The Columbus Blue Jackets conclude their five game road trip with the start of a home and home series to wrap the month of March. The Jackets next two games conclude their season series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tonight, the Jackets are in Pitt, where they have not won a game in their previous 14 games at PPG Paints.

Pittsburgh sold heavily at the deadline, moving on from Jake Guentzel; Ty Smith; Chad Ruhwedel; and Magnus Hellberg.

They have brought back Michael Bunting, Vasili Ponomarev, Craz Lucius, Ville Koivunen, Ludovic Waeber, one draft pick (27 4 NYR) and three conditional draft picks (24 2 PHI, 24 5 CAR, 27 7 FLA).

The story in Pitt is Crosby and the kids. Sid has 10 points on his last 5 games; and needs 6 more points to get 82 this season. He has never had a below point a game season. If Pitt continues to lose, they keep this year’s pick and next season’s first goes to San Jose.

If Columbus wins they get to 60 points, being the final team in the east to cross the mark.

Tarasov gets the go against Nedjelkovic.

Projected Lineups

Pittsburgh Penguins

Drew O'Connor -- Sidney Crosby -- Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting -- Evgeni Malkin -- Rickard Rakell

Reilly Smith -- Lars Eller -- Valtteri Puustinen

Jonathan Gruden -- Sam Poulin -- Jesse Puljujarvi

Pierre-Olivier Joseph -- Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson -- Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves -- Jack St. Ivany

Alex Nedeljkovic

Tristan Jarry

Scratched: John Ludvig, Emil Bemstrom

Injured: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Jansen Harkins (hand surgery), Noel Acciari (lower body), Jeff Carter (upper body)

Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau -- Boone Jenner -- Dmitri Voronkov

Alexandre Texier -- Cole Sillinger -- Kirill Marchenko

Mikael Pyyhtia -- Brendan Gaunce -- Mathieu Olivier

James Malatesta -- Tyler Angle -- Carson Meyer

Damon Severson -- Zach Werenski

Jake Bean -- Ivan Provorov

Jake Christiansen -- Erik Gudbranson

Daniil Tarasov

Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched: None

Injured: Adam Fantilli (calf), Patrik Laine (upper body), Justin Danforth (concussion), Sean Kuraly (lower body), Yegor Chinakhov (upper body), Adam Boqvist (upper body), Alex Nylander (upper body)



Players to Watch

Pittsburgh — Michael Bunting — Dubas loves his guys. First time seeing him in Pitt.

Columbus — Trey Fix- Wolansky — got his first point of the season in Vegas.

Predicted Final Score

PIT - 5

CBJ - 2

Join the Discussion: » 1 Comments » Post New Comment

» 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

» News and Notes — KJ91, Jiricek Rumors Swirling, New Lines