As if the #CBJ playing hockey wasn't hard enough, tomorrow we are tasked with ending a 13 game winning streak. Oh boy
— Union and Blue (@UnionAndBlue) February 6, 2015
Okay, so maybe I’m a bit of a pessimist, but it certainly ins’t an easy task tonight, as the Columbus Blue Jackets will play host to the St. Louis Blues tonight, who are in the midst of a 13-game point streak and are coming off a 3-0 victory against Buffalo.
Believe it or not, this is the first meeting of the year between Columbus and St. Louis, and if there’s any silver lining to the Blues’ coming in tonight, its that the Blue Jackets catch them on a back to back. I know, I’m stretching here.
I’m not sure if there’s such a thing as a “fluke,” 13 game streak, but if there is, the Blues aren’t that. They come into tonight ranked third in the league in scoring (3.1 goals per), fourth in goals against (2.3) and have the second best power play in the league (I remember when the Jackets’ power play was awesome). Another silver lining – the Blues have gone to overtime or the shootout five times during this span and lost their only game to Detroit. So, again, not impossible for a Blue Jackets win, but its still a hefty challenge.
Now lets talk about our Blue Jackets. What in the world happened on Tuesday? They couldn’t take advantage of an Arizona team who was closing out an eight game road trip, and proceeded to get blown out. To make matters worse, the Jackets didn’t score with even-strength ice.
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Maybe
, for whatever reason, just wasn’t ready for game action.
Curtis McElhinneywill be between the pipes tonight, and while he isn’t
, he’s been playing very well of late and could instill back some of the lost confidence.
The experiment of Kevin Connauton at forward, while not a complete and total loss (he did at a physical presence to the line) didn’t work out as HCTR and the coaching staff probably would have liked, as he didn’t register a single shot. If lines look tonight like they have in practice over the past couple of days, it appears Connauton will head back to a defensive pairing, as the Blue Jackets are expected to bring Matt Calvert back to the lineup.
Game in and game out we wait for this team to finally get things together and have it finally “click,” and tonight is no different. How great of a confidence booster would it be to snap a streak like the Blues have? Well, we’ll see if just that can happen tonight.
Puck drops at 7:00.