Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

CBJ P79 @ New York Rangers — Saturday Night Finale

April 8, 2023, 9:49 PM ET [1 Comments]
Zak MacMillan
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Columbus Blue Jackets conclude their Saturday night games for the regular season with a road contest at the Madison Square Garden. The final road game in New York is against the Rangers at 7pm from MSG and Bally Sports Ohio.

The Blue Jackets could even the season series split with a win tonight. A win or point will have them at 30th place in the overall league standings. Columbus has assigned four skaters to the Monsters with AHL Cleveland: forwards Joona Luoto and Josh Dunne; and defenders Marcus Bjork and Billy Sweezey.

This means fours injured players are coming back. It will be a good thing to get injured players under contract back in before the fall, despite it hurting the tanking chances. This is a bad by accident team, considering they added former Flames Johnny Gaudreau and Erik Gudbranson long term this past summer.

New York is a strong and deep team, maybe better on paper than last season, and they were the Eastern Conference final runner up.

Projected Lineups


New York Rangers

Chris Kreider—Mika Zibanejad—Jimmy Vessey
Artemi Panarin—Vincent Throchek—Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexis Lafereniere—Filip Chytil—Kappo Kakko
Barclay Goodrow—Tyler Motte—Ben Harpur

Ryan Lindgren—Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller—Jacob Trouba
Niko Mikkola—Braden Schneider

Jaroslav Halak
Igor Shesterkin

Injured — Patrick Kane

Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau—Boone Jenner—Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson—Jack Roslovic—Patrik Laine
Liam Foudy—Lane Pederson—Emil Bemstorm
Eric Robinson—Sean Kuraly—Mathieu Olivier

Tim Breni—Andrew Peeke
Gavin Bayreuther—Adam Boqvist
Nick Blankenburg—Erik Gudbranson

Michael Hutchinson
Jon Gillies

Injured — Elvis Merzlikins, Jake Bean, Zach Werenski, Justin Danforth

Players to Watch

New York: Vladimir Tarasenko - the Russian rental winger was acquired first before the deadline in a massive blockbuster with the St Louis Blues, representing them as their only all star. He has 19 points in 28 games since joining, 8 goals and 11 assists.

Columbus: Patrik Laine - 52 points in 55 games. Shortened season, but an impressive effort.

Predicted Score

NYR - 5
CBJ - 2
Join the Discussion: » 1 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Zak MacMillan
» Be the GM — Jiricek
» CBJ Hockey Fights Cancer Night Goes High Scoring
» Hit List - Johnson, Lindstrom, Jiricek, Olivier  
» CBJ G17 @ Montreal Canadiens — On the Road Again
» CBJ G16 v Pittsburgh Penguins — Crosby Watch; Letang Illness