Columbus Blue Jackets Activate Markus Nutivaara off of IR
The Columbus Blue Jackets blue line continues to add pieces. This time, in the form of Markus Nutivaara.
Additions at the trade deadline and the improving health of players has bolstered the Columbus Blue Jackets defense corps over the last few weeks. The team announced that Markus Nutivaara has been activated and will soon return to the lineup.
The 23-year-old Finnish defenseman has been on injured reserve since mid February with a upper body injury he sustained agains the Philadelphia Flyers. Nuti has had a solid season and is third on the team in defenseman scoring with 18 points in 51 games.
The Jackets of course added Ian Cole at the trade deadline. They also added Ryan Murray recently as his back finally healed and he returned to the lineup. One of hockey’s many cliches is that you can never have too many defenseman heading into the playoffs and the Jackets will have plenty of bodies.
They are already scratching Scott Harrington who isn’t an ideal 3rd pairing defenseman but is serviceable. The team is also close to getting Dean Kukan back who has surprised many with his solid play. Kukan will certainly be used before Harrington but with these defenseman returning the Jackets have nine useable guys.
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Options for Torts
This created a plethora of options for coach John Tortorella to use on a nightly basis. Torts loves to switch guys around and use the threat of a healthy scratch as motivation for guys to play their best at all times. He certainly won’t split up the top pair of Seth Jones and Zach Werenski but he will now have seven guys to fill four spots.
The newly acquired Ian Cole has been paired with David Savard and the two have been fantastic. They are a combined plus nine since being combined and have blocked 20 shots. It is hard to imagine a scenario where they are split up.
The Jack Johnson – Ryan Murray pair on the other hand could be split up. Although Torts loves his leadership and admires Johnson, his play has not been stellar all year. That hasn’t seemed to hurt his ice time yet but it’s crunch time and Jack has been a liability. He takes too many dumb penalties and has been a weak spot in the defensive zone. Jack has a -13 rating this year which is by far the worst on the team. He is also the only defenseman on the team with a negative rating except for they guy he has been paired up with for most of the year, David Savard. Savard only has a -1 rating thought.
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It is tough to see Torts sitting Johnson though because of his admiration for his leadership and style of play. Even though that style of play doesn’t produce offensively and hurts the team in their zone. I would love to see Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara paired together now that he is healthy but that is unlikely.
Nuti will not play in tonights game against the Montreal Canadiens but expect him to be an option in the Philadelphia game on Thursday.