The final game of the California trip takes place in Orange County for the first meeting of the season to take on the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
The Ducks have had quite the offseason after being pushed out of the playoffs in the final game of the first round against the Nashville Predators. They've fired head coach Bruce Broudreau and hired Randy Carlyle. They traded Fredrick Andersen to Toronto Maple Leafs; and also acquired Jonathan Bernier in a different trade. With budgetary issues, they lost David Perron (STL); Brandon Pirri (NYR); Anton Khudobin (BOS); Chris Stewart (MIN); and Jamie McGinn (ARI). Finally, Shawn Horcoff retired and joined the Detroit Red Wings in a professional scouting role. They added Nate Guenin; Jeff Schultz; Mason Raymond; Emerson Etem; and ex Blue Jackets Antoine Vermette and Jared Boll.
The Ducks last played on Wednesday in a dominating performance over the Nashville Predators; the Jackets last played last night in a loss to the Western Conference Champions.
The Ducks recently extended Hampus Lindholm to a six year deal, but because of visa issues, he is not playing tonight. The Ducks also assigned winger Emerson Etem to the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League (AHL). Ryan Getzlaf is expected to return to the lineup after being out with an upper body injury.
For Columbus, they are sticking with the same lineups.
Projected Lineups
Anaheim Ducks
Nick Ritchie--Ryan Getzlaf--Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano--Ryan Kessler--Jakob Slifverberg
Ryan Grabutt--Antoine Vermette--Chris Wagner
Joseph Cramarossa--Michael Sgarbossa--Jared Boll
Cam Fowler--Josh Manson
Clayton Stoner--Sami Vatanen
Shea Theodore--Kevin Bieska
John Gibson
Jonathan Bernier
Columbus Blue Jackets
Boone Jenner--Brandon Dubinsky--Cam Atkinson
Brandon Saad--Alex Wennberg--Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell--Lukas Sedlak--Sam Gagner
Matt Calvert--William Karlsson--Josh Anderson
Zach Werenski--Seth Jones
Jack Johnson--David Savard
Dalton Prout--Markus Nutivarra
Sergei Bobrovsky
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Sonny Milano, Scott Harrington
Injured: David Clarkson, Ryan Murray