Columbus Blue Jackets (7-3-0) vs St. Louis Blues (8-2-1)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2017, 8 p.m. (Scottrade Center)
The Blue Jackets won in dramatic fashion last night on a Josh Anderson overtime goal, wiping away a 1-0 third period deficit and salvaging a four-game home stand. Their opponent, the St. Louis Blues, is coming home to Scottrade Center after holding on to beat the Carolina Hurricanes last night in Raleigh.
For both teams, they're once again playing on the second night of a back-to-back but if there's a silver lining, neither technically has an advantage. The Blue Jackets and Blues both traveled last night and won't come to the rink today, but Columbus may have the tougher decisions with its starting goaltender.
Carter Hutton played last night for the Blues, which would seem to indicate No. 1 goalie Jake Allen will get the nod tonight. Sergei Bobrovsky was outstanding for the Blue Jackets last night but backup Joonas Korpisalo hasn't played since Oct. 17 in Winnipeg, and John Tortorella has said that he wants to keep him fresh.
You Oughta Know: JADEN SCHWARTZ
Turns out it’s Schwartz that leads the Blues in points this year – not Vladimir Tarasenko – with an impressive 15 points through 11 games so far. Schwartz has settled in as a quality contributor on the offensive end for the Blues, with three 50-point seasons to his name so far. He’s on pace to surpass that this season.
Drafted back in 2010–hey wait a minute…
[skip to 3:49]
Hey, we know those guys. We’ll give that draft announcement a solid B for Jarmo Kekalainen.
Anyways, yeah, Schwartz is pretty good.
Fast Facts
- The Blue Jackets' penalty kill is fifth-best in the NHL (88%), and is 16-for-16 on home ice this season.
- Columbus is 3-0 in overtime this season after Anderson's winner last night.
- The Blue Jackets' 7-3-0 start is the best 10-game start in franchise history. Previous best? 6-3-1 out of the gate way back in 2007-08.
Previous Matchups
THIS YEAR: First meeting
LAST MEETING: Blue Jackets won 8-4 at Nationwide Arena. The two teams split the season series last season.
Keys to the Game
ONE: Sound defense. The Blues have gotten offensive contributions from just about everybody this year, and have one of the league’s premier scorers on their roster in Vladimir Tarasenko.
TWO: Capitalize on the power play. This isn’t the biggest sample size, obviously, but the Blues have killed off just 75.6% of their penalties this season (27th in the NHL). The Blue Jackets power play has started to maybe get on track, so this could be a matchup to exploit. Of course, the Blues had the third-best penalty killing unit last year, so who knows?
THREE: Bring the energy. The Blues are at home on their back-to-back, the Jackets are in the midst of three games in four nights, they’re in a different time zone. All that stuff. This is going to be tough and Scottrade Center is always a hard building to play in.
Team Projected Lineup
| # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Jaden Schwartz | 11 GP, 7-8-15 | 10 | Brayden Schenn | 11 GP, 3-7-10 | 91 | Vladimir Tarasenko | 11 GP, 5-7-12 |
| 71 | Vladimir Sobotka | 11 GP, 0-7-7 | 26 | Paul Stastny | 11 GP, 4-6-10 | 20 | Alexander Steen | 5 GP, 1-3-4 |
| 56 | Magnus Paajarvi | 11 GP, 1-1-2 | 70 | Oskar Sundqvist | 9 GP, 0-2-2 | 78 | Beau Bennett | 2 GP, 0-0-0 |
| 9 | Scottie Upshall | 11 GP, 0-2-2 | 28 | Kyle Brodziak | 11 GP, 1-1-2 | 22 | Chris Thorburn | 5 GP, 0-0-0 |
| # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Joel Edmunson | 11 GP, 2-0-2 | 27 | Alex Pietrangelo | 11 GP, 4-8-12 |
| 39 | Nate Prosser | 1 GP, 0-0-0 | 55 | Colton Parayko | 11 GP, 1-3-4 |
| 29 | Vince Dunn | 11 GP, 2-0-2 | 41 | Robert Bortuzzo | 11 GP, 1-2-3 |
| # | Player | GS | W-L-OL | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | Jake Allen | 8 | 5-2-1 | 2.70 | .912 | 0 |
| 40 | Carter Hutton | 3 | 3-0-0 | 1.67 | .950 | 0 |
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