In their first game back in North America after two games in Tampere, Finland, the Columbus Blue Jackets return to home ice to do battle with John Tortorella and the Philadelphia Flyers this upcoming evening.

It has been a downward spiral in Philadelphia, but the ship has been corrected by Torts and his culture change into the locker room.

With that, Chuck Fletcher has made plenty of changes to the roster in the summer out of desperation to save his job from Comcast’s ownership.

Fletcher went out and acquired hometown boy Anthony DeAngelo from the Carolina Hurricanes for 3 draft picks, covering 3 different drafts. The money bag was also thrown at Nicolas Deslauriers. Defenseman Justin Braun was also brought back after being traded at the deadline to the New York Rangers.

The cupboard for the Leigh Valley Phantoms has also been covered, with the signings of forwards Adam Brooks and Cooper Marody; defenseman Louis Belpedio; and goaltender Troy Grosenick.

Since the regular season, the Flyers have also made two waiver claims: center Lukas Sedlak and winger Kiefer Bellows.

Sedlak is back in North America after a multi season hiatus overseas, last being with Columbus.

This is the first battle of Larsen v Tortorella, it’ll be intriguing to see how this teacher student matchup goes down for the staff and the players in the room. Is it motivation? Is it pressure? Is it going to be violent, given the Flyers’ roster and animosity for failing to get Gaudreau?

In this evenings matchup, it has been reported by Jeff Svoboda of NHL.com that Kent Johnson and Sean Kuraly are both day to day. Aaron Portzline of the Athletic has reported that Jakub Voracek is day to day, with an unknown return.


Projected Lineups


Philadelphia Flyers

Owen Tippett—Kevin Hayes—Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee—Scott Laughton—Wade Allison
Noah Cates—Lukas Sedlak—Zach MacEwen
Nicolas Deslauriers—Morgan Frost—Tanner Laczynski

Ivan Provorov—Anthony DeAngelo
Travis Sanheim—Justin Braun
Nick Seeler—Rasmus Ristalonen

Carter Hart
Felix Sandstrom

Scratched — Kiefer Bellows, Yegor Zamula
Injured — Ryan Ellis, Sean Couturier, Bobby Brink, Patrick Brown, James van Reimsdyk, Cam Atkinson

Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau—Boone Jenner—Patrik Laine
Gustav Nyquist—Jack Roslovic—Emil Bemstrom
Eric Robinson—Cole Sillinger—Yegor Chinakov
Liam Foudy—Brendan Gaunce—Mathieu Oliver

Zach Werenski—Nick Blankenburg
Vladislav Gavrikov—Andrew Peeke
Jake Bean—Erik Gudbranson

Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched — Gavin Bayreuther
Injured — Jakub Voracek, Joona Luoto, Justin Danforth, Kent Johnson, Sean Kuraly, Adam Boqvist


Player to Watch

Philadelphia — Lukas Sedlak — everything from the preview is self explanatory regarding the former Columbus forward. It’s also the first of four meetings, their stars are mostly injured or are a success right now, and has 3 points in 8 games since joining the Flyers off the waiver wire.

Columbus — Emil Bemstrom — the current leading scorer of the Cleveland Monsters makes his season debut against Philadelphia and Torts on the second line. Call for desperation on the management brass to have him jump into the top 6 pressure, but we will see where it goes for Bemstrom. The Swede has 36 points in 117 career NHL games.


Prediction

I see a 4-3 OT/SO for Columbus tonight. The Flyers won’t go down easy but the Torts thing may motivate the Jackets more. Win number 4.


More to come …

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