The Columbus Blue Jackets travel to Sunrise to battle the defending Eastern Conference Champions, the Florida Panthers in a late Monday night tilt on Bally Sports.

This is a must win game for Columbus with the injuries to the Panthers from last year’s Stanley Cup Final fun as defenders Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad remain out.

Florida is holding onto a 0.500 start while Columbus is slowly falling into the basement of the East.

The Panthers made some harsh moves to reset their depth.

Anthony Duclair is shipped to San Jose for Steve Lorentz.

Rasmus Asplund, Evan Rodrigues, Nikko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Mike Rilley, and were free agent adds.

Colin White, Alex Lyon, and Radko Gudas were free agent departures.

Columbus is making heavy adjustments tonight. Andrew Peeke is back in the lineup tonight, serving for rookie David Jiricek. Yegor Chinakov gets his season debut for Emil Bemstrom, which I don’t know why you’d bench your second leading goal scorer.

Projected Lineups

Florida Panthers

Evan Rodrigues—Alex Barkov—Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaehge—Anton Lundell—Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Lustorainen—Kevin Stenlund—Nick Cousins
Ryan Lomberg—Steve Lorentz—Will Lockwood

Gustav Forsling—Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Nikko Mikkola—Dmitry Kulikov
Josh Mahura—Mike Reilly

Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz

Scratched — Rasmus Asplund, Jonah Gadjovich, Uvis Balinskis
Injured — Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, Brandon Montour


Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau—Boone Jenner—Jack Roslovic
Dmitry Vokornov—Adam Fantilli—Kirill Marchenko
Yegor Chinakov—Cole Sillinger—Alexandre Texier
Justin Danforth—Sean Kuraly—Mathieu Olivier

Zach Werenski—Damon Severson
Ivan Provorov—Andrew Peeke
Jake Bean—Erik Gudbranson

Elvis Merzlikins
Spencer Martin

Scratched — Adam Boqvist, Emil Bemstrom, David Jiricek

Injured — Patrik Laine, Daniil Tarasov

Players to Watch

Florida — Alex Barkov — longest servicing Panthers’ skater. Bonafide Selke contender.

Columbus — Yegor Chinakov — season debut. Promoted for KJ. Must show his worth in another contract year.

Predicted Final Score

FLA - 2

CBJ - 3

OT/SO

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