The Blue Jackets have traded forward Antoine Vermette to the Phoenix Coyotes for two draft picks and goaltender Curtis McElhinney.

The Jackets get a second-round pick in 2012 (previously owned by Ottawa) and a fifth-round pick in 2013. McElhinney, who had abdominal surgery in January is not expected to play the rest of this season.

"This is moving forward," Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said. "We have to move forward. It wasn't working this season as we expected. We're going to move forward and this is part of the process of reshaping the team.

"Antoine was very professional, just as I expected he would be. I thanked him and his wife Karen, who did a lot of work in our comminity, for being such a good player and such a good person for our organization."

Vermette, 29, played his 600th NHL game on Tuesday. In 241 games with Columbus, Vermette had 61 goals, 91 assists and 112 penalty minutes. His best season was in 2009-10 when he had 27 goals, 38 assists and 65 points, all career highs.

McElhinney, who is in the final year of his contract, had abdominal surgery in January and is not expected to play this season. However, in order to facilitate the trade, the Coyotes needed to move a player off their roster as they were nearing the roster maximum of 50 players.

Vermette was in the first year of a four-year, $14 million contract. He is signed through the 2014-15 season with a $3.75 million cap hit.

"This gives us more flexibility," Howson said. "It's never fun trading anybody. I don't think any GM enjoys that. But this is about us moving the team forward."

More to follow.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

There they are.

The latest clock debacle that impacted a Blue Jackets game was Sunday vs. the New York Rangers, a game the Jackets eventually lost 3-2 in overtime before a disgruntled crowd in Madison Square Garden. They were disguntled because -- given what they saw on replay -- the game never should have gone to overtime.

The Rangers took a 3-1 lead when defenseman Michael Del Zotto scored at the second-period buzzer. MSG Network replays showed the puck crossing the line with 00.1 seconds on the clock. Fox Sports Ohio replays showed the puck in the net at 00.2 on the clock.

Problem is, those clocks don't matter. The only clock that matters is the NHL's clock, kept by the off-ice crew at the scorer's table between the penalty boxes. That clock read 00.0, so Del Zotto's goal didn't count.

The two network clocks are techinically linked to the official clock, but the process used to get a picture of the clock burned into the screen on your TV takes time. We're talking fractions of seconds, but fractions of seconds count in hockey.

The NHL, through a league spokesman, provided this explanation as to how the two network clocks and the official clock could possibly show three different times:

"Our various networks are hooked into the clock via their own computer and that is how they generate a burn-in. (Sunday) night, as an example, the MSG camera feed of the clock is upconverted, passed through a frame sync and MSG truck switcher before being composited to overhead camera shot. These (technical) needs and path can (and do) cause a delay. 

The League, however, for all games, uses a stationary video camera that videos the clock and burns it in both overhead video cameras. This is the only one we go by."

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

It's T-minus seven days for the NHL trade deadline, which arrives at 3 p.m. next Monday. Between 8 and 12 Blue Jackets gathered today for an optional skate in Nationwide Arena. Even in an almost-empty rink there's an air of nervousness and anticipation.

GM Scott Howson told The Dispatch today that no trade is immiment.

"We're waiting for the right deals," Howson said. "We're getting closer. But we're not there yet."

The Jackets have three games to play before the big day, beginning with Tuesday's game in Nationwide Arena against San Jose. The Sharks have won all three games (two by 2-1 scores, another a 6-0 blowout), and all three games have been chippy. You'll recall that Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle beat up Blue Jackets center Derick Brassard during the 6-0 drubbing last month in San Jose, and that in the meeting before that Blue Jackets winger Dane Byers landed a punishable hit on Sharks grinder Andrew Desjardins.

The Blue Jackets expect to get defenseman Nikita Niktin back in the lineup, interim coach Todd Richards said.  Niktin has been out since suffering a left knee injury in Detroit on Jan. 21, missing 12 games.

"It's big for us," Richards said. "He gives us size on our blue line, which is something we've really missed now with (defenseman Marc) Methot out, too."

Side dishes:

-- The New York Rangers appeared to take a 3-1 lead with 00.2 seconds remaining in the second period on Sunday, but the goal was disallowed by NHL officials after review because the official game clock was at 00.0 before the goal was scored. That's right, the clock that nobody can see other than off-ice officials and NHL employees in the video replay booth, is the official clock. The clock on the scoreboard and the one "burned into" local TV broadcasts, is not synched with the official game clock. "That makes no sense to me," Richards said, even though his club benefitted from the call. "Right after it was scored, we radioed back to our guy (Dan Singleton), and I was told it was a good goal. When (the official) signaled 'no goal', I thought, 'Well, what happened?'"

-- G Curtis Sanford is feeling much better. Apparently the epidural he had late last week did the trip. He should return later this week, but it will be Steve Mason -- Allen York as the 1-2 punch vs. San Jose.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The New York Rangers beat the visiting Blue Jackets in overtime tonight, 3-2. How good are the Rangers, who now have a nine-point lead over second place Boston in the Eastern Conference? Good enough that their fans don’t think All-Star, Olympian, Blue Jackets captain and current hot commodity Rick Nash is worth trading for.

The Dispatch hockey writers wonder if anyone's position is safe if the Blue Jackets are willing to shop Rick Nash and Jeff Carter.

Blue Jackets rookie Ryan Johansen rarely plays these days. He will likely be a healthy scratch for the fifth time in seven games when the Blue Jackets play host to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon.

Rick Nash, Jeff Carter, Derek Dorsett and Fedor Tyutin all missed practice this morning, but there's no reason (yet) to be alarmed. Interim coach Todd Richards said Nash, Carter and Dorsett were "banged up" and taking "maintenance" days, and that Fedor Tyutin was out for personal reasons.

Tyutin's reason? Please welcome Nina Tyutin to the world. She came into the world this morning.

Richards said he expects all four to practice on Friday and play Saturday vs. Chicago in Nationwide Arena. Nina Tyutin will need a few weeks to get up to speed.

These are interesting times at 200 W. Nationwide Blvd.

It's been 2-plus days since RDS broke the news that the Blue Jackets are listening to offers for Nash, their captain since 2008. It's been three weeks since the Blue Jackets desire to trade Carter became public. When a club trades two guys with 40-goal potential, it's logical that just about everybody in the room is available.

There's a palpable weight in the air. There always is this time of year, but, as one player said today: "It's different this year because the names are bigger."

Funny scene this morning, as detailed by Blue Jackets defenseman John Moore:

"We were having breakfast (in the player's lounge area), all the guys, this morning," Moore said. "(GM Scott Howson) came rifling in and, in front of all the guys, said, 'Hey, John, do you have a second?' Everybody around me kind of game me that look, and my heart started racing.

