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Columbus Blue Jackets with a big Metro Matchup against New Jersey

By Lansing Murphy

COLUMBUS, OH - DECEMBER 5: Brandon Dubinsky
COLUMBUS, OH - DECEMBER 5: Brandon Dubinsky /
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Sound familiar? The Columbus Blue Jackets have a big matchup against the New Jersey Devils tonight in Newark.

Payback time for the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight as they travel to New Jersey to play the Devils for the second time in four days. The 4-1 loss to the Devils was arguably the worst game the Jackets have played after winning eight of the last 10 games they had played.

The big Metropolitan Division showdown will be for first place in the division for both teams.The Jackets sit with 35 points and the Devils have 36. A regulation win would give the Jackets the top spot in the division again after dropping their last two games.

Right now there are five teams separated by only one point. That leaves no room for losing streaks which the CBJ will try to avoid tonight.

New Jersey dominated the Jackets last time out on Tuesday in Nationwide Arena. The Devils are only 6-4-2 at home this season though. Significantly worse then their 10-3-2 road record.

Players to Watch

Taylor Hall has 8 points in his last six games including a goal and an assist in the last game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The winger has been playing really good hockey lately along side of rookie center Nico Hischier.

Netminder Cory Schneider will need to come up big if the Devils expect to take back-to-back games against the Blue Jackets. He stopped 41 shots last time but almost none were challenging. Tonight you can expect the Jackets to give him more difficult looks than Tuesday.

All eyes should be on the second and third pair for the CBJ as well. David Savard, Jack Johnson, Gabriel Carlsson and Scott Harrington have been terrible lately. They need to elevate their play to at least acceptable levels if the Jackets are to win tonight. Carlsson and Harrington continue to fill in for Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara.

Related Story: CBJ Missing Best 3rd Pair in Hockey

Prediction

The Jackets wont continue their terrible play that we saw on Tuesday. Before that game, the Jackets were playing good hockey outside of the power play.

Tonight, with Sergei Bobrovsky in net, the Jackets will bounce back and play tough hockey and limit the Devils to just a goal. Cam Atkinson will get off the schnide and score along with Pierre-Luc Dubois.

I see this game ending 3-1 in favor of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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