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Lowly Blue Jackets take on visiting Jets

Nov 12, 2011 - 4:14 PM (Sports Network) - The Columbus Blue Jackets don't have too many low points left to reach this season, but a rare home loss to the Winnipeg Jets franchise just might be another one.

The Blue Jackets take aim at just their third victory of the season and sixth in a row over the Jets this evening at Nationwide Arena.

Columbus is off to a horrid 2-12-1 start and its five points are six behind the next-worst team, the New York Islanders. The Blue Jackets have lost three in a row and began a three-game homestand on Thursday with a 6-3 defeat to the Blackhawks.

Acquired earlier in the week from the Penguins, Mark Letestu scored his first goal with his new club. Grant Clitsome scored twice and Steve Mason made 30 saves in defeat.

"It's nice to get one," said Letestu, "but the result makes it pretty bittersweet."

Columbus lost despite getting multiple goals on the power play for the first time this season. The Blue Jackets seemed to never recover after the Blackhawks took a 2-1 lead with 2:51 left in the opening period.

"We looked like a group that's very fragile," said embattled head coach Scott Arniel. "We're off to a very slow, fragile start."

Columbus, which is 2-5-1 at home this season, made another trade on Friday, swapping young defensemen with the St. Louis Blues. The Blue Jackets dealt 24- year-old Kris Russell, a third-round pick by Columbus in 2005, for 25-year-old blueliner Nikita Nikitin.

Nikitin did not post a point in seven games with the Blues this season while notching a minus-5 rating. He had one goal and eight assists in 41 games with St. Louis a season ago.

Columbus will look to avoid its first loss to the Winnipeg franchise since the former Atlanta-based club secured a 5-2 home win on Dec. 9, 2005. The Blue Jackets are 4-2 all-time at home versus the Jets, having not dropped a home decision in this series since March 22, 2003.

The Jets will look to change that tonight and snap a season-high four-game slide (0-2-2). After going 3-2-2 on a seven-game road trip, Winnipeg's longest of the season, the Jets returned home on Thursday and lost a 5-2 game to the Florida Panthers thanks in part to Kris Versteeg's first career hat trick for the opposition.

Tim Stapleton and Andrew Ladd scored for a Winnipeg club that looked sluggish following its long trip. The Jets had only 10 shots through the first two periods before finding their legs and unleashing 17 in the third while scoring twice.

"We were better in the third, but we didn't deserve to win the game," Jets head coach Claude Noel said. "We didn't play very well. You can't win when your players don't play to their potential."

Ondrej Pavelec certainly didn't play at his best level, allowing four goals on 15 shots through the first two periods. Peter Mannino relieved him to start the third and came up with four saves.

"If you want to win in this game you have to play all 60 minutes as hard as you can," said Pavelec. "Obviously I didn't do that tonight. The guys battled in the third, but it's hard to come back from four goals down."

Winnipeg, which last lost five in a row from Feb. 13-25, has a host of injured blueliners in Ron Hainsey (upper body), Tobias Enstrom (broken collarbone) and Randy Jones (right ankle), but will have goaltender Chris Mason back.

Mason was activated from injured reserve on Friday after suffering a right groin strain in a relief appearance on Oct. 27 in Philadelphia at the start of the Jets' road trip. He is 1-2-0 with a 2.68 goals-against average and .893 save percentage this year.