Working on preview as we speak... putting the breaking stuff first as it came down the wire. May make the contest tonight more intriguing.

Prayers to Boris Sadecky and the EIHL. He past away this afternoon at the age of 24 after collapsing in a game Friday.

Updated 6:25pm

G9– Colorado

The Blue Jackets take to the ice tonight in Denver, Colorado to faceoff with the Avalanche. The Avalanche and Blue Jackets are both currently going through the injury bug at the moment, that seems to be hurting the entire league at the moment.

The Avalanche announced that they will be without defenseman Cale Makar and winger Mikko Rantanen. They also have Valeri Nichuskin, Andre Burkavosky, Devon Toews, Stefan Matteau, and Pavel Francouz.

They are also sprinkled with former Blue Jackets in Ryan Murray and Jack Johnson in the defense, and Stefan Matteau on offense; and just lost Matt Calvert to retirement and TJ Tynan, who joined the LA Kings this summer. They also have the brother of former Blue Jacket and Ohio native Keifer Sherwood, who is in the lineup tonight.

In between the pipes, it will be the battle between Jonas Johansson and Joonas Korpisalo.

As for the lineups, both teams are doing complete juggling due to injuries and illness. The Avs keep losing players after each game; and Domi has COVID. The Jackets are also switching Sillinger and Nyqvist with Roslovic and Hoffman, so Chinakov and Bjorkstrand are getting new linemates. Chinakov is also returning to the lineup, where Bayreuther is making his season debut for the sitting Harrington. Stenlund is the extra forward after being recalled from Cleveland.

Projected Lineups via Daily Faceoff


Colorado Avalanche

Gabriel Landeskog—Nathan MacKinnon—JT Compher
Sampo Ranta—Nazem Kadri—Logan O’Connor
Martin Kaut—Tyson Kost—Darren Helm
Kiefer Sherwood—Jayson Megna—Jacob MacDonald

Bowen Byram—Samuel Girard
Jack Johnson—Erik Johnson
Kurtis MacDermid—Ryan Murray


Jonas Johansson
Darcy Kuemper

Scratched— none
Injured: Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, Devon Toews, Valeri Nichuskin, Stefan Matteau, Andre Burkavosky, Pavel Francouz


Columbus Blue Jackets

Patrik Laine—Boone Jenner—Jakub Voracek
Gustav Nyqvist—Cole Sillinger—Oliver Bjorkstrand
Gregory Hoffman—Jack Roslovic—Yegor Chinakov
Eric Robinson—Sean Kuraly—Alexandre Texier

Zach Werenski—Jake Bean
Vladislav Gavrikov—Gavin Bayreuther
Gabriel Carlsson—Andrew Peeke

Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched—Scott Harrington, Kevin Stenlund
Injured— Max Domi, Adam Boqvist, Emil Bemstrom, Nathan Gerbe, Dean Kukan


Players to Watch


Colorado — Nathan MacKinnon — after missing the star of the season with COVID, the leading point scorer of the Avalanche is on a hit streak with regards to production. With one goal, look for him to try to score more as the season progress and the Olympics near.



Columbus— Oliver Bjorkstrand — the leading point scorer for Columbus is getting a new winger and center combo tonight, he could help set up the offense going forward with Nyqvist.


Keys to Success

Mac Dog— Shutting MacKinnon down will be keep as he does everything for the Avalanche. The top scorer contributes, the team succeeds.

Support Zach— the rest of the Jackets defenders need to help him with time on the ice and with point production to help for short and long term success


Beat the Backup— if teams continue to give the Blue Jackets their backups and third string goaltenders, they are going to be costing themselves and other teams points in the standings.


Thoughts? More to come...


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