After defeating the New York Rangers at Nationwide Arena on Friday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets head to Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota to take on the Minnesota Wild on Saturday evening.
The Columbus Blue Jackets play their second back-to-back exactly a week after their first as they face a banged-up Wild team in Minnesota tonight. Unfortunately, the Jackets split their first back-to-back by beating the Islanders and then losing to the Blackhawks.
Minnesota is 1-1-1 coming into Saturday’s game. The season opener didn’t go very well against Detroit and neither did the following game in Carolina, despite coming away with one point after losing in a shootout. The win against Chicago on Wednesday put the Wild in the win column for the first time this season as Chris Stewart led the way with two goals.
But that Chicago game really messed up the Wild’s lineup. Three Minnesota players left the game with injuries, hampering the Wild severely for future contests.
CBJ-MIN: Players to watch, keys to victory and prediction
Game Information
- Game: Columbus Blue Jackets (3-1-0) vs. Minnesota Wild (1-1-1)
- Time: 8 p.m. ET
- Location: Xcel Enery Center (Saint Paul, MN)
- TV: FOX Sports Ohio, FOX Sports North
- Radio: 102.5 FM (Columbus, OH), KFAN 100.3 (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN)
Injury Report
MINNESOTA WILD
Marcus Foligno is the most notable player injured for Minnesota, at least to Blue Jackets fans as Marcus is CBJ captain Nick Foligno‘s younger brother. But brother Fligs is out for tonight’s family reunion game after getting destroyed by a John Hayden haymaker in a fight during the MIN-CHI game. The punch caused a facial fracture, forcing him to miss at least one week and have surgery on Sunday.
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
While Jenner has been out for a while now with a back injury, Carlsson’s injury occurred in Friday’s game against the Rangers. He went out of the game during the third period with an upper-body injury, one that would force him to miss the rest of the game. Aaron Portzline confirmed earlier today that he would miss the Wild contest.
Wild Lines
Eriksson Ek – Staal – Stewart
Ennis – Koivu – Zucker
Winnik – Cullen – Kunin
Ferraro – Mitchell – Bertschy
Suter – Spurgeon
Brodin – Dumba
Quincey – Olofsson
Dubnyk
Stalock
To compensate for all of the injuries, Minnesota called up four forwards from the AHL. The most notable, Luke Kunin, was selected 15th overall by the Wild in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. The game against Columbus will be his NHL debut after becoming a late cut for the opening night roster.
Blue Jackets Lines
Panarin – Wennberg – Atkinson
Milano – Foligno – Bjorkstrand
Calvert – Dubinsky – Anderson
Dubois – Sedlak – Dalpe
Werenski – Jones
Johnson – Savard
Murray – Harrington
Bobrovsky
Korpisalo
Scott Harrington will make his season debut tonight, filling in for Gabriel Carlsson. Harrington played 22 regular season and 3 playoff games last season for Columbus, recording a +3 plus-minus in total.
Next: Artemi Panarin scores first goal for CBJ
With both Sergei Bobrovsky and Devan Dubnyk starting in the nets tonight, expect a goaltender affair once again. Bob may be a little worse than he was last night due to playing both games of the back-to-back, but if he’s similar to the Bobrovsky we’ve seen so far this season, it very may well be a CBJ win once again.
Expect ‘The X’ in Minnesota to be rocking as the Wild take the ice at their home arena for the first time this season.