Blue skies on a Saturday as the Blue Jackets travel west in a back to back with a battle with the Blue notes in the St Louis Blues in St Louis arena tonight. This is the Union Blue’s first back to back of the season with travel from one city to another.
The Jackets are riding a three game winning streak at the moment, outscoring their opponents 14-6. In the stretch, Elvis Merzlikins is keeping his Veznia talk going, only allowing 2 goals on 77 shots faced in the last 120 minutes of play. That’s a 0.974 save percentage.
The Blues come into tonight off an overtime loss to the struggling Chicago Blackhawks, and also dropping their other previous game to the red hot Detroit Red Wings. Their brightest spot this week has been one of their many offseason adds: former NY Rangers winger Pavel Buchnevich. The Russian power forward has had two goals and an assist in their losses, but has helped in their surprising start to the season after a difficult 2021 season in the Pacific Division.
In the loss yesterday, the Blues lost one of their leading points scorer to injury. David Perron has 18 points in 19 games with St. Louis this season, and could be a game time decision for the upcoming contest at home. The only lineup change for the Blues from yesterday is the goalie swap for Villie Husso tonight.
Columbus will also maintain the same lineup with their switch being to Korpi instead of Merzi.
Projected Lineups
St. Louis Blues
Brandon Saad— Ryan O’Reilly—David Perron
Ivan Barbashev—Robert Thomas—Vladimir Tarasenko
Jordan Kyrou—Brayden Schenn—Pavel Buchnevich
Robert Bortuzzo—Tyler Bozak—Oskar Sundqvist
Torey Krug—Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella—Colton Parayko
Niko Mikkola—Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington
Ville Husso
Scratched— Klim Kostin, Jake Walman
Injured— James Neal
Columbus Blue Jackets
Gustav Nyquist—Boone Jenner—Oliver Bjorkstrand
Yegor Chinakov—Cole Sillinger—Jakub Voracek
Gregory Hoffman—Jack Roslovic—Max Domi
Eric Robinson— Sean Kuraly—Alexandre Texier
Zach Werenski—Jake Bean
Vladislav Gavrikov—Andrew Peeke
Gavin Bayreuther—Adam Boqvist
Elvis Merzlikins
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched— Justin Danforth, Gabriel Carlsson, Scott Harrington
Injured— Patrik Laine, Dean Kukan, Emil Bemstrom, Nate Gerbe
Players to Watch
St. Louis— Pavel Buchnevich— the ex-Rangers forward has 13 points in 18 games in his first season as a member of Blues. Buchnevich also extends the trade tree from the Rick Nash trade as he was the draft selection that was dealt in that summer 2012 blockbuster.
Columbus— Adam Boqvist— since return from injury and being a healthy scratch, the kid has been getting it together in the production column for himself and the team. He has seen a lot of St. Louis, considering he was a former top draft choice of the Chicago Blackhawks. In 3 games against the former division rival, he was pointless with a +1 rating. With two points in his last two games, he’ll look to add to his production.
Keys to Victory
Brandon Sad. Don’t get Brandon Happy. The top line of Blues has goal scoring and strong defensive capabilities with a yearly Selke candidate in Ryan O’Reilly, former Jacket Brandon Saad, and David Perron as a game time decision.
Speed over Heavy. The Blues are a big and physical team, which will help Columbus’ youth get past the size of the team in a one game matchup or a two game season series. Different story in postseason, but the Jackets have got to use their speed in all three zones.
Russian Roulette. The Blues have three Russian talents between Tarasenko, Buchnevich, and Barbashev that can do damage in the middle six of their offense. Even though Tarasenko still wants out of St Louis, his scoring tough has come back after his injury woes since winning the Stanley Cup.
Final Prediction
CBJ 2, STL 1 OT/SO from Jakub Voracek beating Husso in the third round.
Thoughts?
More to come...
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