Music: {allcanada} Blue Jackets face Jets in Tortorella's home debut

Saturday, October 31, 2015

{allcanada} Blue Jackets face Jets in Tortorella's home debut

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JETS (6-3-1) at BLUE JACKETS (2-9-0)

TV: SN360, SN1, FS-O

COLUMBUS – Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella will work his first home game since replacing the fired Todd Richards on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.

The Blue Jackets did not skate Saturday morning after losing 2-1 at the Washington Capitals on Friday. The game Saturday is sandwiched between a four- and three-game road trip.

There are several unknowns about the lineup, starting with the status of left wing Brandon Saad, who did not play Friday because of an illness. Saad has three goals, tied for second on the Blue Jackets with Brandon Dubinsky and Scott Hartnell, but hasn't scored since the fourth game of the season against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 14.

Another question for Tortorella will be his starting goaltender. Sergei Bobrovsky has played all four games since Tortorella took over, going 2-2-0. Bobrovsky made 26 saves against the Capitals.

Backup Curtis McElhinney last played Oct. 20, when he allowed three goals on 28 shots in a 4-0 loss to the New York Islanders in Richards' final game.

Also, defenseman Kevin Connauton played for the first time Friday under Tortorella, marking the first healthy scratch for Fedor Tyutin since Dec. 6, 2010.

Despite allowing the first goal in eight of 10 games this season, the Jets are 5-2-1 in those games. Winnipeg fell behind Thursday but rallied for 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks to complete a 3-2-1 homestand.

Saturday starts a stretch of four straight, and eight of nine on the road, for the Jets.

"I thought we've had some pretty strong starts," Jets defenseman Tyler Myers said. "The other team just happened to get the first goal. We bounced back. That's what you need from a team. It shows a lot of character and not letting it affect you.

"Certainly you want to score the first goal more often, especially on the road. You want to keep the other teams from getting momentum in front of their own fans."

Here are the projected lineups:

JETS

Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler

Mathieu Perreault – Mark Scheifele – Nikolaj Ehlers

Alexander Burmistrov – Adam Lowry – Drew Stafford

Nic Petan – Andrew Copp - Chris Thorburn

Toby Enstrom – Dustin Byfuglien

Ben Chiarot – Tyler Myers

Mark Stuart – Jacob Trouba

Ondrej Pavelec

Michael Hutchinson

Scratched: Adam Pardy, Anthony Peluso, Paul Postma

Injured: Grant Clitsome (back)

BLUE JACKETS

Brandon Dubinsky - Ryan Johansen - Cam Atkinson

Scott Hartnell - Alexander Wennberg - Nick Foligno

Boone Jenner - William Karlsson - Matt Calvert

Rene Bourque - Gregory Campbell - David Clarkson

Jack Johnson - David Savard

Fedor Tyutin - Dalton Prout

Cody Goloubef - Ryan Murray

Sergei Bobrovsky

Curtis McElhinney

Injured: Brandon Saad (illness)

Scratched: Jared Boll, Kevin Connauton

Status report: Pavelec will start against the Blue Jackets after Hutchinson (4-0-0) made 45 saves against the Blackhawks. "His play has been good," Jets coach Paul Maurice said of Pavelec. "We won't look at the result only, when a goaltender's in the net. Both of our goaltenders have performed exceptionally well. We've got back-to-backs coming up twice here so it kind sorts itself out right." … Boll and McElhinney are the two Blue Jackets players who have yet to see ice time since Tortorella became coach. Boll's last game was Oct. 14 against Ottawa.

Who's hot: The Jets are 3-1-1 against the Eastern Conference this season. … Ehlers has three goals and two assists during his five-game point streak. … Bobrovsky has a 2.02 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage in his past three games.

Team Stats