The Jackets, who trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by one point for second place in the Metropolitan Division, are trying to regain the momentum they had during their 16-game winning streak. They are 7-9-1 since. The Blue Jackets play the second of seven straight at home, where they have lost two in a row by combined score of 8-1. "We've got to relax a little bit here," coach John Tortorella said Friday. "We're going through a little bit of adversity as far as the winning and losing and just try to be ourselves. In a general term, we just have to play harder. We have to invest more into what it is to play a National Hockey League game right now in the toughest part of the year." Even though the Blue Jackets' 23.6 percent conversion rate on the power play leads the NHL, they have not scored with the man-advantage in seven games since Jan. 22. To be fair, they've had all of eight opportunities. In three of those games they did not have a power play and in the other four they had two tries in each. Sam Gagner has 14 goals, six on the power play, but is goalless in 21 games since Dec. 23.
