The Ottawa Senators must avoid looking ahead to the Saturday night showdown in Toronto, because before and after that one is a pair of contests against the conference-leading Columbus Blue Jackets.

Columbus dominated December and early January, putting together an incredible 16 game win streak that fell 1 short of the 1992-93 Penguins league record, but they have fallen back to earth a bit in the past 7 games. Counting the 5-0 Capitals victory that stopped the streak, the Blue Jackets are 3-4, and have allowed four or more goals 4 times (the 4 losses) and just 1 goal on three of those occasions (the 3 wins). They are coming off a 4-1 win against the Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

John Tortorella is an early Jack Adams award favorite for Coach of the Year for where he has the Blue Jackets, but has benefited from a return to form of captain Nick Foligno. The former Senators first rounder has already eclipsed his goal total from last season by 3 (15 so far this year compared to 12 in 72 games last season) and is one off his point total of 37. It also doesn't hurt that a shrewd signing has paid dividends in Sam Gagner (who I thought might have been a nice affordable insurance policy for Clarke MacArthur in Ottawa) who is on pace for a career best season (14G, 31PTS already) and they got for a bargain at $650,000.

Combine that with the maturation of Alex Wennberg and Seth Jones as well as rookie defenseman Zach Werenski (16 PP points) stepping into the lineup as a 19 year old and playing over 20 minutes a night and Tortorella has a lot of weapons at his disposal.

The Blue Jackets are a deep team that can skate and all four lines can contribute on any night which is why they were able to put together the winning streak, because if one line has an off night there is another waiting to step up and fill the void. It also doesn't hurt that Sergei Bobrovsky is having a career season in goal, as is Cam Atkinson, their leading scorer, to go along with the others mentioned that Tortorella is getting the most out of.

With that being said, the Senators will come to town knowing the Blue Jackets are fallible, and also knowing that they certainly can't take anything for granted and will have to play better in all facets of the game than they have the last couple of outings, from 1st to 4th lines. The fourth line has been a problem, as the trio of Chris Kelly, Chris Neil and Curtis Lazar hasn't done anything offensively and they are continually being victimized in their own end (a combined -6 in the 6-4 win on Tuesday in St. Louis). Offensive production from them would be a bonus at this point, but they at least have to be responsible in their own end. Guy Boucher has to put them in situations where they won't be victimized, which is a tougher task on the road without last change.

With Bobby Ryan hopefully heating up (he brings a 3 game point streak into this contest) it helps solidify the top 9, with production coming from all 3 units. Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman have been hot, anchoring the other two units, and if the Kyle Turris unit with Ryan and Dzingel can also produce, it will go a long way to countering the balanced Blue Jackets.

Of course, with a balanced offense on the other side, it puts pressure on the Ottawa defense to be good one through six, because there is no place to hide an underperforming pair. Also in the cross-hairs will be Mike Condon, who will appear in his 20th straight game for the Senators with no relief in sight. Fatigue might become a factor, as it did in Montreal last season with a heavy workload, and he allowed four goals on 23 shots in St. Louis. With a return of Craig Anderson mid-February at the earliest, and no inclination to play either current backup Chris Driedger or Matt O'Connor, the Senators will continue to sink or swim with Condon as the man. They gave him the goal support on Tuesday, and if they can continue to do that while limiting Condon's in-game workload that is a pretty good recipe for success.

January has been a month of so-called "measuring stick" games against playoff-bound teams, and this will be no exception facing a team that leads the league in wins, is tied in points, has the third highest-scoring offense, boasts the third stingiest defense, has the best power play in the league at over 25% and also has a top 10 penalty kill unit. It will be a tall task for the Senators, but by no means impossible as they have shown the ability to step up and slay Goliath at times this season, as recently as one week ago against the Penguins.

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