The Columbus Blue Jackets complete the halfway mark of the season after tonight with a battle against the Carolina Hurricanes in their final meeting of the season.

Carolina and Columbus are currently split in their season series. The Hurricanes won the first game of the regular season in Raleigh; the Blue Jackets won in their barn five days ago.

The series split 7-4. The shootout goal doesn't count, else it be 7-5.

Carolina is coming into tonight on a four game losing streak, despite remaining atop of the division lead in the standings.

The Hurricanes are reportedly expecting the return of goaltender Frederik Andersen this evening. A win for the team, and the next Carolina win would be Rod Brind'Amour's 200th career NHL win, and would make him the third fastest in league history at 330 games coached. Coach Rod the Bod will also be at the All Star game with Andrei Svechinkov on his team alongside Johnny Gaudreau.

Gaudreau became a father at the beginning of the season, and Joonas Korpisalo welcomed his first kid alongside his wife. Congratulations Korpi! He is also starting tonight.

More roster updates have come to the roster, as Carson Meyer has been placed on the IR; Jet Greaves has been assigned to the Monsters (AHL); and Trey Fix-Wolansky has been recalled from Cleveland. Vladislav Gavrikov and Daniil Tarasov are both back in the lineup. Marcus Bjork and Elvis Merzlikins are scratched.

Meyer sustained an oblique strain against Tampa Bay and is out the next 6-8 weeks. This adds to ever expanding injury list storyline for the Blue Jackets.

Despite time with the main roster, TFW remains in the top 10 of NHL point scoring. Jiricek was named to the AHL All Star roster to represent the Columbus AHL team. Major congratulations to the young stud!

Other former CBJ players headed to the AHL All Star game are TJ Tynan and Riley Nash.

The Jackets with a win could jump the Ducks as they would have more wins, even though they have the same number of points.

Projected Lineups

Carolina Hurricanes

Max Paccioretty—Sebastian Aho—Seth Jarvis
Andrei Svechinkov—Paul Stastny—Martin Necas
Teuvo Terrivanen—Jesperi Kotkniemi—Derek Stepan
Jordan Martinook—Jordan Staal—Jesper Fast

Jacob Slavin—Brent Burns
Brady Skeji—Brett Pesce
Calvin de Haan—Jalen Chatfield

Antti Raanta
Pytor Kochetkov

Scratched — Dylan Coghlan, Frederik Andersen

Injured — Ondrej Kase, Stefan Nosen


Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau--Kent Johnson--Emil Bemstrom
Gustav Nyquist--Jack Roslovic--Patrik Laine
Trey Fix-Wolansky--Cole Sillinger--Kirill Marchenko
Liam Foudy--Sean Kuraly--Mathieu Olivier

Vladislav Gavrikov--Andrew Peeke
Tim Breni--Erik Gubdranson
Gavin Bayreuther--Adam Boqvist

Joonas Korpisalo
Daniil Tarasov

Scratched -- Marcus Bjork, Elvis Merzlikins

Injured -- Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Jake Bean, Nick Blankenburg, Yegor Chinakov, Justin Danforth, Carson Meyer, Eric Robinson

Players to Watch

Carolina -- Sebastian Aho — 5 points in his last 5 games. Aho has 33 points in 34 games this season, could be a point per game by season ends as he remains the healthy. Clutch player.

Columbus -- Korpi — New Dad Energy. Too easy of a pick.

Projected Final Score

CAR - 2
CBJ - 3
OT

Thoughts? More to come....

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