The Columbus Blue Jackets have had the last three days to regroup after a pair of home losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Los Angeles Kings — two of the best teams in the NHL.
Tonight, they have a chance to salvage the home stand as they host the Buffalo Sabres on NBC's Rivalry Night.
Since their last game, center Lukas Sedlak suffered an ankle injury that will keep him out of action for about six weeks. In normal circumstances, a (should-be) playoff team losing a fourth line center isn't big news, but in this case, it is. The Blue Jackets are already short at the center position.
The lineup is in flux, and it's unclear how head coach John Tortorella will deploy his lines tonight. The safe money is that Zac Dalpe will move to take Sedlak's spot, but there's a chance that someone like Pierre-Luc Dubois or even Boone Jenner could move to the middle.
John Tortorella Pre-Game
"He looked at me and said, 'I can do that.'"
— ColumbusBlueJackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) October 24, 2017
Torts on how #CBJ are charged to be aggressive offensively and take chances: pic.twitter.com/6EeMR1v23N
Blue Jackets Projected Lineup
| # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Artemi Panarin | 8 GP, 1-8-9 | 71 | Nick Foligno | 8 GP, 2-5-7 | 13 | Cam Atkinson | 8 GP, 3-0-3 |
| 38 | Boone Jenner | 1 GP, 0-0-0 | 10 | Alexander Wennberg | 8 GP, 1-5-6 | 28 | Oliver Bjorkstrand | 8 GP, 1-3-4 |
| 18 | Pierre-Luc Dubois | 8 GP, 1-0-1 | 17 | Brandon Dubinsky | 8 GP, 0-1-1 | 77 | Josh Anderson | 6 GP, 1-2-3 |
| 22 | Sonny Milano | 8 GP, 5-0-5 | 36 | Zac Dalpe | 6 GP, 0-0-0 | 11 | Matt Calvert | 8 GP, 1-2-3 |
| # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Zach Werenski | 8 GP, 3-3-6 | 3 | Seth Jones | 8 GP, 1-4-5 |
| 7 | Jack Johnson | 8 GP, 1-2-3 | 58 | David Savard | 8 GP, 1-2-3 |
| 27 | Ryan Murray | 8 GP, 1-1-2 | 65 | Markus Nutivaara | 3 GP, 0-0-0 |
| # | Player | GS | W-L-OL | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | Sergei Bobrovsky | 6 | 4-2-0 | 2.16 | .927 | 1 |
| 70 | Joonas Korpisalo | 2 | 1-1-0 | 3.50 | .873 | 0 |
Three Storylines
- Power Play, or Penalty Kill?: Think the Blue Jackets have power play issues? The Buffalo Sabres are in the bottom five of the league with a gaudy 13.9% power play conversion rate, but that's only half the story. They've scored five goals on the power play, but have managed to give up six (!) shorthanded goals this year in just 10 games.
- Team Defense: Every player goes through funks, and that includes Vezina Trophy winners. Bobrovsky hasn't been as sharp as he was in his first four games, but perhaps the antidote he - and the team - needs is an offensive-depth challenged Buffalo Sabres team. Through 10 games, the Sabres have gotten virtually no production from their bottom two lines. Much of the onus to score falls on Jack Eichel, Jason Pominville, Ryan O'Reilly, and Evander Kane. While Bobrovsky has allowed seven goals in his past two starts, much of the blame can be placed on defensive breakdowns in coverage.
- Rivalry Night?: It's not every day that the Blue Jackets host a nationally televised game, and while the Sabres don't exactly scream 'rival', it's still a game with additional eyeballs. A season ago, the Blue Jackets managed to stay relatively under the radar, their 16-game winning streak withstanding. Now they've arrived as one of the NHL's better teams, and tonight is a chance to showcase their game to a national audience. To this point, the Jackets have beaten the teams they're supposed to have beaten and lost to the NHL's elite. A win tonight would go a long way in getting them back on the right track after a pair of disappointing losses.
