Columbus Blue Jackets at Minnesota Wild: Players to watch, keys to victory and prediction
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild aren’t rivals, but there certainly is some form of increased competition between the two 2000 expansion teams. Both undoubtedly want to be the best team to come from that expansion class, so the Blue Jackets will need to fight hard to earn a victory tonight.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have increased their record to 3-1-0 after a victory last night against the New York Rangers. The Minnesota Wild however, haven’t had the same amount of luck. After three games, the Wild are 1-1-1 and struggling to get off to a solid start.
This meeting would’ve marked another Foligno vs. Foligno affair, but Marcus Foligno will be out for a while with a facial injury following a hard hit to the face in a fight. Luckily Columbus Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno is still ready to go for tonight’s game. Marcus isn’t the only player out for the Wild either, all of Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund will also miss Saturday night’s game.
Nevertheless, the Wild will still be a difficult opponent for any team on any given night; they’ve become playoff regulars and that won’t be changing any time soon.
Players to Watch
On the Columbus Blue Jackets side of things, be sure to keep an eye on Artemi Panarin tonight. The old saying goes that goal scorers score in bunches and Panarin scored his first goal as a Blue Jacket last night. I’d expect we’ll see at least one goal from him tonight.
Another Blue Jacket to keep a close eye on tonight would be Sonny Milano. The 21-year-old has four goals in four games, however he was kept off the score sheet against the Rangers. There’s a very good chance he’ll end up back on it again tonight.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will start Sergei Bobrovsky for the second day in a row tonight, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.
For Minnesota, Chris Stewart certainly isn’t a household name, but he’s playing like one. He’s earned five points, four of which have been goals in his first three games of the season. With the amount of injuries the Wild have accrued to this point, he’s getting more ice time and doing whatever he can to make the most of it.
Former Blue Jacket Kyle Quincey will be in the starting lineup for Minnesota tonight as well. Although he only played 20 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets, he was a solid defenseman in the games he did play. He currently has two assists and no goals to start the season.
Keys to Victory
Don’t Be Overconfident
The Columbus Blue Jackets are in a much better position to start the season than the Wild. Less injuries, better record and much better goaltending to this point just to name a few. However, the Blue Jackets can’t let this get to their head. The Wild are a deep team, so if the Jackets get even slightly overconfident then it will backfire in a big way.
Shut Down the Forwards
The Wild don’t have a majority of their star forwards in the lineup tonight, so the Blue Jackets will need to make sure they can shut down their depth forwards. If they can frustrate the Wild forwards enough, the lack of NHL experience for many of the call-ups can lead to mistakes that will help the Blue Jackets tremendously.
Get the Power Play Going
The Columbus Blue Jackets currently have the 25th power play percentage in the league. Luckily for them, they’ll be playing the 27th ranked penalty kill tonight. If the Wild take any penalties tonight, the Jackets have to make them regret it. If the power play doesn’t get going soon, it will make the season much more difficult to sustain.
Prediction
The Columbus Blue Jackets will win tonight in Minnesota, but not without a few scares along the way. Sonny Milano will score the first goal of tonight’s game while Tyler Ennis of the Wild will get his first of the season to even it back up at 1-1.
Following those goals in the first period, there will be a scoreless second period.
Here’s where fatigue will begin to catch up with Bobrovsky, playing six periods over the course of two consecutive nights is tough for any goaltender. Jared Spurgeon of the Wild will give them the lead with a slap shot from the point while Bobrovsky is screened. The Wild will then hold the lead for a while, then Artemi Panarin will gather up a deflected pass right after he gets on the ice from a line change and get himself a break away goal to tie it up.
With time running down in the third, Oliver Bjorkstrand will score his first of the season to give the Jackets a 3-2 lead. With roughly a minute and a half remaining Bruce Boudreau will pull Devan Dubnyk, and Brandon Dubinsky will get his first of the season, scoring on the empty net to make it a 4-2 Columbus win. Sergei Bobrovsky will end up with 31 saves on the night.
Conclusion
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild will put on an insanely entertaining game tonight, so you’ll want to be sure to catch it if you can. Once Minnesota gets healthy, they’ll surely be an even more difficult team to face. The next time these two teams will face off will be on January 30 in Columbus, when both teams will hopefully be healthy enough for us to see who truly is the better team.
With the entire Metro Division set to play tonight, the Blue Jackets won’t be able to make the jump to first in the division unless they win and both Washington and New Jersey fall to the Flyers and Rangers, respectively.
Tonight’s game will start at 8 p.m. ET, and will be available to watch on Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports North and NHL TV. The Blue Jackets next game following tonight’s will be in Winnipeg on Tuesday night.