Game Day #70: Monahan, Gudbranson Return To Lineup As Blue Jackets Desperately Seek To End Losing Streak

The Columbus Blue Jackets lineup got a nice boost Monday in advance of their battle against the New York Islanders. 

The club activated center Sean Monahan and defenseman Erik Gudbranson from Injured Reserve, with both players set to return for a key game in the Eastern Conference playoff picture against the Isles.

Gudbranson has missed nearly the entire season, while Monahan has been sidelined since the first week of January. The two returning veterans will look to play their part in ending a six-game losing streak by the Blue Jackets that has watched the club tumble from in a playoff spot by multiple points to critically needing points to not fall completely out of the picture.

The Blue Jackets trail the Islanders by two points in the wild card race and are four points out of the last playoff spot as of Monday afternoon. A win would stabilize the situation, certainly, but a loss — especially in regulation — and a path to the postseason could start to get tricky quick for Columbus.

Monahan, a catalyst on the power play and at the faceoff dot, will be on the top line between Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko. Meanwhile, Gudbranson will be paired up defensively with rookie Denton Mateychuk. That pairing will allow head coach Dean Evason to put Ivan Provorov back on the left side, where he'll be in the middle pairing with Damon Severson.

Here's what else to know when the Blue Jackets face the blue and orange Monday night:

• RE: ISLES
  Ilya Sorokin starts for the Islanders, his second start of the season against Columbus. He stopped 25 of 26 shots in a 3-1 win over the Blue Jackets in late January. Sorokin has been consistently good-but-not-great lately, allowing at least two but not more than three goals in each of his last eight starts. ... New York has four 20 goal scorers on the team this year — but not a single player with 30 assists or with 50 points. ... Columbus' power play has struggled as of late, but the Islanders haven't fared much better: they are 2-for-22 in their last seven games, with both goals coming in the same game, an overtime win last week against Montreal. For the season, the Isles have the league's worst power play at 12.4%.
   
• 0-FOR-ELMONT
  UBS Arena opened in 2021, and the Blue Jackets luck there has been... not good. Columbus is 0-5-1 in Elmont, located on the west side of Long Island. Tonight would be a good time to change that first number, of course.
   
• POWER PLAY TURNAROUND?
  In the 28 games Monahan was away from the team, the Blue Jackets power play converted just four times in 51 chances. With Monahan, they were 26-for-109. That's 23.9% vs 7.9%. With Columbus 0-for-21 in their last nine games on the man-advantage, Monahan's return could be a big boost for the Blue Jackets' special teams.
   
• LINEUPS CHANGES & PROJECTIONS:
  With Monahan and Gudbranson back in the lineup, it'll be Yegor Chinakhov and Jack Johnson who sit as healthy scratches. Here are the complete lineup projections: