Game Day #25: After Shutout Loss In Calgary, Blue Jackets Head Farther North To Battle Connor McDavid And The Edmonton Oilers

The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to bounce back from their first shutout loss of the season when they face the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night as Columbus continues a five-game road trip.

They split the first two games — riding a wave of offense in a 6-3 win Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks before falling 3-0 to the Calgary Flames in an emotional affair Tuesday night.

As the trip continues, the Blue Jackets now enter night one of a back-to-back against a team that has been a sleeping giant all season long.

The Oilers were a game away from raising the Stanley Cup in June, but are off to a relatively bland 13-10-2 start this season. They are outside the top 10 in goals, goals allowed, power play, and penalty kill. A couple of those categories may not be surprising, but to see a team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl struggling to bury the puck begs the question: when will they wake up?

This will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams, with Edmonton surely keeping in the back of their mind an October 28th 6-1 loss to the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. 

Here's what else to know when the Blue Jackets and Oilers drop the puck at Rogers Place:

• RE: EDMONTON
  These are not your typical Edmonton Oilers this year. The offense has struggled to get going (18th at 2.88 goals per game) and the power play is in the lower-third of the league. But before a shutout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night, the Oilers had scored 22 goals over a five-game stretch that resulted in four wins. ... Calvin Pickard gets the start for Edmonton; he's made eight starts and has a 2.50 goals against average to pair with an .895 save percentage. 
   
• TARRY'S RETURN
  It's not that Daniil Tarasov hasn't (with the exception of a one-game illness absence) been available — Elvis Merzlikins had just been hot. But with Columbus playing a back-to-back, the netminders will split the starts Thursday and Friday. Head coach Dean Evason has opted for Tarasov on Thursday, giving the 25-year-old his first start since back on November 16th. He lost that one 5-1 to the Montreal Canadiens and is a four-game losing streak as a starter, with his last win coming October 22nd. Tarasov has made eight starts this season, posting a squirmish 4.01 goals against average and an .861 save percentage.
   
• NEW STREAKS
  The shutout loss put an end to all of the point streaks the team had going, from 16 straight regulation periods with a goal (tying a franchise record) to a nine-game point streak from Kent Johnson and eight straight with points for Zach Werenski. 
  
  Speaking of Werenski, let's see what the newly-named Team USA defenseman can do to continue his record-setting pace: with 26 points through 24 games, he's on pace for 89 points this season. That would break the franchise record of 87, set by Artemi Panarin in 2018-19. 
   
• LINEUP CHANGES & PROJECTIONS
  A shutout loss is bound to change some things up, and they have: Mikael Pyyhtia, recalled from the Cleveland Monsters last week as a result of Yegor Chinakhov's upper-body injury, is in James van Riemsdyk's place in the lineup. Here are the complete projections: