Game Day #42: In The Playoff Mix, Blue Jackets Begin Second Half Of Season With Home Game Against Kraken

Getting the monkey off their back came at a price.

The Columbus Blue Jackets won in Pittsburgh via a shootout Tuesday night, ending a nearly decade-long streak without a victory in the Steel City.

It cost them Sean Monahan, though, who left the game with a wrist injury and was placed on Injured Reserve in advance of Thursday's night game against the Seattle Kraken.

That means a few things for the Blue Jackets. 

One is that they've called up Luca Del Bel Belluz from the (AHL) Cleveland Monsters. The AHL All-Star (announced Wednesday) and league's leading scorer will make his season debut with Columbus tonight, but not his NHL debut.

Del Bel Belluz scored in the final game of the 2023-24 season, the only NHL game under his belt so far.

The Monahan injury also leaves a hole at the top of the center depth chart, one that will be filled tonight by Adam Fantilli. He'll play alongside Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko, as he did Tuesday night after Monahan's exit. It was a role he excelled in, with Voronkov and Fantilli scoring two late goals to tie it the game before Marchenko won it in the shootout.

Here's what else to know when the Blue Jackets welcome Oliver Bjorkstrand's bunch to Nationwide Arena:

• RE: KRAKEN
  Bjorkstrand, who played 382 games with the Blue Jackets over seven years, is second on the team in points (26) and third in both goals (11) and assists (15). ...  Seattle has rotated between Joey Daccord and Phillipp Grubauer in net this season. Daccord has been significantly better on the whole, but Grubauer has allowed three or less goals in four straight starts over the last two weeks while Daccord was out with an injury. He's been activated as of Wednesday and appears in line to get the start in Columbus. ... The Kraken have been playing some really clean hockey as of late, giving the opposition just six TOTAL power-plays over the last five games.
   
• Z'S HOME STREAK
  Zach Werenski has a point in 15 consecutive home games, the longest by a defenseman on home ice since Ray Bourque scored in 17 straight at home between Jan. 28th and April 11th, 1993. He can get within one with a point against Seattle.
   
• SEVO'S BACK IN
  After he was a healthy scratch Tuesday for the third time this season, Damon Severson is back on the blueline for Columbus. He'll be on the third pairing with Jake Christiansen. Jordan Harris and Jack Johnson are healthy scratches. 
   
• LINEUPS & PROJECTIONS
  Luca Del Bel Belluz may not be the only Blue Jacket making his season debut. Owen Sillinger was brought up from Cleveland on emergency recall because someone on the team is sick. That someone: his younger brother, Cole. If Cole Sillinger can't go, Owen Sillinger will make not only his season debut but his NHL debut. Whichever Sillinger is in will play center James van Riemsdyk and Kent Johnson. 
  
  All of them will play in front of Elvis Merzlikins, who makes his fifth consecutive start. Here are the complete projections: