Sweet, sweet (potential) revenge.
After an embarrassing 4-0 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers earlier this month at Nationwide Arena, the Columbus Blue Jackets have the chance to even the score tonight in the second game of a three-game road trip out to Western Canada.
The shutout loss to the Oilers on March 2 was one of six times the Blue Jackets have been held without a goal this season – and Edmonton is the only current-non-playoff team to do so.
Bottom line, it wasn't a good look for the Blue Jackets, who should be coming out with a chip on their shoulder tonight. Here's our game preview:
FORWARDS
Panarin - Dubois - Atkinson
Dzingel - Duchene - Anderson
Nash - Jenner - Sedlak
Dubinsky - Wennberg - Bjorkstrand
DEFENSEMEN
Werenski - Jones
Harrington - Savard
Kukan - McQuaid
GOALTENDERS
Bobrovsky
STORYLINES
- The Blue Jackets' schedule gets a little easier from here on out - thankfully after running through a gauntlet of seven playoff teams in a row (and getting 7/14 possible points). Now, they only have four of their final nine opponents as teams that are currently in playoff seeding. A win tonight for Columbus is big in order to stay in the playoff hunt.
- Markus Nutivaara missed Tuesday night's game against the Calgary Flames due to illness, which didn't do any good for an already-depleted blue-line for Columbus that is still missing Ryan Murray. It's still unclear if Nutivaara will be good to go tonight, but if he can't, it's likely that Dean Kukan will double down as his replacement.
- The Oilers are 16-17-2 at home, and are 3-11-2 in their barn as well when the opponent scorers first, obviously meaning that a quick start will be important for the Blue Jackets. The Oilers' playoff chances are looking slim with nine games remaining on their schedule (seven points out of the wild card spot), but you know this means that they will be playing even more desperate. If the Blue Jackets come out slow, this will not be an easy game to fight their way back into.
