The Columbus Blue Jackets embarked on one of the toughest four-game road trips in the National Hockey League Wednesday.
But winning on the road hasn’t been easy — the Blue Jackets have the worst road record in the Western Conference at 4-12-3-1. Their last four-game road trip resulted in a 1-3-0-0 record Dec. 3-9.
Their first stop was successful — the Blue Jackets came away with a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild with the guidance of interim head coach Doug MacLean.
On this trip, the Blue Jackets are hoping to greatly improve from Monday’s poor performance in a 5-1 loss against Nashville and they looked to be on the way with Wednesday’s victory.
“We need to be mentally prepared to play 60 minutes like we did for the last three or four games,” said defenseman Luke Richardson after Monday’s game. “We have some really great teams coming up, like Minnesota and Vancouver. They’ve got a lot of high-speed and quality forwards that can score goals.”
Captain and center Tyler Wright said he knows a total team effort will be needed if the Blue Jackets want to turn things around. The Blue Jackets are the second-worst team in the Western Conference, ahead of Nashville.
“Going on the road, we have to obviously work hard to be successful,” Wright said. “We’ve got to get all 20 guys working on all cylinders.”
Columbus’ victory gave the team two wins in the last five contests at Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild were without regular starting goalie Manny Fernandez, who sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee during the second period of a game against Los Angeles. The injury will keep him from action for four to six weeks. Dwayne Roloson started against the Blue Jackets.
The second stop on the road trip will take Columbus to the Vancouver Canucks, who are fourth in the entire NHL with 55 points. The Canucks also have two of the top four goal scorers in the league. Left wing Markus Naslund scored his league-best 29th and 30th goals Wednesday and right wing Todd Bertuzzi has scored 22 times in 41 games.
The Canucks have won five of their last six games after defeating Ottawa 6-4 Wednesday.
The Blue Jackets could have a break when facing Edmonton next Monday. The Oilers have a mediocre home record (9-5-4-2) and have only won three of their last 12 games.
Oiler center Mike Comrie, who is third on the team in goals with 14 and second in assists with 20, is out indefinitely after breaking his hand late in Monday’s game against San Jose.
The final stop in Canada is Calgary. The Flames are undefeated in the last five games under new coach Darryl Sutter who was hired on Dec. 28. Columbus faces Calgary tomorrow at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta.
“When guys get a little rattled, he’s always under control, he’s composed,” Flame captain Craig Conroy told ESPN. “After whatever mistakes we’ve made, he just quickly corrects it and he quickly gets back on track.”
Sutter was the San Jose Sharks head coach before being hired by Calgary. He compiled a 8-12-2-2 record for the Sharks this season.
The Flames have acquired 11 points since Dec. 23 and are quickly moving up the Western Conference standings.
But while the road ahead is going to be tough, the Blue Jackets know they can’t afford to look past anyone.
“We can’t look ahead,” Wright said. “We have to go in there and expect to win and then back to the drawing board after that. But every night we have to concentrate on the first game.”
