BLUE JACKETS (15-13-2) at CANUCKS (13-16-2)
4 p.m. ET; SNP, FS-O, NHL.TV
Blue Jackets team scope
Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella can become the sixth active coach and 24th all-time to win 500 games in the NHL. "Five hundred wins to me is, I have been given the privilege and opportunity to coach a lot of games in the League," Tortorella said. "So that's what I am grateful for." The Blue Jackets have a chance to extend the NHL's longest active win streak and match a Blue Jackets record with a ninth-straight win. "That's one of the major points of our early season success here is our mindset, and our mindset is taking it one game at a time," Tortorella said after a quick practice Saturday. "We're not a good enough team to do it any other way, and that's when you take care of the details in your game is just worry about that day and that's where I think our mindset is dead on right now." A win in Vancouver, where Tortorella coached in 2013-14, would match a Columbus record set from March 18-April 4, 2015.
Canucks team scope
The Canucks welcomed back top-pair defenseman Christopher Tanev for a win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, but may be without rookie defenseman Troy Stecher against the Blue Jackets. Stecher, who is averaging almost 21 minutes of ice time and playing point on the top power-play unit, was listed as day-to-day by coach Willie Desjardins after missing practice Saturday. "He was sore after the game [Friday] night and I thought he might go this morning, but we wanted to keep him off," Desjardins said of Stecher. "You lose quite a bit, you lose a guy who has been running your first unit power play, he's logged big minutes and he competes so hard. The best part about Stecher, in my mind, is late in games when things get hard he plays his best, he gets his feet moving, he gets you out of your zone." Vancouver is trying to win consecutive games for the second time since a four-game win streak to open the season.
Blue Jackets projected lineup
Brandon Saad -- Alexander Wennberg -- Nick Foligno
Boone Jenner -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Cam Atkinson
Matt Calvert -- William Karlsson -- Josh Anderson
Scott Hartnell -- Lukas Sedlak -- Sam Gagner
Ryan Murray -- Markus Nutivaara
Scratched: Oliver Bjorkstrand, Scott Harrington
Injured: David Clarkson (lower body), Dalton Prout (back)
Canucks projected lineup
Daniel Sedin -- Henrik Sedin -- Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi -- Bo Horvat -- Alexandre Burrows
Markus Granlund -- Brandon Sutter -- Loui Eriksson
Jack Skille -- Michael Chaput -- Jayson Megna
Ben Hutton -- Christopher Tanev
Nikita Tryamkin -- Andrey Pedan
Scratched: Brendan Gaunce
Injured: Troy Stecher (undisclosed), Erik Gudbranson (undisclosed), Alexander Edler (fractured finger), Derek Dorsett (neck surgery), Anton Rodin (knee), Philip Larsen (concussion)
Status report
Bobrovsky will start his sixth straight game for the Blue Jackets, who are third in the NHL in goals per game, second in goals against per game, and haven't lost in regulation since Nov. 23. … Vancouver will be without Gudbranson for a second straight game because of an undisclosed injury. "Erik is just being further evaluated," Desjardins said. "We are trying to get a good read on him." The Canucks recalled Pedan from Utica of the American Hockey League.
Who's hot
Gagner has five goals and four assists in his past five games, and Bobrovsky has given up nine goals while winning seven straight starts. … Sutter has goals in consecutive games since being moved off the right wing on the top line to center the second unit with Granlund and Eriksson, who has three assists the past two games.
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