The Columbus Blue Jackets continue their road trip through Florida against the loaded Florida Panthers. The Cats beefed up with the recent acquisitions of Seth Jones on defense; Vitek Vanacek in the goaltending crease; and Nico Sturm up front.

Florida and Columbus last met on opening night in an evening that honored Johnny Gaudreau. The Panthers took the first matchup by the score of 4-3 in regulation.

The Panthers are poised to repeat the Stanley Cup despite the devastating injury that occurred to Gaudreau’s former teammate and Zach Werenski’s Four Nations buddy Matthew Tkachuk.

Florida has been an elite team all season stat wise and are built through depth and toughness on all four lines, and elite goaltending. Former Blue Jackets Seth Jones and Sergei Bobrovsky are reunited in Sunrise, with Gregory Campbell and Bill Zito in the press box.

Vanacek will back up Bobrovsky after being acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday. Goalie Chris Driedger, who backed up Bobrovsky in a 2-1 win against the Lightning on Monday, was returned to Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Thursday.

Yegor Chinakhov, who returned for a 6-2 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday after being out since Nov. 27 with an upper-body injury, remains in the lineup but will begin the game on the fourth line Thursday; coach Dean Evason saying the move was made to get Chinakhov more acclimated to playing again.

Projected Lineups

Florida Panthers

Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich -- Sam Bennett -- Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer -- Tomas Nosek -- Jonah Gadjovich

Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt -- Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Uvis Balinskis

Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (lower body)


Columbus Blue Jackets

Dmitri Voronkov -- Adam Fantilli -- Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk -- Boone Jenner -- Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese -- Justin Danforth -- Mathieu Olivier
Joseph LaBate -- Sean Kuraly -- Yegor Chinakhov

Zach Werenski -- Dante Fabbro
Denton Mateychuk -- Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen -- Damon Severson

Elvis Merzlikins
Daniil Tarasov

Scratched: Jack Johnson, Jordan Harris, Mikael Pyythia

Injured: Cole Sillinger (upper body), Erik Gudbranson (upper body), Sean Monahan (wrist)



Players to Watch

Florida — Seth Jones — new to the club

Columbus — Kent Johnson — rid the streak

Predicted Final Score

FLA — 4

CBJ — 3

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Rumor Update

Atkinson reunion? Oilers?

Donato is linked with Tanev too!

Provorov is off the board!

Jackets buying! Preference is term. Commit to the club; and they want players locked in with multi-year deals that want to win.

After Ek promoted my post to the top slot over the weekend, this will be posted daily with my Twitter promotion of who may join and depart Columbus

https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/Zac-MacMillan-with-Rumors-from-around-the-NHL-media-this-morning/1/127467

Rumor Mill

F Brock Boeser (VAN)

CBJ, MIN

F Elias Pettersson (VAN)

BUF, CAR, DET, MIN, DAL, OTT, CBJ, BOS

F Brock Nelson (NYI)

MIN, DAL, BOS, TOR, COL, WPG, CBJ, WSH,

F Brandon Tanev (SEA)

TOR, WSH, NYR, VGK, OTT, CBJ,

F Dylan Cozens (BUF)

Per Josh Erickson of ProHockeyRumors and Spencer Lazary of THN — CBJ

CGY, PHI, VAN, DET, TOR, NSH

F Rickard Rakkell (PIT)

CBJ

G James Reimer (BUF)

CBJ

G Vitek Vanecek (SJS)

CBJ

D Noah Dobson (NYI)

Per Spencer Lazar THN (CBJ)

DET, MTL, VAN, STL

F Casey Mittlestadt (COL)

Per Jason Newland THN - CBJ

BOS, CGY, WPG

F Oliver Bjorkstrand (SEA)

Per Spencer Lazar THN (CBJ)

UTH, VAN, NJD

D Jamie Oleskiak (SEA)

Per NHL Trade Talk Trade Board

CBJ, DAL, TOR

F Nick Robertson (TOR)

CBJ, SEA, UTH

Leaving Columbus?

2025 1 st Rd (BOTH)

Only for player with term

https://www.nhl.com/news/columbus-blue-jackets-tampa-bay-lightning-game-recap-march-4