PREVIEW: Blue Jackets begin big week of preseason games at Buffalo

BLUE JACKETS at SABRES
Wednesday, 7 p.m., KeyBank Center, Buffalo (97.1 The Fan)
Less than a week from now, the Blue Jackets' roster for the opening game vs. Toronto on Oct. 4 will have to be set.
In other words, we're down to the nitty gritty for Columbus, and the three preseason games in a five-day span -- tonight's game at Buffalo followed by home games Friday (New Jersey) and Sunday (St. Louis) -- will be the final pieces of the puzzle when it comes to creating the 23-man opening night roster.
TRAINING CAMP: News, notes, and more

"These are three pretty important games for a number of people," head coach John Tortorella said. "On our back end as far as figuring out who we are, basically I would have to say our sixth defenseman, and what is our fourth line and maybe even part of our third line and who fits in the first two lines.
"There's still a lot of questions that need to be answered."
Columbus finished Tuesday with 28 players on its camp roster, a number that was actually closer to 26 considering injured forward Liam Foudy and camp invite goaltender Hayden Stewart were technically still on the roster. It then got closer to 25 on Wednesday morning with the announcement that Brandon Dubinsky is
out indefinitely with a wrist injury
.
That would suggest the team was down to two more cuts to make from the 13 healthy forwards and nine defensemen on the roster. If the team were to keep eight defensemen, that would mean just one blueliner would go, while the team would likely then have to cut one out of the quartet of former first-round pick Sonny Milano, high-scoring rookie Emil Bemstrom, returning veteran Marko Dano and Swedish import Jakob Lilja. If the team were to keep seven on the blue line, that would mean another cut there and none of those forwards on the way out.
But Tortorella
cautioned Tuesday in his remarks to the media
that some of the players who had been sent to AHL Cleveland would still have their chance over the coming week to impress, with the head coach saying, "we're certainly not done making our decisions." And, of course, a surprise could always be in the offing.
The competition might be most intriguing on the back end, simply because of the NHL experience in play. Five defensemen -- Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, Ryan Murray, David Savard and Markus Nutivaara -- have been regulars with the Blue Jackets for multiple seasons, while both Scott Harrington and Dean Kukan worked their way into the playoff lineup a year ago.
Then there's Vladislav Gavrikov, the Russian defenseman who joined the team late last season after standing out in the KHL and for his home country's Olympic team, as well as 2016 second-round pick Andrew Peeke. Those nine are still in camp, while Adam Clendening - who looked good in limited playoff action a year ago -- was sent to Cleveland on Monday and did clear waivers.
That's a lot of talent, which means a lot of competition -- a good thing -- but also the reality that only six will be able to enter a given lineup at a time.
"You want to have a good team; to have a good team, you need depth," said Harrington, who played a career-high 73 games a season ago. "The back end is a very important part of every team nowadays with guys being able to move the puck and play solid defensively. I think our management has done a good job of acquiring a lot of good defensemen over the last couple of years and keeping the core together.
"We're all very familiar with each other and we push each other and everyone knows the situation here where we have a lot of guys who can play. It's good."
But as always, Tortorella said the final decision on playing time won't be made by him as much as it will be by the players on the ice.
"It depends how they play," Tortorella said. "If six (defensemen) are better than the other two, then six are going to play. If it's a dogfight, and one guy struggles and the other guy is ready to go … it all depends on how the players play."
Projected lineup
The Blue Jackets
called up 10 players
from Cleveland today, with all in the lineup tonight in preseason game No. 4 vs. Buffalo. It includes forwards Paul Bittner, Zac Dalpe, Nathan Gerbe, Markus Hannikainen, Nikita Korostelev, Kole Sherwood and Kevin Stenlund as well as defensemen Gabriel Carlsson and Anton Karlsson and goaltender Veini Vehvilainen.
Vehvilianen will join goaltender Elvis Merzlikins between the pipes against the Sabres, while Columbus will also get a look at a number of forwards and defensemen who are on the bottom half of the roster.