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CBJ G58 v Minnesota Wild -- Why Now A First Time Foe in February |
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CBJ G58 v Minnesota Wild -- Why Now A First Time Foe in February
The Columbus Blue Jackets return to the rink after a few days of rest to meet the Minnesota Wild for the first time in the 2022-2023 NHL regular season in front of the home faithful at Nationwide Arena tonight. Start time is at 7pm on Bally Sports Networks.
Minnesota is a cap strapped team, dealing with the salaries of legends Ryan O'Reilly, Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter. ROR was part of a recent three team deal, where Minnesota retained his salary and gave up AHL prospect Josh Pilar in exchange for a 2025 4th round draft selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Parise and Suter are both on mega buyouts from Wild general manager Bill Guerin, hurting his team now and next year at worst, and then helping his teams financials overtime.
With being strapped in the summer, there was not much the team could do to help the current makeup of the team. Kevin Fiala was moved out to Los Angeles for future players in a first round pick and prospect Brock Faber. Cam Talbot was flipped to Ottawa for goalie Filip Gustavsson. Veteran defender Dmitry Kulikov was moved to Anahiem for future consideration. Nick Bjugstad signed with Ariozna; Nicolas Deslauriers signed with Philadelphia; and Jordan Benn signed with Toronto.
Minnesota added cheap depth in free agency by acquiring forwards Nic Petan, Steven Fogarty, Brandon Baddock, and Sam Steel; and defenseman Andrej Sustr.
The Wild are holding onto the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference playoff picture as the defending cup champs have gotten healthy and gone onto climb the standings. This is a veteran team with little youth on the roster, and their time to compete is now.
Minny is coming in off a 2-1 win over Los Angeles on Tuesday on home soil, where the Jackets will be on Sunday with the western combatants.
In terms of lineups, the Wild are without the services of Marcus Foligno as he is day to day; Marc-Andre Fleury is in the crease.
For Columbus, Joonas Korpisalo is in the net and Johnny Gaudreau returns after missing the last two games with a lower body injury.
Projected Lineups
Kirill Kaprizov--Ryan Hartman--Mats Zuccarello
Adam Beckman--Joel Eriksson Ek--Matthew Boldy
Jordan Greenway--Frederik Gaudreau--Brandon Duhame
Mason Shaw--Connor Dewar--Ryan Reaves
Jacob Middleton--Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin--Matthew Dumba
Jon Merrill--Alex Gologski
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson
Scratched -- Callen Addison, Sam Steel
Injured -- Marcus Foligno
Columbus Blue Jackets
Johnny Gaudreau--Boone Jenner--Patrik Laine
Kent Johnson--Cole Sillinger--Kirill Marchenko
Liam Foudy--Jack Roslovic--Emil Bemstrom
Eric Robinson--Sean Kuraly--Mathieu Olivier
Tim Breni--Erik Gudbranson
Gavin Bayreuther--Adam Boqvist
Nick Blankenburg--Andrew Peeke
Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins
Scratched -- Vladislav Gavrikov, Lane Pederson
Injured -- Johnny Gaudreau, Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Jake Bean, Gustav Nyquist, Yegor Chinakov, Carson Meyer
Players to Watch
Minnesota -- Kirill Kaprizov -- all world forward talent and leading point scorer
Columbus -- Kirill Marchenko -- quiet in the month of February, time to mess with the stat line before March
Predicted Final Score
MIN - 4
CBJ - 1
More to come....
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • 
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