Blue Jackets turn to goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for important matchup with Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won eight straight meetings with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Over the past two seasons, goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is 0-2-3 with an .882 save percentage of the Penguins.

Columbus coach John Tortorella said he will pay neither of those facts any mind as his team prepares to host the Penguins on Saturday night.

Bobrovsky will start in net, which is the only lineup change Tortorella has planned after the Penguins beat the Blue Jackets, 3-0, Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.

It’s a critical game in the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Penguins are in the third place in the Metropolitan Division, four points up on Columbus, which is in ninth place in the conference, on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.

“We’re playing Pittsburgh tonight, and you guys can talk about the record,” Tortorella said. “We’re playing Pittsburgh. It’s a very important game for both teams. It doesn’t matter what the record was before. We never talk about it.”

“We look at tape as far as some of the things we did good, some of the things we need to correct. When you do play another team twice, as we’re doing back-to-back here, we did spend a little more time on maybe some of their tendencies, as we do in playoffs. That’s one thing that changed a little bit, but other than that, once we drop the puck, we’re going to play our game and try to get the two points.”

The Penguins are planning no lineup changes.

Matt Murray will make his seventh straight start in net for the Penguins. Dominik Simon was on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel at morning skate, which is where he finished Thursday’s game. Jared McCann was on the third line with Nick Bjugstad and Patric Hornqvist.

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