"He asked me if I'd talk to (Al Iafrate) about shooting later in the week. I came back in (to the room), and they were all like, 'Uhhh, what are you doing?' I said, 'He was just asking me about Iafrate," and (Carter) was like, 'Man, he's gotta chill out with that, two weeks from the deadline."

Side dishes:

-- The Blue Jackets practiced for about 45 minutes, a high-pace, upbeat affair. "It was good. It was meant to be energetic," Richards said. "Guys were feeling good after the St. Louis game (a 2-1 win on Tuesday). They earned that right, the right to feel that way. Our feeling, as a coaching staff, was to go out and have a fun day on the ice. I think the players really enjoyed that."

-- An hour or so before practice, Richards sat down with rookie forward Ryan Johansen to discuss his playing time. Johansen was scratched Tuesday for the fifth time in seven games and the sixth time in 10 games. "Just sat down and chatted," Richards said. "In talking with him, I think he understands what I'm looking for, what we're looking for, in his games and his practices. It's getting the consistency. You see flashes of it. He's a young guy. I've said this many times. I like Ryan. I think he's going to be a great player. It's just ... he's growing right now, as a young person and as a hockey player."

-- D Nikita Niktin (knee) practiced today and appears to be getting closer. Richards said he'll be evaluated further on Friday, but a return early next week seems likely.

-- Aaron Portzlin

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

For all of the inglorious weirdness that has hounded the Blue Jackets from Ottawa to Nashville to Los Angeles, a modicum of compensation fell from the sky into the Nationwide Arena tonight. Ken Hitchcock’s St. Louis Blues were the visitors and they were dispatched by a score of 2-1.

For once, dame fortune flashed a quick smile on the Jackets.

The Blues had the better of play in the first period, which went at a breakneck speed. They took a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded goal that seemed to portend doom. Then, Jackets defenseman James Wisniewski cracked a slap shot off a face-off and the puck crossed the goal line with one-tenth of a second on the game clock. It was reviewed – and it stood! It stood! It tied the game 1-1 at the first intermission and it lit up the crowd of 12,425.

The Jackets had a 2-1 lead heading into the final, frantic moments of regulation. The Blues, goaltender pulled, piled in on Steve Mason. With 1.8 seconds showing on the clock (there is that number again; remember LA?), the puck went into the crease among a mass of humanity and the referee pointed at the net, signaling a game-tying goal.

But wait. Toronto was dialed. The review showed that Blues forward David Perron – after simply falling on top of Mason in the crease, pig-pile style – reached under Mason’s pad and poked the puck over the goal line with his glove. It is against the rules to propel the puck into the net with one’s hand. Upon review, the goal was disallowed. From Toronto! They have a sense of humor! The Blue Jackets won.

The smallish crowd, dialed into the rugged action all night, responded vociferously.

Over the weekend, the Blue Jackets made it clear to certain NHL clubs that captain Rick Nash would be available via trade, The Dispatch has learned. This represents a major shift in philosophy for the organization -- they once considered Nash to be untouchable -- with less than two weeks to go before the NHL trade deadline.

RDS, the French-speaking equivalent of TSN in Canada, reported on Monday that the Blue Jackets have placed captain Rick Nash on the trading block. Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson, through a spokesman, has declined to comment, and Nash's agent, Joe Resnick, did not return messages.

Let the 2012 NHL trade deadline mania begin.

NHL sources -- from Columbus and beyond -- took issue with the suggestion that Nash is "on the block", but only the terminology. He is not being shopped by the Blue Jackets, they insist, and the club is not intent on moving him, as it is with Jeff Carter and perhaps others.

But the Blue Jackets, by far the worst club in the NHL this season and resigned to missing the playoffs for the third straight season, have reached a point where every player on the roster could be had if the price is right, and that includes Nash.

To this point, Nash's name never came up in trade talks, because other clubs knew it was a non-starter. The Blue Jackets wouldn't even consider trading him. As recently as last month, at the Blue Jackets Hockey N Heels gathering, Howson told a room full of female fans - paraphrasing here - that he would never trade Nash.

To be clear: that might still be true, but the next 12 days figure to be chaotic.

Nash, of course, has a no-movement clause in his contract, so he's not going anywhere he doesn't wish to go. The way this works, though, is that the club finds a deal it likes for the captain, one it simply can't say no to. Then it goes to the captain and tries to sell him on the destination.

In an interview with The Dispatch late last month, Nash said that he doesn't want to be traded, that he wants to make it work in Columbus.

“I love Columbus. I love being here. I love being a Blue Jacket," Nash said. "The city of Columbus deserves a winner and deserves a good product on the ice. If it comes to that – like you said, all speculation – but if they don’t want me here, they want to move me? I’m not going to do something where it’s going to hurt the franchise just because I have that in my contract.”

The Blue Jackets seem bent on making radical change, rather than includes the captain or not. This is not just about the UFAs. R.J. Umberger, once deemed the most important voice in the dressing room, could be moved, as could Derick Brassard, Antoine Vermette and others. The "for sale" door is swinging on the dressing room door handle.

It should also be noted that Howson is clearly in charge of this reformation, whatever scale it takes. If the Blue Jackets were going to make a change at that position -- and majority owner John P. McConnell has never indicated a desire to do so -- it would have been done before now, before the NHL trade deadline is in sight.

The magic hour is 3 p.m. on Feb. 27.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The Blue Jackets are in some weird state of suspension. They are in last place, the next notable date on their calendar is February 27, which is the trade deadline, and they have to be aware that their roster is going to be detonated. Meanwhile, they put on their boots and play out the string, like a kid who is failing all his classes awaiting final exams.

Goaltender Steve Mason and left winger R.J. Umberger are hotel roommates when the Blue Jackets are on the road, which seems somehow fitting. It's been a tough run for Mason for three seasons now, and Umberger has said repeatedly how he's rarely been more frustrated than this season, when very little has gone right.

Those two snapped out of the doldrums and led the Blue Jackets to a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday in Xcel Energy Center.

Mason, decked in new gear from chest to toes, had 34 saves, some of them acrobatic. Mostly, though, he looked large, positionally sound and confident. Umberger had his first two-goal game of the season and was on the ice for the final 70 seconds looking for his third career hat trick.

It did not come without some stress.

The Blue Jackets, leading 2-1, didn't get a shot on goal in the third period until Jeff Carter redirected a shot from close range with 4:09 remaining. And that was it. They were outshot 15-1 in the third by the Wild, who took the first 12 shots of the third.

It wasn't until James Wisniewski's 150-foot clear turned into a empty-net goal with 48.5 seconds remaining that the Blue Jackets could breathe.

The Blue Jackets fell behind 1-0 at 14:28 of the first period when the Wild played tic-tac-toe with the puck. Dany Heatley to Marek Zidlicky to Mikko Koivu across the top of the attack zone, but then Koivu found Setoguchi in the slot. His shot beat Mason's glove.

Umberger scored a big goal at 19:04 of the first to pull the Blue Jackets even. Derick Brassard pulled up on a rush, and found Rick Nash trailing the play. Nash fed Umberger, who fired off balanced and was pleasantly surprised to see the puck trickle through Backstrom's pads and over the line. It was 1-1.

Umberger second of the night, on the power play, came in the final minute of the second period. Wisniewski's wrister was partially blocked by a Wild defender, and Umberger waited on it to get to him. When it did, he roofed it up and over Backstrom to put the Jackets ahead.

Then came the third. Seat belts fastened, please.

The Blue Jackets, while badly outshot, did compete like crazy in the space in front of Mason. They did not get spastic. They did not panic and begin chasing their tails.

Still, Wisniewski's goal was a sight for sore eyes.

"I'm not going to lie, I was just trying to get it out of the zone," Wisniewski said. "I don't think I've ever flipped a puck higher in my life. It almost hit the scoreboard. But when it landed, it shot forward and took off. I thought it would bounce and sit there. That's what I was going for, but I'm happy the way it turned out."

The Blue Jackets beat the Wild for the second time in five days.

"I was told a long time ago to not apologize for a win," Richards said. "I'm not going to apologize tonight."

Side dishes:

-- Wisniewski played in his first game since Dec. 29, when he suffered a broken ankle on a shot by Dallas defenseman Sheldon Souray. "I was out of breath once," he said, "but it happened right before a TV timeout, which I was excited about. But otherwise, I felt really good. The ankle felt fine."

-- The loss of Marc Methot to a fractured jaw forced the Blue Jackets to scramble their blue line yet again. Rookie John Moore was elevated to the No. 1 pair with Fedor Tyutin, while Aaron Johnson -- who can play both left and right side, slid back to the second pair with Wisniewski. Grant Clitsome and David Savard continued to be the third pair.

-- Rookie Ryan Johansen rejoined the lineup. He started on the fourth line with Ryan Russell and Derek MacKenzie, but Richards must have liked what he saw. By the third period, Johansen was elevated to the No. 2 line with left winger Vinny Prospal and center Jeff Carter. Johansen played 11:29 over 14 shifts.

-- Richards said he had a sister in the crowd tonight, but he downplayed big time his return as coach to St. Paul. "Actually, I was more excited about the win in Anaheim, just because of how we played," he said. Richards is from the area, and his sister still lives here. But, Richards said, she wore a Blue Jackets sweater in the crowd tonight. "You'd better believe it."

-- Tough times in Minny. The Wild is 5-15-5 since a 20-7-3 start to the season. Coach Mike Yeo implored his players to set the physical tone tonight, saying on Friday it was time to "step in the ring." There were moments of physical play, but the Wild did not appear overly motivated.

-- The Wild played without winger Cal Clutterbuck in the third period after he and Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin ran into each other late in the second. These two seem almost magnetic. It was Tyutin that Clutterbuck hammered in the preseason, leading to Wisniewski's 12-game suspension. It was Tyutin that Defenseless hammered late in the first period tonight, nearly sparking some fisticuffs. Blue Jackets winger Derek Dorsett tried to entice Clutterbuck into a fight, but he didn't comply. Dorsett tried to take his frustration out on somebody else, but he barely missed Wild winger Erik Christensen. So it goes. Tyutin's knee appeared to strike Clutterbuck left thigh, and he hobbled straight to the dressing room. The suspicion is that Clutterbuck has a charley horse, an injury that has plagued him for sometime.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

This should be interesting.

Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo, whose club has been free-falling since late December, challenged his players publicly on the eve of tonight's game vs. the Blue Jackets to stop being afraid of failure, to be aggressive instead of timid, and to be far more physical.

"Let's get in the ring," Yeo was quoted as saying in today's St. Paul Pioneer Press. "You might lose, you might not accomplish what you want to accomplish, but we're going to go down swinging."

The Blue Jackets will arrive in Xcel Energy Center without their top pugilist, Jared Boll, who is out with a broken foot.

"The concern is that (Boll) is a tough player for us," Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said. "But I think we need to be team tough tonight. Everyone's got to stick up for each other. We don't need to get into the fisticuffs, but we have to have some push-back.

"It's pretty easy to figure out what the start of the game is going to be and how this game is going to go tonight, based on what I'm reading in the paper and what's happened to them in the past two games. The coach has challenged them physically in their play. He's challenged them in the paper. So, I'm suspecting that they're going to come out (hard)."

Good word, fisticuffs.

The Blue Jackets will add defenseman James Wisniewsk to the lineup, which adds some heft to their lineup. One has to wonder if Wisniewski's preseason clash with Wild winger Defenseless might not rear its head again tonight.

Again, this should be interesting.

Side dishes:

-- Richards said he'll ease Wisniewski into the game slowly tonight to see how he handles the speed of the game. "You can't simulate it in practice," Richards said. "You just can't. So we'll give him a few shifts early and evaluate where he's at, and beginning with that we'll give him more and more depending on how he handles it."

-- G Steve Mason gets the start tonight, with Allen York serving as his back-up.  Curtis Sanford, who suffered a flare-up of back spasms, is resting in Columbus. Richards wants to see Mason limit his rebounds. "Really, it's the initial shots, the first shots, being able to corral them and control them. A big part of our start tonight will be controlling momentum. If he can catch the first shot so there's no second pucks laying around to create those scrums, which really will feed into the momentum for them. (He needs to) just deny those and let us settle into our game."

-- D Dalton Prout was recalled from Springfield on Friday but will not play tonight vs. the Wild. When he does dress, it will be his NHL debut.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The Dispatch hockey writers talk about the Blue Jackets' rough night against the Stars, the approaching trade deadline and other topics.

The Blue Jackets lost two more players to injury last night when defenseman Marc Methot suffered a fractured jaw and right wing Jared Boll suffered a fractured foot in a 4-2 loss to Dallas.

The Blue Jackets lost 4-2 to the Dallas Stars in front of an announced crowd of 15,943 in Nationwide Arena tonight. In the process, and more importantly, the Blue Jackets lost two more players to injury.

       The NHL is working to implement a system by which it can monitor arena game clocks from its Toronto operations center and prevent any last-minute malfunctions such as the one that cost the Blue Jackets a point in a last-second loss at Los Angeles last week.

Blue Jackets rookie Ryan Johansen will be a healthy scratch tonight vs. the Dallas Stars, his fourth straight scratch. For a club that sits two zip codes out of 29th place and should be playing with at least one eye toward the future, this is somewhat mysterious.

"I haven't talked with him every day. We'll have conversations with him here and there," Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said. "That's one thing that he's got to learn as a young player, how to deal with things on his own, to function when coaches aren't around, the hard work that you have to put in when the coaches aren't around, to get yourself back in the lineup.

