Jackets face Kings to start four-game trip west
The Columbus Blue Jackets will head to the sun of California on Monday, which won't necessarily heal their bodies, but will be good for the soul.
After their 12-game point streak came to an end in a 3-2 home loss to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, the Blue Jackets will open their California trip Monday with a game at Los Angeles against the Kings.
A turn-around game against the Anaheim Ducks will follow on Tuesday before an opportunity at revenge presents itself with a game at San Jose on Thursday. The swing concludes with a visit to Las Vegas next weekend.
Ravaged by injuries, and with four consecutive games on the road, starting a new point streak won't be easy, but it was hard to figure the Blue Jackets would have so much December success with so many ailing players.
The latest to go to injured reserve Friday was defenseman Dean Kukan, who has a medial meniscus tear.
The team did get a defensemen back over the weekend, however. Markus Nutivaara was activated off injured reserve, the team announced Sunday. He missed 27 games with an upper-body injury.
Also, rookie forward Emil Bemstrom was activated off injured reserve Saturday after recovering from a rib injury.
The Sharks' Kevin Labanc put his team up 3-1 Saturday with 3:01 remaining, but the Jackets' Zach Werenski scored 25 seconds later, his second goal of the game, and San Jose held on from there.
"We kind of corrected ourselves a little bit there in the second and third period," said Werenski, who had his first career hat trick in a New Year's Eve victory over the Florida Panthers.
"We started playing better and a little more crisp, but it still wasn't up to our level. We missed some chances that were right there, some bad passes, some icings -- stuff like that we don't usually do. It was one of those games for us."
The Kings will enter off a 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators in a game they had a chance to win until midway through the third period. The Predators took control with a pair of goals 1:09 apart.
The Kings' Alex Iafallo scored a goal on the power play in the second period, but it was hardly enough to disrupt a Los Angeles slide that has seen the team lose five of their last seven games. That losing run started with a 3-2 overtime defeat at Columbus on Dec. 19.
"Perhaps this is good for our team; a little piece of humble pie won't hurt us right now," Kings head coach Todd McLellan told reporters. "Gives us an indication that we still got a lot of work to do."
Not all was lost for the Kings, as they welcomed back defenseman Alec Martinez from a gruesome injury Nov. 25 against the Sharks when his right wrist was sliced open by the blade of a skate. But the Kings will be without defenseman Kurtis MacDermid for the second game of his two-game suspension for an illegal check.
--Field Level Media
