Columbus Blue Jackets Alexander Wennberg Makes Trip to Montreal
The Columbus Blue Jackets are close to getting back to their opening day roster with the return of Alexander Wennberg right around the corner.
The instability down the center of the ice for the Columbus Blue Jackets should have sent them into a scramble. The Jackets have persisted though and still find themselves in atop the Metro Division.
The loss of Lukas Sedlak and Alexander Wennberg hasn’t hurt the team as much as loosing two centers normally hurts an NHL team. Lukas returned against Calgary and it seems as though Wennberg isn’t too far behind him.
Wennberg is traveling with the team to Montreal as the CBJ take on the Canadiens. Wennberg has missed four games thus far. Although it is unlikely he will play tonight, the travel is a hopeful sign.
Columbus Blue Jackets
The Jackets could have their number one center return Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Although he hasn’t wowed with his play this year, we all know Wennberg can deliver top line center minutes.
Slotting the Centers with Wennberg Return
Since the return of Sedlak the centers have been Brandon Dubinsky, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nick Foligno and the aforementioned Sedlak. Sedlak has done well and has stabalized the fourth line. Dubinsky looks right at home with Jenner and Atkinson on his wings.
The surprise has been how well Pierre-Luc has played with Artemi Panarin and Josh Anderson. The line has produced and the combination has been one of the most welcome surprises of the season.
With that said I imagine Nick Foligno is bumped back to the wing and the shuffle of wingers continues around Wennberg until players start clicking. With two lines set it leaves several wingers as candidates to play along side Sedlak and Wennberg.
My guess would be tough that Foligno will play with Wennberg and Matt Calvert will play with Sedlak when Calvert returns.That leaves Sonny Milano, Tyler Motte, Markus Hannikainen, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Jordan Schroeder to fight for the final two wing spots left.
There are plenty of good options for Torts to pick from and plenty of time to do so. With the amount of points the Jackets have built up and the play of Bob the team has some time to continue to get healthy and try different combinations out.