Game Day #43: Jet Greaves Called Up To Start, Cole Sillinger Back In Lineup Saturday Night When Blue Jackets Face Blues In St. Louis

The Columbus Blue Jackets are turning to Jet Greaves in net Saturday night for a big battle against the St. Louis Blues.

This will be the fifth start of the season for Greaves, who went 1-1-2 in a series of four starts in December. His last game with Columbus came December 23rd, when the Blue Jackets defeated the Montreal Canadiens. He was then optioned back to the (AHL) Cleveland Monsters, where he's allowed just four goals in his last four starts.

Greaves gets the start for Elvis Merzlikins, who had made five straight starts for the Blue Jackets. In those five games — four of which were wins — he faced 148 shots and took part in two overtime games, so the rest is well-deserved.

The start for Greaves also comes in an important stretch of games for the Blue Jackets. Columbus maintains the second wild card spot as of Saturday afternoon in a jumbled-up mess of an Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Here's what else to know when the variations of Blue meet in the Saint Lou, which you can watch either on the FanDuel Sports Network or — for the first time — on ABC6 in Columbus:

• RE: BLUES
  In last week's game, the Blue Jackets faced Joel Hofer. This week, they get Jordan Binnington. The two are nearly identical in the big two goalie stats: 2.87 (Binnington) to 2.86 (Hofer) in goals against average and .896 (Binnington) vs .902 (Hofer) in save percentage. Still, Binnington is the more proven of the two and is the Blues top goaltender. ... In the two games since last weekend's defeat in Columbus, the Blues have played twice. They lost 6-4 Tuesday night in Minnesota before rebounding at home against Anaheim on Thursday night, winning 6-2. ... Former Blue Jacket Alexandre Texier will be a healthy scratch again, so the only way he'll get to play against his former club this season is, well, if the two meet in the Stanley Cup Finals. 
   
• FANTASTIC FANTILLI
  In his first full game replacing the injured Sean Monahan, Adam Fantilli was sharp on the top line between Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko. Each had a point, and all three had a plus/minus of +2 for the game. At 18:41, Fantilli also led all forwards in ice time. The exact time that Monahan will miss is unknown, but it looks to be at least a couple of weeks and that gives Fantilli his best chance yet to become the superstar center the club saw when drafting him last summer.
   
• LDBB
  Luca Del Bel Belluz scored in his NHL debut in the 2023-24 season finale, then scored again in his first game of this season as part of the Thursday win over the Seattle Kraken. It's looking like he'll be up for at least the duration that Monahan is out with a wrist injury, and if he continues to play at the rate he is, the Blue Jackets may have a hard time sending the AHL's leading scorer (at the time of his promotion to Columbus) back to Cleveland.
   
• LINEUPS & PROJECTIONS
  Cole Sillinger is back from his illness, so he'll take the place of his brother, Owen Sillinger. Owen was optioned back to Cleveland on Friday. Also in Cleveland is Daniil Tarasov, so Merzlikins will serve as the back-up to Greaves. Here are the complete projections: