Update — 6:50pm
CBJ v CHI is now @ 1pm on NYE instead of 7pm. Let the party start early!
G 25 Preview:
The Columbus Blue Jackets conclude their back to back contests with a home ice dance with the Buffalo Sabres on Turner Network Television (TNT).
This is the Easter Conference foes’ first duel of the 2023-2023 regular season, lastly facing off in the preseason. Their last regular season meeting was February 20, 2022, with a 7-3 Columbus victory.
Buffalo is a young guns team with middling depth on the bottom units of their roster and goaltending. One of the brightest futures in hockey, their depth is their downfall and why this looking to be an early Bedard Bowl contest.
The Sabres last played on Sunday in a 6-3 win, and had Dylan Cozens take home second star of the week from the NHL.
Columbus lost 4-1 to Pittsburgh last evening. My reaction to that will come tomorrow with this games results. Back to back blogs, it’s easier to do the pregame and roster notes than stack it with postgame, pregame, and game notes.
Since preseason, their biggest transaction has been the waiver claim of Tyson Jost off the wire from the Minnesota Wild. Jost, 24, was a first round pick of the Colorado Avalanche, and is a pending RFA with a cap hit of $2M. The 2016 first round pick has only one goal in 7 games with Buffalo.
Buffalo is without their main offseason acquisitions, goalie Eric Comrie and defender Ilya Lybushukin, due to injury. Vinnie Hinistroza is also day to day for the Sabres.
Columbus isn’t changing the skaters, but is switching Elvis out for Korpi.
Projected Lineups
Buffalo Sabres
Jeff Skinner—Tage Thompson—Alex Tuch
JJ Peterka—Dylan Cozens—Jack Quinn
Casey Mittlestadt—Tyson Jost—Victor Olofsson
Zemgus Girgensons—Peyton Krebs—Kyle Okposo
Mattias Samuelsson—Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power—Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson—Casey Fitzgerald
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Craig Anderson
Scratched — Lawerence Pilut, Rasmus Asplund
Injured — Ilya Lybushukin, Eric Comrie, Vinnie Hinistroza
Columbus Blue Jackets
Johnny Gaudreau—Boone Jenner—Patrik Laine
Kent Johnson—Jack Roslovic—Gustav Nyquist
Kirill Marchenko—Cole Sillinger—Yegor Chinakov
Eric Robinson—Sean Kuraly—Mathieu Olivier
Vladislav Gavrikov—Marcus Bjork
Tim Breni—Erik Gubdranson
Gavin Bayreuther—Andrew Peeke
Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins
Scratched — Jake Christiansen, Liam Foudy, Carson Meyer
Injured — Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Nick Blankenburg, Jake Bean, Adam Boqvist, Justin Danforth
Players to Watch
Buffalo — Tage Thompson — the stud on the Buffalo squad. Leads in goals with 16, and points with 34 in 25 games. His 16 is tied for 6th in league scoring.
Columbus — Tim Breni — debuted last night against the Penguins, is getting his props here as a new NHL pro.
Final Score Prediction
BUF - 2
CBJ - 1
More to come…
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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