"More importantly, it's when you get your opportunity that you're ready for it, and then you stay in the lineup."

Johansen has nine goals, eight assists and a plus-2 rating in 43 games this season. He's tied for the club lead with three game-winning goals and is one of only two players with a plus-minus rating in the black.

But it's been a perplexing season, too. The Blue Jackets said he wouldn't be in the NHL this season if he wasn't ready to play center, but Johansen has played all but a handful of games at right wing. Now, with the season reduced to playing out the string, would seem a likely time to not only dress Johansen on a nightly basis, but to see what he can provide -- what he needs to learn -- at his natural position.

Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said the club does not have plans to send Johansen back to his junior club, the Portland Winterhawks. (Yes, they've burned the first year of his entry-level contract, but he can still be returned.)

So, he sits in limbo, watching from the press box.

"For me, I like to talk to people about times like this, just kind of say what I’m feeling," Johansen said. "It was nice to have my dad on the California trip there when I was just starting to get scratched. We talked and we kind of figured it out on our own that if I’m scratched, I’m not even going to think about it very much.

Johansen said the "main message" from coaches is they want him competing harder around the boards, winning more battles. He was the last guy off the ice today, pulling his gear off in the dressing room long after most of his teammates had left the building.

Being scratched is a lonely existence.

"A couple of guys have tapped me on the pads during practice and said `Keep going,'" Johansen said. "But nobody's really pulled me aside and said anything."

Side dishes:

-- The Blue Jackets intelligencia -- presumably president Mike Priest, Howson, senior advisor Craig Patrick, and Richards -- met with majority owner John P. McConnell on Wednesday to discuss plans leading up to the NHL trade deadline on Feb. 27. I asked Howson what they came up with and he offered, jokingly, to jot it all down for me. (Hey, ya gotta try.) It will be revealed soon enough.

-- G Curtis Sanford will start against tonight. He's 10-12-4, leaving him three wins short of matching his career high with St. Louis in 2005-06. If you want a truly frightening though, close your eyes and imagine what this season would look like if Sanford weren't on the team.

-- G Steve Mason will serve as Sanford's back-up for the fourth straight game tonight. Asked if he had a moment to chat, Mason said: "Not really, to tell you the truth," and kept walking out of the dressing room. OK, then.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

Less than three weeks from the NHL trade deadline, the Blue Jackets pulled one of their unrestricted free agents off the market, signing veteran winger Vinny Prospal to a one-year contract extension today.

The deal is worth $2.5 million and includes a no-trade clause. It also includes a gentleman's agreement that when Prospal's playing days are over, he'll stay with the organization in some capacity.

"This is just a great feeling, that I have a job for next year," Prospal said today after practice. "The trade deadline is coming up and there are always rumors. But I am very happy for myself and for my family.  We don’t have to move anywhere.

"I didn’t make that decision in five minutes or anything like that. But especially the part for after my playing days are over, that’s what really took me away. When you get that kind of respect and the you get a feeling of what the organization thinks of you, it really made my decision a lot easier.

Prospal, who turns 37 on Feb. 17, has nine goals, 24 assists and a minus-13 rating, playing in all 53 games. He's regarded as a tremendous "dressing room" guy in addition to the passion and joy he displays on the ice.

"When we started talking, we asked him if he wanted to stay and be a leader, to stay here beyond playing and take a role with the organization," Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson told The Dispatch. "He really likes it here. His family likes it here. He's enjoyed his role mentoring the young players, and you've seen the energy and passion he brings to everything he does, every practice and every game."

Prospal's post-career role has not been defined. First off, nobody can say how much longer he'll play. As long as he's healthy and productive, Howson said, the two sides will work on one-year extensions.

Today's signing came as a bit of a surprise.

The Blue Jackets head toward the Feb. 27 trade deadline with the worst record in the NHL, 11 points behind 29th place Edmonton. Prospal is one of a handful of unrestricted free agents who figured to be on the move, as the Blue Jackets cashed in players for future assets.

"It was a pretty thorough and heavy discussion," Howson said. "What can we get for him? Would it be better to take the assets? I think it's more important that he be around our team and have him help us with our transition."

Howson said the Prospal resigning does not rule out the so-called "nuclear" option, blowing up the roster and embarking on rebuilding process than can take at least a few seasons.

"It doesn't change that at all," Howson said. "He's going to be here either way."

Prospal called out many of his teammates early in the season, saying they don't practice hard enough to expect success in games. Richards has said the coaches can hear Prospal before games and between periods talking to the team, and the message is almost always on point.

"I really believe that we have underachieved, big time," Prospal said. "There are a lot better players (here), and our record should have been better than what we have shown. It snowballed. If you look at us now, or how we have played in certain stretches, in the hockey season, we are not the last place team. We should have been way higher in the standings or at least have a lot more wins than we have now.

"Sure, there might be some changes. There always are. But we’re going to be a lot better than we are now. If I didn’t believe that then there is no point in signing. It’s not that easy, no mater what you do for a living, if you go through the struggles that we did this year."

Richards, who will be a candidate for the full-time job this summer, was enthralled with the news.

"It’s great for Vinny," Richards said. "You aren’t going to find too many guys in the hockey world that have his energy, his passion to play the game. It’s good for the team, good for everyone. It’s great for the young players here, to see how you need to prepare on and off the ice. He’s played over 1,000 games now and there is a reason why.

"When you find those types of players and people, those are the guys that you want to keep in the organization."

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

For the next two months -- especially after the NHL trade deadline comes and goes later this month -- the Blue Jackets will search high and low for motivation, for any morsel that can give them the extra juice to compete. There's personal pride, of course, which should always be worth something. There's the spoiler's role, which some embrace and some reject. But on a nightly basis, the Blue Jackets coaches will look for a way to up the ante heading into each game.

Last night was easy. A 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild, before 11,239 in Nationwide Arena, was as thorough a victory the Jackets have had all season.

Interim coach Todd Richards coached the Wild for two seasons before his firing last off-season. He knew just about every player on the opposing bench, and -- though he tried to downplay it -- it was an important game for him.

"I was expecting more (chirping), to be honest,” Gillies said. “I was ready for it, too. I had a line ready to go for just about every guy over there.”

The Blue Jackets have 30 games remaining. They'll play No. 53 tonight at 7 p.m. against the Minnesota Wild in Nationwide Arena.

Blue Jackets center Mark Letestu is slated to have a pin removed from his fractured right hand on Friday and could return to the lineup as soon as next week.

Blue Jackets defenseman Brett Lebda said he “broke the tip off” of his right thumb when he was hit by a puck during the first period of a 3-2 overtime win in Anaheim on Sunday.

Derick Brassard had Rick Nash to his right and a career night in front of him. With one rip of the stick, he delivered a much-needed win for the much-maligned Blue Jackets, and he set a pair of personal marks in the process.

After stealing the puck from Anaheim's Cam Fowler in the Blue Jackets' zone, Brassard carried the puck the length of the ice and blasted a slap shot from high in the left faceoff circle to finish a 2-on-1. The puck beat Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller inside the near post and gave the Blue Jackets a 3-2 overtime win before 13,358 in Honda Center.

It was the first two-goal game of Brassard's 245-game NHL career, and also his first overtime game-winner. The club's six-game losing streak (0-5-1) ended with a celebration, as the Blue Jackets' bench emptied to swarm Brassard along the wall.

"On the two-on-one I had Nash, which is a really good option there," Brassard said. "But I trust my shot. I knew I could do it. I just find a way there.

"We had a tough break there in the last game (Wednesday in Los Angeles). But we came out strong. That just shows the character of our team."

Jeff Carter, who returned from a 10-game absence with a shoulder injury, also scored for the Blue Jackets, his 11th of the season.

Curtis Sanford had 33 saves to improve to 9-12-4. He allowed a goal on the Ducks second shot of the game, only 1:46 into the first period. After that, he was in command.

"We battled tonight. We scratched and clawed," Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said. "We made it harder on ourselves than I think it needed to be at times."

Richards, with the second part of that quote, was referring to the second period, which was the turning point of the game.

The Blue Jackets took five straight minor penalties: Derek Dorsett (unsportsmanlike conduct, 2:29), Vinny Prospal (hooking, 5:21), Colton Gillies (tripping, 7:42), too many men (16:03) and Fedor Tyutin (delay of game, 18:26).

Somehow, with the NHL's worst penalty kill -- both overall and on the road -- the Blue Jackets killed off four of the five penalties, keeping the game within a goal.

Brassard made it 1-1 at 14:47, snapping a six-game streak without a goal. The puck was sent on goal by Blue Jackets rookie John Moore, and Rick Nash was there to battle for the rebound. His off-balance sweep across the slot found Brassard, who only needed to finish.

The Ducks did cash in on one of the power plays. Teemu Selanne, who had both of Anaheim's goals, tied into a one-timer from the left circle. It was vintage Selanne. He found space, waited for teammate Corey Perry to feed him the puck, and simply blistered it inside the near post.

"I don't think we played that well," Selanne said. "That is what bothers me most. Especially on the power play in the second period, we could have had the game right there."

The Blue Jackets scored the equalizer early in the third with their own power play goal.

Antoine Vermette threw a blind, back-hand pass into the slot, a move he has tried numerous times this season with mixed results. This time, though, it worked. Perfectly. Carter skated into his pass and scored off his backhand before Hiller could scramble back into position.

Welcome back, Carter.

Both teams have beauty chances in overtime. At 1:51, Vermette was set up wonderfully by R.J. Umberger, but got stoned by Hiller. At 2:33, Anaheim's Cam Fowler unleased a show from the left circle that Sanford snared with his glove, a nifty flash of leather.

Fowler was back on the ice a shift later, and Brassard forced him into a turnover near the half-way in the Blue Jackets zone, then raced down the ice while Fowler gave chase.

Before Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin could drag out the play -- a good defenseman knows you always take away the pass on a 2-on-1 -- Brassard reached back and blistered a shot past Hiller.

"After the way the last game ended and the way we played here last time (a 7-4 loss on Jan. 8), it's obviously nice to come and prove to ourselves that we can win in this building," Sanford said. "We played a strong game against a pretty offensively-potent team."

Side dishes:

-- In case you missed the earlier blog entry, goaltender Mark Dekanich has surgery earlier this week and is out of the rest of season.

-- D Brett Lebda left the game after the first period and did not return. He has a hand injury. More will be known after the club flies back to Columbus on Saturday.

-- The Blue Jackets improved to 10-9-2 all-time in Anaheim, the most wins in any building outside the Central Division. Only once in 11 seasons have they gone an entire season without getting at least a point in Anaheim.

-- Rick Nash leads the Blue Jackets with six OT goals.

-- Teemu Selanne has scored 655 games. Ponder that.

-- Double double, animal style.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The two goaltenders in minor-league Springfield – Manny Legace and Paul Dainton – have minor-league deals only, although Howson wouldn’t rule out signing one of them to a two-way deal for the rest of the season.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The Jan. 8 meeting between the Blue Jackets and Ducks in Anaheim was full of debris. Elbows. Fists, Water bottle squirts. Obnoxious fans. And a 7-4 win by the Ducks, followed a few hours later by the firing of coach Scott Arniel.

No way tonight's tilt in Honda Center can match that game -- it can't, right? -- but the Blue Jackets are prepared for a physical game, a test of wills.

"When we play with emotion -- as in anything -- you're more engaged in the game," Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said. "We have to get some emotion into this game early on. It can't be dictated by what's going on early in the game. Whether it's the refs, the other team, the crowd ... we have to get emotionally attached right away.

"It's going to be a fast game. We're playing against a team that's been playing extremely well, but they're coming off a disappointing loss (6-2 to Dallas on Wednesday). They're going to be hungry. They're going to be pushing the pace. It's going to be physical."

The Blue Jackets will have center Jeff Carter in the lineup after a 10-game absence with a right shoulder injury. He was hurt in that Jan. 8 game when Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin caught him just after he released the puck.

"I'm sure it will be a physical game," Carter said. "They have guys who play the body, who like being physical."

Asked if he'll keep a head-up for Beauchemin, Carter joked: "Yeah, if I see him coming."

Another important return for the Blue Jackets is defenseman Marc Methot, who missed the previous two games with the flu. He had a "quarantine" sign on his stall in the locker room -- thanks to his comedian teammates -- but said he's feeling better and ready to go.

"The way he was playing leading up to his illness ... he was playing good hockey for us," Richards said. "When you take him out and you take Nikita Nikitin (knee) out, we got small real quick. Coming out here to the West Coast and playing some big teams -- San Jose, LA and now Anaheim -- with big players up front, it's nice to have his size and his mobility on the back end to handle some of these bigger teams, bigger players."

Side dishes:

-- Richards on Wednesday's "clock-stop incident" in Los Angeles: "For me, it's done. It's gone. My focus today has been all on preparing for Anaheim. And that's how the players are, too."

-- Nikitin is not with the Blue Jackets. He's back home in Columbus, rehabbing a knee injury suffered three games before the All-Star break. "He's progressing," Richards said. "He's doing things that two days ago caused him pain and soreness. Today he did them again and there was no discomfort, so that's a good sign."

