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BREAKING: BACKS & SHOULDERS; CBJ @ MIN SEASON OPENER! |
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Breaking: Jenner and Voronkov timelines
The Columbus Blue Jackets’ President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Don Waddell has publicly confirmed that both forwards Boone Jenner and Dmitry Voronkov will miss time on the ice.
Voronkov is “not needing surgery” for his back ailment, and is projected to be back around American Thanksgiving.
Jenner had confirmed shoulder surgery in Colorado and is targeting an Outdoor Series return at Buckeye Stadium against Detroit on March 1.
The original top line of the 2022-2023 season is not on the ice for the Blue Jackets in 2024-2025.
The Jackets’ lifer will be sorely missed in the locker room amidst all the tragedy off the ice. This leaves Monahan with the kids and rentals up front.
Fantilli, Sillinger, Chinakov, and Marchenko will be heavily relied on to put up numbers for Columbus in their absences.
CBJ G1 @ Minnesota Wild — Envious Evason
The Columbus Blue Jackets commence the 2024-2025 NHL regular season on the road in their first meeting of two with the Minnesota Wild. Puckdrop is at 8pm from Bally Sports stations in Ohio and Minnesota/Wisconsin. The other meeting is October 19 at Nationwide.
This Minnesota team missed the playoffs for the first time in the decade and canned the now Blue Jackets’ coach in the wintertime. They replaced hime with former Devils’ and Predators’ coach John Hynes.
Minnesota made some tweaks to the depth of the roster hoping that will push them into postseason contention for 2025.
Out
Forward Adam Beckman was traded to New Jersey.
Forward Vinni Letteri was shipped to Boston via trade.
Goalie Hunter Jones signed an AHL deal with the Laval Rocket under former Columbus coach Pascal Vincent.
Forward Jacob Lucchini signed a two year deal with Nashville.
Defender Dakota Mermis signed one year with Toronto.
Forward Mason Shaw crossed the border to sign with divisional rival Winnipeg.
Forward Steven Fogarty and defender Alex Gologski announced their retirements.
Veterans Will Butcher and Zane McIntyre signed in Europe.
Forward Jujhar Kharia signed with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL.
In
Forward Graham Clarke was acquired from New Jersey.
Forward Jakub Lauko was acquired from Boston.
Depth forwards were added to fill out the bottom six and top six for Iowa. Forwards Yakov Trenin; Travis Boyd; Reese Johnson; Ben Jones; and former Blue Jackets’ Brendan Gaunce and Devin Shore inked short term with the Wild.
Defenders Joseph Cecconi and Cameron Crotty signed as AHL depth.
Veteran Troy Grosenick joined as the Iowa starter.
Minnesota will have only two debuts for tomorrow’s home opener — Lauko and Trenin. Declan Chisholm is expected to miss the opener for the Wild due to illness. It is also expected they will have Filip Gustavsson start against the road team.
The visitors are expected two tributes in St. Paul - one to honor the loss of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. The second to honor the former head coach Dean Evason.
Columbus will have a different looking roster than they did on day one of the preseason. Since the weekend of September 21, they have added forwards James van Riemsdyk; Kevin Labanc; and Zach Aston-Reese. Forward Mikael Pyyhita made the team over James Malatesta; and defender Jake Christiansen made the team over Denton Mateychuk.
Evason has gone with sitting Jiricek for having Jack Johnson in the lineup. Jordan Harris is also a spare. Dylan Gambrell is the spare forward. Elvis Merzlikins is expected to go.
Keys to Victory
1. Speed — the young legs of the Jackets need to start the season strong and fast.
2. Hunger — the new signings / one year rentals need to step up.
3. Defend Kirill — the driving force of the Wild offense needs to be shutdown by the defense and goaltending.
Projected Lineups
Minnesota Wild
Kirill Kaprizov—Marco Rossi—Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson—Joel Eriksson Ek—Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno—Ryan Hartman—Yakov Trenin
Jakub Lauko—Marat Khusnutdinov—Frederick Gaudreau
Jonas Brodin—Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton—Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill—Zach Bogosian
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched - Liam Ohgren, Daemon Hunt,
Injured - Declan Chisholm
Columbus Blue Jackets
Yegor Chinakov—Sean Monahan—Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk—Adam Fantilli—Kevin Labanc
Mikkael Pyyhita—Cole Sillinger—Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese—Sean Kuraly—Mathieu Olivier
Zach Werenski—Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen—Damon Severson
Jack Johnson—Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched — Dylan Gambrell, David Jiricek, Jordan Harris
Injured — Boone Jenner, Gavin Brindley, Max McCue, Jordan Dumais, Justin Danforth, Dmitry Voronkov
Players to Watch
Minnesota — Brock Faber — the Calder Trophy finalist is looking to have a strong sophomore season as he already signed his big ticket extension before starting a regular season game for 2024-25. He is quickly becoming the guy in Minny, for both his on ice skills and off ice promotion of his eyewear line.
Columbus — Sean Monahan — CBJ regular season debut. The man that shaped Johnny Hockey. The new number one center and forward. Yes, that last part may change mid season, but he is here now. Anxious to see how this performance goes.
Predicted Final Score
CBJ : 3
MIN : 4
OT/SO
Obituaries
https://www.danjolell.com/obituary/john-michael-gaudreau/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYM9fikwQbNkPlcwmTBaP2udJZw1oMBCmyXjp-GyttBpDhIoWnqY8lxQSQ_aem_zW3gpaArqsSO7D5ZI-Pdog
https://www.danjolell.com/obituary/matthew-ryan-gaudreau/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZ33XNOJYMaSDfXxs3NcH7AY99EWfo9ObneKgMrpds4HwrC3U6Gkj0igr0_aem_qqWUcGWcBFf0sebC0an4RQ
Want to support the Gaudreau family? Here’s several ways how:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-madeline-and-baby-tripp-after-tragedy - Donate to Gaudreau Family Fund. At the time of writing it is at $691K
https://youtu.be/7ax8zyd8nk0?si=xoI63iohdyn2vVvD - View Johnny B Goode Tribute - personal touch. Loved this slowed down clip by the voice of Calgary. Skip to the 25 second mark.
https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/giving - Nationwide Children's Hospital (Johnny's widow, Meredith's workplace) support the children today.
https://foundation.ohiohealth.com/ - Ohio Health Foundation (where donations from a joint mental health charity drive from Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine went) Johnny joined the mission after Laine attended the NHLPA assistance club last season
https://www.childrenshospital.ab.ca/ways-to-help/donate/ - Alberta Children's Hospital for those in need and touched by the loss
https://kidsportcanada.ca/donate/ - Donate to the Youth Sporting Charity in Canada (Johnny Gaudreau donated for money each goal he scored to the Calgary chapter)
https://sniderhockey.org/support-snider/ - the Philadelphia Youth Hockey Charity (where Johnny and Matthew are from and started their youth hockey)
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