The Opponents:
The Blue Jackets are facing the Minnesota Wild, their expansion siblings, for the first time this season. The Wild beat the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in St. Paul last night, 4-3. The Wild are 17-8-5 for 39 points through 30 games, but are only 5-5-3 through 13 games on the road. They are also only 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. Among the assistant coaches for the Wild is former Blue Jackets defenseman Darryl Sydor. Zach Parise leads the Wild with 24 points (12 G, 12 A) and Jason Pominville's 14 goals leads in that category. The teams last met in Minnesota on April 13 when the Blue Jackets won 3-2 in a shootout. The Blue Jackets are 22-20-4 all-time against the Wild, with a 14-7-1 record against them at home.
The Blue Jackets:
The Blue Jackets are coming off a hard-fought 1-0 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. The Jackets lost goalie Sergei Bobrovsky early in the third period as he made a highlight-reel glove save, straining his groin in the process. Curtis McElhinney stepped in and saved 8 shots from the Lightning the rest of the way. As a result of the injury, Bobrovsky was placed on injured reserve and Mike McKenna was called up from Springfield on emergency call-up. McElhinney will be getting the start tonight against the Wild. Also, Derek MacKenzie has been taken off IR and is expected to start as well. Ryan Johansen leads the Jackets in points (20) and goals (10). He also has 8 power-play points (3 G, 5 A) which is tied with James Wisniewski (8 A) in that category. The expected lines for tonight based on morning skate from bluejackets.nhl.com:
Foligno-Johansen-Umberger
Calvert-Dubinsky-Atkinson
Jenner-Anisimov-Comeau
Skille-MacKenzie/Letestu-Tropp (Tropp may be the scratch with Letestu taking the wing)
Tyutin-Johnson
Murray-Wisniewski
Nikitin-Prout
McElhinney
The Prediction:
The Blue Jackets have a good chance tonight of stringing a two-game win streak together. They're facing a team that played last night, in another time zone, and which may have faced some weather-related travel delays. And while the Jackets will be short their number one goalie, they have a strong backup stepping in for him. They also are getting another "energy" guy back from injury with the return of Derek MacKenzie. Both teams are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games, so neither is the hotter club, and Minnesota has a poor road record. The Jackets really need to put a streak together, and this is a good situation in which to get it started.
Blue Jackets win, 4-2
No comments:
Post a Comment