Game Preview: Blue Jackets Look To Make It Four Wins In Five Games With Wednesday Night Matchup Against Montreal

MONTREAL CANADIENS
9-10-2 (20 pts; .476%) ROSTER SCHEDULE
7:00 P.M. – WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29 NATIONWIDE ARENA  COLUMBUS, OH
TELEVISION: Bally Sports Ohio ESPN+ Power Play
ODDS & PROJECTIONS:
ODDS OF CBJ WIN PER MONEYPUCK: 67%
PLAYOFF ODDS PER MONEYPUCK:  Canadiens: 4% Blue Jackets: 11%
TIPICO SPORTSBOOK: CBJ -130

The Columbus Blue Jackets played up to their competition Monday night in a 5-2 defeat of the Boston Bruins.

Wednesday, they'll look to continue the momentum when the Montreal Canadiens come to Nationwide Arena. 

Columbus enters their final game of November with an accomplishment that's rare for a team near the bottom of the league: they rank third in the entire NHL in goals per 60 minutes for the month. They've won three of the last four games and easily could have been — and probably should have been — all four.

Here's what else to know when the Habs and Jackets meet up for the second time this season:

TALKING POINTS: MTL

• Montreal's trip to Columbus will conclude a long road trip for the Canadiens. They started in Boston on November 18th, spent last week in California with games against Anaheim, San Jose, and Los Angeles, and will play their first game since Saturday when they hit the Blue Jackets home ice. They are 2-2-0 on the road trip, with one-goal victories over the Ducks and Sharks. 
   
• Special teams have crushed Montreal over the last half dozen games. They're 0-for-17 on the power play and on the flip side, have allowed seven goals on the opposition's 20 power plays. Salt in the wound: they gave up a short-handed goal, giving them a net power play percentage of -5.8%. Here's how dramatically the Canadiens special teams woes have affected them: their goal different ranks 18th in the league in 5v5, but it drops all the way to 29th when you include power play and penalty kills. Whoops.

TALKING POINTS: CBJ

• The Ov's had it Monday night. Dmitri Voronkov, Yegor Chinakhov, and Ivan Provorov each scored a goal. So too, did Kirill Marchenko, giving the Blue Jackets a spot in the history books as the first NHL team to have four Russian-born players score in the same game. I don't know how you follow that up but am eager to find out. 
   
• If Columbus can keep the puck out of the net when Montreal is on the power play, they have at least a decent chance to overtake the Los Angeles Kings as the best penalty kill in the NHL. The Kings are at 89.4%, just a fifth of a percentage point better than the Blue Jackets' 89.2%. Columbus has allowed just six goals when down 5-on-4 this season, which is fewer than any other team. That's even more impressive when you consider they're tied for the lead league in games played. 
   
• Spencer Martin was fantastic between the pipes in Monday's win, and his numbers are nearly identical to Elvis Merzlikins on the season: Martin's goals against average is 3.20 compared to Elvis' 3.11, and the save percentage edge is also held by Merzlikins at .907, compared to Martin's .903. These aren't eye-popping, but given some of the situations the 5-on-5 defense has put them in this year, it's at least adequate and probably better than most expectations. 

Updated: 7:05 a.m. // Subject to Change
Lines are based on most recent practice/game, as well as injury updates and news.