Blue Jackets’ Sergei Bobrovsky: To start on Tuesday against Devils

Atkinson doubled the lead after the Blue Jackets forced a turnover deep in the Devils zone.

The New Jersey Devils look to remain hot by winning their fifth straight game. “It won’t happen that way. It’s going to take a bunch of little steps, but we’ll get there”.

Boone Jenner and Cam Atkinson scored 35 seconds apart midway through the third period to break open a scoreless game and the Columbus Blue Jackets went on to a 3-1 victory at Prudential Center.

At that point, the Blue Jackets had allowed more third-period goals than 28 other teams had allowed overall. Defensively, the New Jersey Devils are allowing 2.8 goals per game and are killing 72.4 percent of their power play chances. “We’re far from ideal and we’re still working to be good enough, but you can draw confidence from closing out games”. The Blue Jackets are 2-6 in the last 8 meetings in New Jersey. Give me the Devils at home. “Basically, we’re trying to develop that aggressive identity”.

The Devils went on the power play again with 45 seconds left in the first when Rene Bourque was called for slashing an again did not register a shot on goal.

NOTES: After having his consecutive games played streak snapped at 202, Blue Jackets C Ryan Johansen missed his second straight game due to illness….

Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen is scouring the trade market, though it’s unknown if a deal is imminent. The fact that the issue is unrelated to whatever is holding him off the ice now, though, is both a reassurance and a concern – while heart issues could shut down a player’s season, it’s still curious that something entirely different could be holding Johansen off the ice just a few months later.

Everyone is counting on Tortorella´s 25-year experience to patch quickly up the Blue Jackets 8-game cold-streak, and there is no doubt in the NHL league Tortorella is quite a well-respected hockey coach.

Defenseman John Moore, a Blue Jackets first-round pick in 2009, has found a home with the Devils after signing as a free agent this summer. The New York Post then reported Tortorella did indeed sit Johansen because the forward was out of shape – a report Tortorella denied. In seven games with the Devils heading into Tuesday, he had no points and a minus-two rating.