The Blue Jackets home stand continues tonight with a battle with the Blue Shirts. For the fourth time this season, the Blue Jackets take on the New York Rangers live from the Nationwide Arena.
The Jackets have won two of three meetings so far. The first contest was the one where Matt Calvert left the game and came back with stitches to score the game winning shorthanded goal. The final score of that game was 4-2. The second game was right after the All-Star Game, and the Jackets got up 6-0, but the Rangers came back to score 4 goals, being a high scoring 6-4 contest. The contest the Rangers won was a 5-4 comeback victory when Michael Grabner’s game winning goal occurred with 16 seconds remain in regulation.
With the two teams playing again in two weeks, and being in a very highly competitive Metropolitan Division, every point counts. The two teams are separated by two points, but the Jackets have played one less game. These points are the difference between playing teams in the weaker Atlantic Division or the tougher Metro. At this point in the season, it would be a first round matchup with the Montreal Canadiens or the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In terms of the matchup of the goaltending, the one-two combo of Henrik Lundqvist and Antti Raanta has been sensational in the early part of the season. Since then, they have been decent in keeping the team in the race with Columbus and Pittsburgh, but haven't been able to leap frog either. Sergei Bobrovsky has kept himself in the Vézina Trophy. Tonight, Antti Raanta has the start against Bobs.
In terms of other stats, Michael Grbaner leads the Rangers in goals with 26; Cam Atkinson had 27 for Columbus. Mats Zuccarello is first in assists for the Rangers with 30; Alex Wennberg has 34 for the Jackets. Atkinson also leads in power play goals with nine; Brandon Pirri has five for New York. David Savard leads with +/- with a +19; Grabner has a +28. Bobs 30 wins are second in the NHL; King Henrik has 26.
Projected Lineups
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey – Derek Stepan – Rick Nash
Michael Grabner – Kevin Hayes – J.T. Miller
Pavel Buchnevich – Oscar Lindberg – Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh – Daniel Girardi
Marc Staal – Nick Holden
Brady Skjei – Kevin Klein
Antti Raanta
Henrik Lundqvist
Scratched: Brandon Pirri, Matt Pumpel, Adam Clendening
Injured: None
Columbus Blue Jackets
Brandon Saad – Alex Wennberg – Nick Foligno
Boone Jenner – Brandon Dubinsky – Cam Atkinson
Matt Calvert – William Karlsson – Josh Anderson
Scott Hartnell – Lukas Sedlak – Sam Gagner
Zach Werenski – Seth Jones
Jack Johnson – David Savard
Ryan Murray – Markus Nutivarra
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched: Oliver Bjorkstrand, Dalton Prout, Scott Harrington
Injured: David Clarkson
Players to Watch
New York Rangers
Rick Nash.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Brandon Dubinsky.
Enjoy the games tonight…
More to come….
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