-- Carter took lots of faceoffs at the end of practice, which is a good sign for the strength of the shoulder. There's nothing he won't be able to do tonight, but there's nothing that won't make shoulder sore, either. "It's one of those things you're always going to feel a little bit," Carter said. "I'm sure it's something I'll feel through the end of the season."

-- You'll recall that one the team's met earlier this month, there was a verbal and perhaps liquid altercation between Blue Jackets forwards Derek Dorsett, Jared Boll and Derek MacKenzie and fans seated around the penalty box. Asked if he would engage fans around the penalty box, Boll smiled. "I'll probably just thank them for coming to our hockey game," he said.

-- Former Ohio State forward Rod Pelley is expected to play on the Ducks fourth line tonight. Another former Buckeye, defenseman Nate Guenin, looks to be a healthy scratch.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

Was it human error, a clock malfunction or some home-ice shenanigans? That is the question raging today in the NHL after a last-second goal by Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty gave the Kings a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets in Staples Center.

Doughty's goal was scored with between 0.4 and 0.3 seconds remaining. But replays of the game clock in Staples Center show the clock freezing for at least one full second with 1.8 seconds remaining, then starting again just before the puck crossed the goal line.

Fox Sports Ohio and Blue Jackets assistant coach Brad Berry recognized the clock "freeze" shortly after the game, sending interim coach Todd Richards down the hallway to speak with officials. Head referee Stephen Walkom notified the league of the issue immediately, Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said.

"This is a tough pill for the Columbus fans to swallow, and we know that," NHL VP of game operations Colin Campbell told The Dispatch.

The NHL began investigating the incident late last night and has had multiple conversations with Howson. The league has acknowledged to Howson that the goal should not have counted, and they're looking into it further, to the extent that NHL staffers are on the way to Los Angeles to investigate.

"We're not questioning (the clock operator's) integrity," Campbell said. "But we're going to open all doors and examine everything, to see what happened and how we can keep it from happening again."

Walkom, who initially denied the goal, needed only a few seconds with off-ice officials to confirm that the puck crossed the line before the clock hit 00.0. But they were not aware at that point that the clock had frozen.

"I started looking back at the penalty that was called (Sammy Pahlsson, hooking, 18:54 of the 3rd) to see how strong a call it was," Campbell said. "This was after the game, after the players were in the rooms. As I followed the rest of the game through, I saw the clock stop. I saw it about the time the people in Columbus saw it, and I knew we had an issue.

"At that point, you can't pull the teams back on the ice. The game is over. In cases like this, we don't sleep. I know the Columbus Fox people were killing us, saying we were already asleep in Toronto. That's not true. We were up watching this, looking into the matter already."

The Blue Jackets, who have dropped six straight (0-5-1), would have earned a point if time expired before Doughty dropped to a knee and fired home the loose puck. The Kings may have settled for only one point if they'd gone on to lose in OT or in the shootout.

The implications of this potentially huge. Not so much with the Blue Jackets, who are last in the NHL by 11 points, but with other clubs in the Western Conference, specifically the Pacific Division. The two points secured the Kings' place in seventh place in the West, only two points behind their Pacific-rivals in San Jose.

Last season, the difference between 8th and 9th place in both conference was two points.

"You can't convince me that the point doesn't matter," Howson said. "Tell our players the point doesn't matter. Tell the other teams next to the Kings in the standings that the extra point doesn't matter. Maybe they don't get that point in OT. It could be big.

"The league is taking this seriously. They're intent on getting to the bottom of what happened."

LA Kings GM Dean Lombardi, in an email to ESPN and other outlets, argued that the clock did not function, that it was merely calibrating itself. Here's his explanation:

"Those clocks are sophisticated instruments that calculate time by measuring electrical charges called coulombs -- given the rapidity and volume of electrons that move through the measuring device the calibrator must adjust at certain points which was the delay you see -- the delay is just recalibrating for the clock moving too quickly during the 10 - 10ths of a second before the delay -- this insures that the actual playing time during a period is exactly 20 minutes That is not an opinion -- that is science -- amazing devise quite frankly."

Campbell's response: "I don't think that's the deal in this case."

Howson acknowledged nothing can be done to reverse what happened on Wednesday in Los Angeles. But he still wants answers.

"I think it's important for the league," Howson said. "It's important that we all find out what happened and take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"The players play so hard, and the playoff races are always so close. What's important are fair results, and last night was not a fair result."

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

A twitchy finger in Los Angeles may have cost the Blue Jackets at least a point tonight in Staples Center. If the Jackets were battling for a playoff spot, this would be a heartbreaker. Instead, it's a black mark on the NHL and just another lump in a season full of them.

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty scored at the end of an intense scramble with only 0.3 seconds remaining, giving Los Angeles a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets before a soldout crowd of 18,118. Except the goal shouldn't have counted.

Replays shown by both Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports West, which covers the Kings, show the game clock mysteriously stopping for at least a full second with 1.8 seconds remaining. Had the clock kept running -- the puck was still in play, so it should have -- the buzzer would have sounded before Doughty dropped to a knee and buried the loose puck.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that NHL referee Stephen Walkon initially ruled no-goal on the ice. It was that ruling -- no goal, time expired -- that Walkon sought to confirm when he skated over to off-ice officials for a replay. The looked only at the time when the puck crossed the line and ruled that it did go into the net with time remaining.

The Kings were enthralled, celebratory. The Blue Jackets were stunned on the ice, and angered afterward.

The Blue Jackets, who have dropped six in a row (0-5-1), came back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits thanks to goals from Colton Gillies and Derek Dorsett. Goaltender Curtis Sanford had 30 saves and deserved a better fate.

The Kings got goals from Justin Williams and Dustin Penner, while goaltender Jonthan Quick had 20 saves, only four necessary in the third period.

"We competed," Richards said. "We weren't perfect for 60 minutes. They're a good team, so they're going to create some things offensively. I like the way we competed with getting down 1-0 and continuing to battle down 2-1. Guys were getting in front of shots and taking hits to make plays.

"I thought the guys worked harder and deserved something out of tonight."

All it did, ultimately, is set the Blue Jackets up for a tough, tough loss. One they didn't deserve. Not in regulation, anyway.

Side dishes:

-- Gillies' goal ended a 43-game drought. He hadn't scored since the last game of last season when he was playing for the Minnesota WIld.

-- Andrew Joudrey made his NHL debut and played 9 minutes, 16 seconds over 12 shifts. He had one shots and won two of three faceoffs.

-- There's Vinny Prospal! Dropped to the third line tonight, Prospal had a secondary assist on Dorsett's goal, his first point in nine games.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The morning after a violent game in San Jose, the Blue Jackets slid on their gear, iced their knuckles and prepared to face the Los Angeles Kings tonight in Staples Center.

"This is a big-bodied team that likes to grind you in the corner, and makes life hard on you in front of the nets," Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said. "Their goaltender (Jonathan Quick) is playing very well, but their also committed to playing very well in front of him."

Expect several lineup and line changes for the Blue Jackets tonight.

Forward Andrew Joudrey will make his NHL debut. After four years at Wisconsin and four-plus years in the minors, Joudry was beaming this morning.

"It's what every kid dreams about," Joudrey said. "I'm just excited to get out there and hopefully play my game, bring a little energy out there."

Richards said he was still determining where Joudrey will play -- he's taking rookie Ryan Johansen's spot int he lineup -- but that won't be the only change.

Derick Brassard will open on a line with R.J. Umberger and Rick Nash, while Vinny Prospal will slide down to the No. 3 line with Sammy Pahlsson and Derek Dorsett. The guess here is that Colton Gillies, Antoine Vermette and Jared Boll form a line, leaving Joudry with Derek MacKenzie and Ryan Russell.

Defenseman Marc Methot (flu) isn't even with the club today in Los Angeles. He's been sent ahead of the club to Anaheim.

"The way he was feeling, we knew there was no chance he was playing," Richards said. "So we just sent him on ahead."

Side dishes:

-- Boll was fined $2,500 by the NHL for his elbow-to-the-head hit on San Jose's Joe Thornton only 20 seconds into Tuesday's game. No suspension, though.

-- Brassard was one of five Blue Jackets to throw down in Tuesday's game. With 4:06 to play, he was taken into the boards by Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle, who thought Brassard embellished the hit to draw a penalty. The two jawed for a moment, then dropped their gloves. Boyle won the fight with little resistance, but that wasn't the point, Brassard said. "I answer the bell," Brassard said. "If anybody thinks I was fighting because I expected to win the fight, no. I was pissed off. I was frustrated. It was 6-0 and that’s how I responded."

-- The fight vs. Boyle was the third of Brassard's NHL career. His last one, technically, came Feb. 8, 2011, when he stood up for Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin after he was run from behind by Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke. Brassard and Cooke dropped gloves and were given fighting majors, but punches were never thrown. His first actual fight was Dec. 18, 2008, vs. Dallas' James Neal. It was in that fight that Brassard suffered a separate shoulder that required surgery.

-- Johansen is not feeling well, Richards said, but he would have been scratched if healthy. "His play (Tuesday) wasn't where we need it to be," Richards said.

-- The Blue Jackets won 1-0 in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, one of only five road wins this season. Twice before the Jackets have swept the season series in LA: 2002-03 and 2007-08.

-- Saw Boll on his way out of the rink this morning and asked him how his knuckles felt after two fights on Tuesday with San Jose's Jim Vandermeer. "You know, not great," Boll said. "But they never start to feel right until the off-season."

-- No Jeff Carter tonight, although he said his right shoulder is feeling better. He could play on Friday in Anaheim.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The best part of a Blue Jackets game in San Jose may be that half the viewing audience back home is asleep. This one, like many of the others, could have starred any number of horror characters -- Jason, Freddy, Chuckie, Nancy Grace ...

The Blue Jackets lost 6-0 before a crowd of 17,562 in HP Pavilion, falling to 2-17-2 all-time in this building and losing their fifth straight game (0-4-1).

It was brutally physical affair, right from the start. Blue Jackets' right winger/pugilist Jared Boll launched his right elbow into the side of Joe Thornton's head only 20 seconds into the game, and the fuse was lit.

"It's not great that Joe got an elbow to the head," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "But it did wake up our group, and we played after that."

Boll had two fights with San Jose's Jim Vandermeer, one in the first period and one early in the third. And that was only the beginning of the gloves-off violence.

The game nearly spiraled out of control in the final four minutes.

With 4:06 to play, San Jose's Dan Boyle took Jackets center Derick Brassard into the boards, then stood watch at him while he got back on his skates. Apparently, Boyle was miffed at Brassard for embellishing the hit. The two confronted each other and the gloves came off, with Boyle quickly taking charge and pummeling Brassard.

(A brief aside: Brassard chose this fight, he did not get jumped. Even so, it's hard to fathom how his teammates A) wouldn't step in before the gloves came off, or B) wouldn't intervene as Boyle swung away at Brassard's noggin, is hard to fathom. Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash barked at Boyle on his way to the penalty box, but earlier could be seen nodding in conversation with him.)

With 2:52 to play, two fights broke out concurrenty. Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin and Sharks d-man Justin Braun, and Blue Jackets' winger Derek Dorsett and Sharks d-man Colin White got after it.

There were 92 penalty minutes in the game, 78 of them in the third period.

"That's the kind of emotion we need to get early in the game," Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said.

The Sharks scored two goals in all three periods. They riddled Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason with 43 shots. Mason was not sharp, especially early, spraying rebounds all over his parcel of the ice.

But the Blue Jackets made some horrendous decisions with the puck.

"Three of the goals were self inflicted," Richards said. "We had the puck. We had clear possession of it. We turn it over, and it's in the back of our net."

Just before the 2-0 goal at 9:43 of the first, Nash gathered the puck near his own blue line as he came on for a shift. Rather than chip the puck out of the zone, he fired the puck into the far corner, forcing Tyutin to give chase. By the time Tyutin started coming out of the corner along the wall, San Jose's Andrew Desjardins was in his grill, forcing a turnover.

Thornton took  a shot from the right side of the slot, gathered the puck around a spinning Aaron Johnson and fired in the rebound past Mason.

The 5-0 goal was the product of an even worse braincramp. Antoine Vermette, with the Blue Jackets under much pressure, had Jamie McGinn applying pressure when he made the curious decision to carry the puck right in front of Mason.

No surprise that McGinn forced the rebound and put a shot on Mason, leaving Michal Handzus with the easiest goal of his career.

(That's two brutal own-zone turnovers by Vermette in two games, for those of you scoring at home.)

The Sharks just had fun on the 6-0 goal. It was the mother of all breakouts, with Desjardins advance the puck to Pavelski in the neutral zone, and Pavelski setting up Thornton for a one-timer once they got in range.

Then the fighting commenced, and an ugly loss got uglier.

"You can see the guys who care," Richards said. "There's a passion there, a pride thing about playing a game like this."

SIde dishes:

-- It was Mason's 200th NHL game. He's 82-86-25 after a 33-20-7 start to his career.

-- Lots of milestones tonight: Boyle played in No. 800, Brent Burns No. 500 and Douglas Murray No. 400.

-- D Marc Methot missed the game with the flu. He could play Wednesday in Los Angeles.

-- G Curtis Sanford will play vs. the Kings.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The NHL All-Star Game break ended late Monday for the Blue Jackets. Some of them flew to San Jose -- that's 6 1/2 hours in Air Rankin -- and held a rare evening practice in HP Pavilion to get ready for tonight's matchup with the San Jose Sharks.

It was truly a wild week for the Blue Jackets (the All-Star Game announcement, the fans protest, etc.), although several players high-tailed to a beach or their hometowns and were either oblivious to the goings-on in Columbus, or hundreds of miles away from the action.

Now comes the hard part -- playing out a string that has, quite frankly, never been longer in Columbus.

"Timing's going to be an issue for both teams," Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash said. "It's going to be tough. Picking up passes, keeping your feet moving. It's hard to come back after five days, so I'm sure the first period will be a bit slow."

There are 33 games to play, and interim coach Todd Richards has set a lofty goal. He wants the Blue Jackets to play their collective tuckeses off, to match or exceed the energy, passion and pace of their opponents.

"It's nothing to do with points or wins or losses or ties," RIchards said. "It's just something that, as a coaching staff, it's what we want to see from our team.

"It's getting those small goals -- what's realistic? What we can achieve? And it's trying to create a fun atmosphere. We've been beaten up so much this year, and a lot of it is self-inflicted. We're trying to create a positive environment where, when you come to work, you enjoy what you're doing and you enjoy being with each other."

The Blue Jackets will go with goaltender Steve Mason tonight, but look for Curtis Sanford on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

"Steve's played well in his last two starts," Richards said. "Sandy played the last game in Tampa Bay (before the break). It seems logical to us that he'll play tonight and Sanford will go in LA."

The other bit of news out of the morning skate is that defenseman Marc Methot (sick) was not on the ice. He's questionable for tonight, but the Blue Jackets have an extra defenseman. The Blue Jackets will play with the same forward configurations as before the break.

Side dishes:

-- Sanford is not only one of the bright spots of this season, but also one of the most eloquent talkers in the dressing room. Here are his thoughts on the Blue Jackets' fans protest that took place on Saturday:

-- C Jeff Carter will not play tonight, but said his shoulder is feeling better and he could play in either of the next two games on this trip. He was on the ice long after practice, firing on Sanford, tonight's back-up. We'll have more in Wednesday's paper, including Carter's reaction to the swirling trade rumors.

-- For now, Andrew Joudrey is the extra forward. He's not expected to play tonight, but could draw in vs. Los Angeles or vs. Anaheim. Then again, he might not play on this trip at all if Carter returns. "I saw (Joudrey) play when I was in Wilkes-Barre and he was in Scranton," Richards said. "I got a chance to see him play there. I don't know a lot about him, but the guys you talk to (in Springfield) say he's been playing extremely well. He's earned the opportunity to play."

-- The Sharks will be without RW Ryane Clowe, LW Martin Havlat and C Tommy Wingels tonight because of injury.

-- G Antti Niemi will get the start vs. Columbus tonight. He's 3-1-0 with a .906 save percentage and 2.89 goals-against average.

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The Blue Jackets recalled center Andrew Joudrey and defenseman David Savard from minor-league Springfield this morning.

Blue Jackets rookie Ryan Johansen went 0 for 3 and finished in sixth place in the breakaway challenge event in the NHL All-Star skills competition tonight in Ottawa.

An estimated 250 Blue Jackets fans occupied the Nationwide Arena plaza for a grassroots protest of the direction of the NHL’s worst team today.

Blue Jackets rookie Ryan Johansen will participate in the breakaway challenge event in tonight’s NHL All-Star skills competition. Johansen is his team's lone representative in Ottawa.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made it official this morning: the 2013 NHL All-Star Game will be hosted by the Blue Jackets in Nationwide Arena.

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

twitter; @aportzline

Blue Jackets majority owner John P. McConnell has sent a letter to the club's season ticket holders. Here's what he wrote:

Dear (season ticket holder), 

My father held a longstanding belief that a major league sports franchise would prove an important catalyst in the growth and development of Columbus. After more than 30 years of effort, the opportunity to make his belief reality presented itself with the NHL awarding a franchise to Columbus in 1997. To my mind, it is clear he was right in his vision. With the Blue Jackets and the Arena as the anchor, Nationwide Insurance has brought vibrancy to our downtown in the Arena District that simply wouldn't have happened without the team. 

That said, there is no question our on-ice performance is nowhere near what it needs to be. All of you are disappointed and many are angry. I and the entire Blue Jackets organization share these feelings. I thought as we approached mid-season at the All-Star break, it would be a good time to reflect on where we've been and offer some thoughts about how we go forward. We have taken actions and will continue our push to improve. 

Toward the end of last season, we did a thorough evaluation of our team's strengths and weaknesses. From there, a plan was developed balancing our needs against our tradable assets. During the summer, we believed we executed the plan well and took a good step forward. Most people seemed to agree and we were excited for the season to start. 

Unfortunately and surprisingly, we opened the season terribly and have struggled ever since. Disappointing is not a strong enough word. 

We began looking at why our team was not performing at an acceptable level very early this season and assessing where we are and where we want to go. We added Craig Patrick, an experienced and highly respected figure in the hockey community, as a senior advisor to assist in this endeavor. While this process is not complete, we have clearly defined our options and are finalizing our plans. 

I understand you want to know what we're going to do to fix this, but it is important for us to maintain a degree of discretion to prevent putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. I can tell you action will be taken in the coming weeks and months, be it around the trade deadline, the entry draft and/or free agency that will be indicative of our direction. 

Our goal as an organization is to build a team that wins consistently and competes for the Stanley Cup. Anything less is unacceptable! Everything we do in the coming weeks, months and years will be done to that end and everyone in our organization - myself, management, staff, coaches and players - will be held to that standard. 

I am very thankful and appreciative of the dedication and passion you have shown as a Blue Jackets fan and I am committed to giving you a team of which you can be proud. 

Sincerely,

John P. McConnell 

-- Aaron Portzline

aportzline@dispatch.com

twitter: @aportzline

The Blue Jackets have hit hit the 30-loss mark.

The Blue Jackets will not hold a pregame skate today in Tampa, Fla., where it the rejuvenating sun can give a pudgy, snowbound Ohioan the strength of 10,000 men.  (High of 80. Low of 60. One could get used to this).

There is humidity and a hint of saline in the air. The All-Star break and warmer climes beckon. But first, another game. The Tampa Bay Lightning, hobbled by injuries and in 13^th place in the East despite their stable of stars, will play host to the Blue Jackets at 7:30 tonight. Safe bet: This won’t be one for the ages. Rather, survive and advance and play with pride.

“What I’m interested in seeing is if we are going to show up,” Blue Jackets interim coach Todd Richards said. “Are we going to play the way we’re capable of playing?”

The Blue Jackets lost to the Nashville Predators 4-1 tonight in Bridgestone Arena in the final game of the season series. Nashville won five of the six games.

The Blue Jackets will have a different look in Nashville, er Smashville, as they say when talk turns to hockey in one of the South’s finest cities.