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Nearly two months into the season, perhaps its time to anoint the Columbus Blue Jackets as the biggest surprise team in the NHL.Looking for a season high-tying fourth straight win -- and the 500th in franchise history -- the Blue Jackets wrap up their season series with the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night at Nationwide Arena.Since entering the league as an expansion team in 2000, Columbus (14-5-4) reached the postseason twice and was eliminated in the opening round each time. While there are still almost 60 games to play in the regular season, the Blue Jackets appear to have the pieces to get in the playoffs and to stick around for a while.We want to earn respect, because we dont have any right now, Columbus coach John Tortorella told the teams official website in November.The Blue Jackets play is turning heads. Columbus five regulation losses are the fewest in the league, and it is averaging 3.13 goals per game -- just barely ahead of the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and trailing only the New York Rangers.The Blue Jackets, third in the Metropolitan Division, scored 15 goals in a three-game winning streak over Arizona, and averaged nearly four goals per game while winning six of the last seven at home against the Coyotes.The teams met for the first time this season on Saturday night in Arizona. Boone Jenner scored 13 seconds in and Columbus fired a franchise-record 60 shots on goal through overtime before coming away with a 3-2 shootout win.Jenner scored in each of his last two games, giving him four in 23 contests. He had 11 goals through 23 games last season, and finished with a career-best 30. Tortorella -- never shy about speaking his mind -- said the team needs Jenner to produce like he once did.Weve been able to find our way here in the first quarter of the season without him being a big part of our offense, Tortorella told the Columbus Dispatch. Hes done a lot of other things. But if we can just get his offense going, then you have a little bit of balance if one of our other lines has an off night.What Tortorella has been getting at home is balanced scoring. Four players each totaled at least 10 points in Columbus -- Cam Atkinson (15), Alexander Wennberg (12), Zach Werenski (12) and Nick Foligno (11). Scott Hartnell and Brandon Saad added nine points apiece.Tortorella appears most grateful for Werenski, taken eighth overall in the 2015 NHL Draft.We have an (elite, young) defenseman, and thats a huge position in our game, Tortorella told the Columbus Dispatch. ... Youre always looking for that guy. We feel very fortunate to have a guy who can run our power play at 19 years old. He has a lot to learn, but we feel very fortunate that we have him.After Curtis McElhinney won in the desert, the Blue Jackets will likely turn to Sergei Bobrovsky in goal. With 13 wins, Bobrovsky needs two more to match the total he recorded in 37 games during an injury-plagued 2015-16 season.Bobrovsky is 11-2-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average, a .930 save percentage and two shutouts in his last 14 games.Arizona (8-11-4) is in the middle of a stretch of four games in six days, and will be looking to avoid its fourth straight loss. The Coyotes are last in the Pacific Division and one point ahead of Colorado Avalanche, currently at the bottom of the West.Were trying to be as competitive as we can, coach Dave Tippett told the Arizona Republic. Were scratching and clawing trying to get points. We feel like were in every game.Mike Smith stopped a career-best 58 shots Saturday -- the third time in four games that hes faced at least 40 shots.Frustrating would be a good word but its even worse than that right now, Smith said. At some point, youd like to see your team move forward and take steps in the right direction to start having your chance to win hockey games.It seems like once we take one step forward were taking a couple back. Its tough to play like that in this league and expect to come out and win hockey games.Smith is 1-2-1 with a 2.90 GAA and .887 save percentage over his last five games in Columbus. Coyotes captain Shane Doan said Smith is keeping the team in games.The last two weeks hes been in a zone, Doan said. Thats the only reason were even remotely close to getting points or getting any kind of team success.Doan, who scored in Saturdays loss, is on the cusp of a milestone, needing one goal to become the 93rd player in NHL history to score 400. Doan, the last of the original Winnipeg Jets after being selected seventh overall in 1995, scored a goal in two of his last three visits to Ohio, giving him nine in 26 career games there. Abby Smith Jersey . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. Abby Dahlkemper Jersey . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. http://www.officialsocceruswntshop.com/alyssa-naeher-usa-jersey/ .2 billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the leagues broadcast and multimedia rights. Alyssa Naeher USA Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Tierna Davidson USA Jersey . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The judge who has presided over Jerry Sanduskys criminal case for five years issued a sternly worded order on Friday removing himself from the former Penn State assistant coachs appeal.Judge John Cleland said he was taking himself off the case because Sanduskys lawyers have raised objections to Clelands role in a December 2011 meeting in a hotel the night before Sandusky waived a preliminary hearing.The defendants attorneys have impugned the competence and integrity of essentially everyone associated with the grand jurys investigation into the defendants conduct, the defendants trial and conviction, and these post-conviction proceedings, Cleland wrote. Now they have chosen to impugn the integrity of the court itself.Cleland said the accusations against attorneys, judges, jurors, investigators and victims were outside the bounds of the legal profession and should be reviewed by the state board that handles matters of lawyer discipline. Sanduskys appeals lawyer, Al Lindsay, declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the state attorney generals office.Sandusky, 72, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is serving up to 60 years in prison. He has previously lost a round of appeals to the state Superior and Supreme courts and is currently seeking a new trial under the states Post-Conviction Relief Act, which is limited to claims of constitutional violations, newly discovered evidence or ineffective counsel. His appeal involves all three types of claims.At issue is a meeting held at the Hilton Garden Inn in State College the night of Dec. 12, 2011. In attendance were Cleland, Sandusky lawyer Joe Amendola, state prosecutors Joe McGettigan and Jonelle Eshbach, and District Judge Robert Scott, who had been appointed to preside at the preliminary hearing scheduuled for the next day.ddddddddddddIn an account he issued in May, Cleland wrote that his appointment to handle the matter as a common pleas court judge, made after all the Centre County jurists had recused themselves, included administrative oversight for the site of the preliminary hearing. He said he was having dinner in the hotel when Amendola and prosecutors asked to meet with him and Scott.It surprised him, Cleland wrote, to find out the topic was an agreement to waive the hearing as long as prosecutors would not seek higher bail if more charges were filed. Sandusky did waive the hearing, which he now argues was a mistake because his lawyers lost a chance to pin down witnesses and learn details about their version of events.Cleland said neither he nor Scott had any role in negotiating the agreement made between Amendola and the prosecutors. Amendola has recently testified that he proposed the deal to McGettigan to keep his client out of jail and that it was explained to Cleland and Scott rather than submitted to them.Cleland pointedly objected to a characterization by Sanduskys lawyers in a recent filing that it was an off-the-record night time meeting and that Sanduskys absence from the hotel conference violated his due process rights.Counsel has argued not only that the meeting between the lawyers and Judge Scott and me was unethical, but has also cast it in tones that would lead one to believe it was somehow sinister, Cleland wrote.He also said, in a footnote, that hes studied the 34 issues Sandusky has raised and concluded that no grounds raised in the petition merit relief.His order asks court officials to request another judge be appointed to replace him. ' ' '