Strong emotions powered the Vancouver Canucks to their latest victory, and they'll try to carry that momentum into their longest road trip of the season.
The Canucks open a seven-game, 12-day swing looking to continue their dominance of the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.
Vancouver (15-6-1) improved to 5-1-1 in its last seven games with a 2-0 victory over New Jersey on Tuesday. The team received an emotional boost with a pregame tribute to Pat Quinn, a former Canucks player, coach and executive who died two days earlier.
"I felt like I had a little bit of extra energy in my veins to start the game," said defenseman Kevin Bieksa, who notched just his second point in 18 games.
A long stretch of away games shouldn't faze the Canucks, who are among the best road teams in the league with an 8-3-0 record - 5-1-0 this month.
"It's fun to come to the rink," right wing Alexandre Burrows said. "Everybody's working for each other, everybody's paying the price, and we're finding ways to win."
Burrows is certainly helping, scoring three of his five goals on the season over the past five games. However, he doesn't have any points in six straight meetings with Columbus (6-13-2), including a 6-2 victory on Nov. 22, 2013.
The Canucks are 13-1-2 in the last 16 meetings with the Blue Jackets, but they've dropped three of the last four (1-1-2) at Nationwide Arena after falling 3-1 in the most recent Oct. 20, 2013.
Henrik Sedin had three goals in two meetings with Columbus last season, and he's compiled eight points in the last seven road matchups. Vancouver's captain has gone nine games overall without a goal, but does have seven assists in that span.
Columbus, tied with Buffalo for the lowest point total in the Eastern Conference, looks to snap a four-game losing streak that is part of a woeful 2-11-2 stretch. The Blue Jackets have gone 1-6-1 at home during that span, yielding an average of 4.1 goals.
Their struggles continued Tuesday with a 4-2 loss to Winnipeg, Columbus' third straight home defeat.
"We had chances," coach Todd Richards said. "Had a few posts. But posts don't count as goals. The big thing for me is that for two periods it looked like we played a tentative game. The third period we came out and played."
Ryan Johansen has two goals and two assists in the last two home games after scoring his eighth of the season against the Jets. He leads the Jackets with 24 points, collecting six goals and eight assists in 11 home games.
Sergei Bobrovsky has been in net for every game of the four-game skid, compiling a 3.69 goals-against average after making 28 saves Tuesday. He allowed two goals in his first three career starts against the Canucks before giving up six on 35 shots in the 6-2 road loss in November 2013.
Backup Curtis McElhinney was sharp in his most recent matchup with Vancouver, making 37 saves on Oct. 20, 2013.
