The Columbus Blue Jackets return to home ice for a Saturday night tilt with the second hottest team in the league - the Seattle Kraken. This is their first meeting of two on the season. They play each other twice in 15 days - the 13th and 28th. Quick timeframe for the young franchises.

This is the one hottest teams in the new year with the Kraken, where they have won their last eight in a row, and are one a 10 game point streak. Seattle has been riding the hot hand of potential All Star goaltender Joey D’Accord. He had a dominant last season with the Coachella Valery Firebirds, outplaying his way past both of expensive Kraken signed goaltenders.

Seattle had a sorta busy summer.

Out

Jesper Froden headed to Europe.

Brogan Rafferty and Daniel Sprong signed with Detroit.

Morgan Geekie has become an important player with Boston.

Alexandre True moved to Florida.

Ryan Donato signed short term with Chicago.

Carson Soucy joined the divisional rivals in the dominant Vancouver Canucks.

Martin Jones is now the starting goaltender with Toronto.

In

Former Oilers Devin Shore and Kailer Yamamoto signed as free agents.

Marian Stedunic, Jimmy Schudt, who Mitch Renike, and Connor Carrick are now Firebirds.

Pierre-Edoued Bellemare and Brian Dummolin signed with the Kraken depth.

Seattle is riding the hot hand with Joey D’Accord against the youngest Daniil Tarasov, the new full time starter.

Columbus is moving in from Elvis and has made it public they are on the move. They also put David Jiricek in the press box as a health bomb. Pascal Vincent has reset the full roster lineup from the top down, every line and defensive pair.

Projected Lineups

Seattle Kraken

Tomas Tatar—Matty Beniers—Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz—Alex Wennberg—Branden Tanev
Eeli Tolvanen—Yanni Gourde—Oliver Bjorkstrand
Tye Kartye—Jared McCann—Andre Burkavosky

Vince Dunn—Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleskiak—Will Borgen
Brian Dummolin—Justin Schultz

Jared D’Accord
Chris Dreidger

Injured — Phillip Grubauer, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare


Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau—Cole Sillinger—Yegor Chinakov
Kent Johnson—Adam Fantilli—Jack Roslovic
Alexandre Texier—Dmitry Voronkov—Kirill Marchenko
Brendan Gaunce—Justin Danforth—Emil Bemstrom

Damon Severson—Adam Boqvist
Ivan Provorov—Andre Peeke
Jake Bean—Erik Gudbranson

Daniil Tarasov
Spencer Martin

Scratched — Mathieu Olivier, Elvis Merzlikins, David Jiricek

Injured — Nick Blankenburg, Zach Werenski, Boone Jenner, Patrik Laine, Sean Kuraly


Players to Watch

Seattle — Oliver Bjorkstrand — the former Blue Jackets forward is now an All Star and will join the Columbus captain in Toronto. Highest scoring forward on the team with 31 points in 41 games. Is the reason Damon Severson is with the Jackets.

Columbus — Cole Sillinger — had a hat-trick earlier in the month, has 4 points in last 5 games.

Predicting Final Score

SEA - 4

CBJ - 3

More to come…

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