4-for-34 on the power play over its last 10 games after scoring a goal in each of its first five contests and going 6-for-21 during that span.
2. The teams split the last two season series 1-1-0 with each winning on the road in 2014-15.
3. The Canucks are 0-5 in overtime, but won their only shootout game.