Blue Jackets at Canucks
The Columbus Blue Jackets will be chasing two major milestones when they go after a ninth consecutive victory Sunday against the host Vancouver Canucks. The Blue Jackets can match the franchise-record win streak of nine - set in 2014-15 - while John Tortorella is one away from becoming the 24th coach in NHL history with 500 victories as he meets one of his former teams.
Tortorella told the Columbus Dispatch, “It means I’ve been in the league a long time,” but the former Tampa Bay, New York Rangers and Vancouver coach is 499-413-127 – one win behind Toe Blake for 23rd on the all-time list. The Blue Jackets allowed 11 goals during their win streak, boast at least a point in 10 straight (9-0-1) and chemistry is growing as forward Brandon Saad told reporters: “I think we’ve stayed together because we’re winning. But it goes hand in hand.” Vancouver has two wins in its last six games - both against Tampa Bay, including Friday’s 4-2 triumph. The Canucks are in the bottom third of the league in scoring, but posted 10 goals in the last two games.
TV: 4 p.m. ET, FSN Ohio (Columbus), Sportsnet Pacific (Vancouver)
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (19-5-4): Alexander Wennberg, who leads the team with 19 assists and had only six penalty minutes in 96 games since the beginning of 2015-2016, stuck up for a teammate by fighting physical rookie Matthew Tkachuk only 53 seconds into Friday’s 4-1 win at Calgary. “Great left, and then he switched to a right,” Tortorella told reporters. “I loved what I saw out of Wenny there. Hit him on the button, too.” Cam Atkinson (team-most 29 points) boasts three goals and five assists during a five-game point streak and Sam Gagner posted five goals in the last five games to push his team-high total to 13.
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (13-16-2): Leading scorer Daniel Sedin (20 points) was kept off the scoresheet Friday along with his twin brother Henrik (19), but Bo Horvat had a goal and an assist against Tampa Bay after managing one point in the first seven games this month. Center Brandon Sutter scored for the second straight game to push his total to 17 points and left wing Sven Baertschi owns two goals and two assists in the last two contests. Defenseman Chris Tanev returned to the lineup Friday after missing 20 games with an ankle injury, registering a plus-1 rating and one blocked shot while logging 23:30 of ice time.
OVERTIME
1. Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky boasts a .952 save percentage while allowing 10 goals his last eight outings.
2. The road team won the last four games in the series, including Columbus’ 2-1 shootout win at Vancouver last February.
3. Daniel Sedin needs two assists to reach 600 in his career and is 38 points shy of 1,000.