Arizona State University - fear the fork!

The Columbus Blue Jackets conclude their Wild West weekend with a battle at the Arizona State University campus in a crash collision course with the Arizona Coyotes this evening.

The Coyotes are Blue Jackets are both near the bottom of the league with resting players for trade protection -- defenders Jacob Chychrun and Vladislav Gavrikov.

Previously, the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Blue Jackets in the inaugural meeting, 6-3.

The Coyotes were in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Los Angeles Kings last night, where the Jackets stunned the Stars 4-1.

Arizona is selling the farm, with rentals including Nick Ritchie, Nick Bjugstad, and Shayne Gostisbehere being available for trade, along with Chychrun and goalie Karel Vejmelka.

Columbus is riding wins against the West's best in Dallas and Winnipeg, without top scorer Johnny Gaudreau.

Expect Elvis Merzlikins v Connor Ingram.


Projected Lineups


Arizona Coyotes

Clayton Keller—Barrett Hayton—Nick Schmaltz
Mattias Maccelli—Nick Bjugstad—Lawson Crouse
Nick Ritchie—Travis Boyd—Christian Fischer
Liam O’Brien—Jack McBain—Zach Kassian

Jusso Valimaki—Troy Stecher
Patrick Nemeth—Josh Brown
Janis Moser—Victor Soderstrom

Connor Ingram
Karel Vejmelka

Scratched — Jacob Chychrun

Injured — Shayne Gostisbehere, Andrew Ladd

Columbus Blue Jackets

Patrik Laine--Boone Jenner--Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson--Cole Sillinger--Lane Pederson
Liam Foudy--Jack Roslovic--Emil Bemstrom
Eric Robinson--Sean Kuraly--Mathieu Olivier

Tim Breni--Erik Gudbranson
Gavin Bayreuther--Adam Boqvist
Nick Blankenburg--Andrew Peeke

Elvis Merzlikins
Joonas Korpisalo

Scratched -- Vladislav Gavrikov
Injured -- Johnny Gaudreau, Zach Werenski, Jakub Vorcaek, Jake Bean, Gustav Nyquist, Yegor Chinakov, Justin Danforth, Carson Meyer

Players to Watch

Arizona -- Clayton Keller -- the teams leading point scorer and All Star, he is showing he is the one shining star of their future core.


Columbus -- Lane Pederson -- the former Arizona Coyotes' draft pick. Former player v former team. Easy pick. Also only second game as a member of the Blue Jackets.


Predicted Final Score

ARI - 2
CBJ - 3

Thoughts? More to come...

Watch in the NHL Network

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