Brandon Dubinsky is already minus-6, and Boone Jenner is minus-5.
And so, Dubinsky and Jenner aren’t on a line together anymore. To nobody’s surprise, Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella has scrambled his forward combinations, after his squad started the season with two straight losses at home to Boston and San Jose.
Based on Monday’s practice, the new first line in Columbus has Dubinsky centering Atkinson and Matt Calvert; the second line has Alexander Wennberg between Brandon Saad and Nick Foligno; and the third line has William Karlsson between Scott Hartnell and Josh Anderson.
As for Jenner, he’s been dropped all the way down to the fourth line, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch:
#CBJ lines: Calvert - Dubinsky - Atkinson; Saad - Wennberg - Foligno; Hartnell - Karlsson - Anderson; Jenner - Sedlak - Bjorkstrand/Gagner.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 17, 2016
It remains to be seen if today’s practice lines will stick, or if Tortorella is just experimenting. The Blue Jackets don’t play again until Friday when they host the Blackhawks. After that, it’s four road games in six nights, against tough competition in Dallas, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Anaheim.
For a team that started last season with eight straight losses, it’s a particularly daunting stretch.
To their credit, the Jackets nearly fought back to tie the Sharks on Saturday. But it wasn’t enough, and they lost, 3-2.
“That last half of the game there, I really thought we found ourselves,” Calvert said, per Today’s Slapshot. “We were figuring ourselves out offensively tonight, and we started to find an identity. Obviously, we have a few mistakes we could fix up, but we have a young group here and it’s going to be a process, but we have to take that and move forward.”
If Gagner does not dress on Friday, #CBJ rookie Lukas Sedlak would make his #NHL debut, Tortorella said.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 17, 2016
Related: Brad Marchand’s five-point night buries the Blue Jackets