SETTING THE STAGE: John Tortorella was encouraged by the way his team responded to a little adversity on Thursday night in Denver.
The Blue Jackets took a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes but found themselves locked in a 2-2 tie game with one period to go, and rather than give Colorado any more reason to feel confident, they took the game back with another solid third period performance. Columbus' 3-2 win at Pepsi Center secured two points to kick off this brief two-game road trip, one that concludes Saturday night against the Arizona Coyotes.
Arizona lost a wild one in its last outing against the Los Angeles Kings (also on Thursday); the Kings led in the third period, the Coyotes tied it late, and a couple minutes later, the Kings scored again to retake the lead and didn't relinquish it. The Blue Jackets should expect an unhappy Coyotes team when they begin a home-and-home with them on Saturday night, and they'll have first-hand experience after what happened two nights earlier.
Columbus enters Saturday's game in third place in the Metropolitan Division (13-5-4, 30 points) and is off to its best start in franchise history. The Blue Jackets have games in hand on the teams ahead of them, and they're looking to get right back on the horse Saturday night as they continue to tackle this 82-game schedule one day at a time.
NOTEWORTHY NEWS:The Blue Jackets activated Matt Calvert (upper body) off injured reserve on Friday afternoon. It hasn't yet been confirmed by Tortorella, but it seems likely that Calvert will return to the lineup on Saturday. Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to start in goal for the Blue Jackets.
PROJECTED CBJ LINEUP:
Saad - Wennberg - Foligno
Jenner - Dubinsky - Atkinson
Hartnell - Karlsson - Anderson
Calvert - Sedlak - Gagner
Werenski - Jones
Johnson - Savard
Murray - Nutivaara
Bobrovsky
