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CBJ G78 v Buffalo Sabres — Last Chance |
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Pre-Game Note
Minnesota Wild senior advisor to the general manager, and close friend to former Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen — Ray Shero — tragically passsed away from illness at the age of 62.
While growing up and rooting against the Penguins, my memories of Shero are best from the run in 2009, with the build of Fleury; Crosby; Malkin; and Staal. The veteran presence of Bill Guerin and Miro Satan also helped with the young dark horses of Kris Letang and Max Talbot.
His recent rebuild of the Devils and adding Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt through the draft is also a very underrated success story.
Shero will be known as a Cup winner; family man; and great hockey guy.
Pregame 78
The Columbus Blue Jackets continue to claw for their playoff hopes as they conclude their 2024-2025 regular season series with the Buffalo Sabres. The Blue Jackets (35-33-9) can be eliminated from playoff contention with a regulation loss to the Sabres. They're eight points behind the Canadiens with five games to play. Buffalo was eliminated from contention Tuesday.
MILITARY APPRECIATION TICKET PACKAGE
THURSDAY | APRIL 10 | 7:00 PM VS. BUFFALO SABRES
Military Appreciation Ticket Packages include your game ticket and exclusive jersey. The Military Appreciation jersey is ONLY available with purchase of this special ticket package.
HOCKEY ANALYTICS CONFERENCE
THURSDAY | APRIL 10 | 7 PM VS. BUFFALO SABRES
Whether you are just beginning to learn about analytics, are a seasoned expert, or fall anywhere in between, join the Blue Jackets for an event full of learning, networking, and hockey.
Columbus and Buffalo have split their matchups thus far at one a piece, with Jackets outscoring the Sabres 8-7.
Buffalo is missing the playoffs for the 14th straight season. In that time period, I lived in Columbus and did two years of high school while starting as a free blogger for Hockeybuzz when Todd Cordell ran the show; been to the All Star game weekend in Ohio and got an autograph from Chris Clark; moved back to PA and graduated college from Penn State with a full time career since.
Buffalo and the Pegula family are struggling with this mediocrity of a young organization with a lacking of winning veteran presence. The prospect pool has been loaded of players they have traded away and has had success elsewhere, topping off with Ryan O’Reilly; Sam Reinhart; and Jack Eichel as examples.
While the big money players in Rasmus Dahlin, Alex Tuch, and Tage Thompson have proven to be successful in New York, there still has not been a postseason appearance yet for this young hopeful franchise.
Columbus could be looking at missing their fifth straight season in the playoffs, the first under Don Waddell and Dean Evason. While the Jackets held a playoff spot for a portion of late February and early March, the primary offense dried up; the secondary offense was non-existent; and goaltending has continued to be the Achilles heel for the Blues Jackets.
While this has been one of the best seasons for Elvis Merzlikins, having below 0.900 save percentages does not equate to a fullly successful regular season. Daniil Tarasov has been in and out with the injury bug, he has yet to have a winning record in the show. Jet Greaves has had the best percentage but is the top guy in Cleveland.
While Zach Werenski will likely be a finalist for the Norris Trophy, the bigger story in Columbus is that Sean Monahan has been nominated for the Masterton Trophy and could be one of the finalists for that award.
Monahan missed games this season with a wrist injury that cost him the Stadium Series; however, the bigger story for him and the hardware is the tragedy of Johnny Hockey.
Projected Lineups
Buffalo Sabres
Zach Benson -- Jiri Kulich -- Tage Thompson
JJ Peterka -- Ryan McLeod -- Jack Quinn
Jason Zucker -- Peyton Krebs -- Alex Tuch
Beck Malenstyn -- Noah Ostlund -- Sam Lafferty
Mattias Samuelsson -- Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power -- Jacob Bernard-Docker
Bowen Byram -- Connor Clifton
James Reimer
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Scratched: Jacob Bryson
Injured: Tyson Kozak (hip strain), Jordan Greenway (lower body), Josh Norris (middle body)
Columbus Blue Jackets
Boone Jenner -- Sean Monahan -- Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk -- Adam Fantilli -- Kent Johnson
Dmitri Voronkov -- Cole Sillinger -- Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese -- Sean Kuraly -- Justin Danforth
Zach Werenski -- Dante Fabbro
Denton Mateychuk -- Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen -- Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Jordan Harris, Christian Fischer, Jack Williams, Damon Severson, Luke Kunin, Yegor Chinakhov, Jack Johnson
Injured: Kevin Labanc, Owen Sillinger
Players to Watch
BUF — Tage Thompson — 8 goals in his last 5 games
CBJ — Sean Monahan — Masterton nominee; 6 points in last 5 games
Predicted Final Score
BUF — 5
CBJ — 6
Overtime
Gambling Odds
Columbus is the surprise favorite according to NHL Draft Kings at a -142; Buffalo is a +120.
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Closing Note
Best of luck to Penn State in the Frozen Four from St. Louis. My bachelor’s degree from 2021 is from the University. Finally seeing hockey history in Happy Valley headlined by the success of Adam Fink (NSH) will be so fun to watch. One of my closest friends’ younger brother is on the equipment staff and their father drove out to watch the games up close. We Are.
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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