GLENDALE, Ariz. -- With their losses mounting and the season slipping away, the Blue Jackets are taking a new approach to their goaltending.

Before practice yesterday, coach Ken Hitchcock informed the club that Steve Mason no longer is the club's undisputed No. 1 goaltender.

Mathieu Garon will start at 9 tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes. If he plays well, Garon will keep playing, too, not resort to the backup role he's held up to this point.

"Win and you're in," Hitchcock said. "That's just where we're at now. If a guy wins, he gets to keep going.

"We can't wait any longer to get going."

Mason allowed three goals on five shots and lasted only 4 minutes, 15 seconds in Saturday's 5-2 loss to Colorado. It's the fifth time Mason has been pulled in 28 starts.

As has been the case so many times this season, Mason wasn't guilty of allowing poor goals as much as he didn't make clutch saves when every other aspect of the Blue Jackets' game fell apart.

Last season, he masked a lot of deficiencies by making big save after big save.

"You'd like to have all the goals back," Mason said. "Any goalie hates letting in goals.

"It's a tough situation. The (Avs) started quick and we paid for it."

Mason is 10-12-5 with an .887 save percentage and 3.41 goals-against average, including an .874 save percentage and 4.06 goals-against average on the road.

Those numbers are starkly different from those compiled during his rookie season: .916 save percentage and 2.29 goals-against.

Garon, who is 4-3-2 with a .908 save percentage and 2.77 goals-against average, welcomed the news.

"It's good," Garon said. "But at the same time, I don't want to think too much about it.

"If I play good, we'll have a chance to win, and that's all I want, is for us to win."

Chippy practice

Hitchcock had snappy back-and-forths with veterans Kristian Huselius and Raffi Torres during yesterday's practice, which lasted 80 minutes.

Huselius was called out for not defending a shot from the point, while Torres was chided for shooting pucks on the other end of the ice during a drill.

"When you play like we're playing," R.J. Umberger said, "you know a practice like that is coming."

The Blue Jackets worked extensively on defending odd-man rushes and finishing odd-man rushes. At one point, Hitchcock called the entire team over and barked at them for not working hard enough to score goals.

Slap shots

Defenseman Anton Stralman, a late scratch from Saturday's game because of the stomach flu, almost sat out yesterday's practice. He was feeling better, however, and could play tonight. Mike Blunden, a healthy scratch the past eight games, is likely to play tonight, taking Andrew Murray's spot as the fourth-line center. Prospect defenseman John Moore -- the Blue Jackets' first-round draft pick (No. 21) in June -- was cut yesterday by Team USA, one week before the World Junior Championships.

aportzline@dispatch.com