Columbus Blue Jackets Set To Host New Jersey Devils

The Columbus Blue Jackets will face the New Jersey Devils twice in four nights this week, with the first game being tonight.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to play another game they can’t afford to lose as they face the third worst team in the NHL, the New Jersey Devils. It won’t be an easy feat however, with the defending Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall leading them to Nationwide Arena.

The Blue Jackets are coming off of a big win against the Vegas Golden Knights, while the Devils were blown out by the Toronto Maple Leafs at home, 7-2, in their last game.

The aforementioned Hall leads the Devils in points with 32 in 30 games, however he only has 8 goals to this point. Kyle Palmieri and former first overall pick Nico Hischier follow behind respectively.

Artemi Panarin will hopefully return to the lineup after messing the game against the Golden Knights with an injury on Monday night. Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch tweeted yesterday morning that Panarin was on the ice for practice.

It’s likely that Keith Kinkaid will get the start for John Hynes and Co. as Cory Schneider is on the injured reserve and Mackenzie Blackwood isn’t quite ready for the NHL at this point. Goaltending has been the weakest point of the Devils, which had been their strongest point from roughly 1990 until a year or two ago when Schneider seemingly fell off the face of the Earth.

UPDATE: New Jersey beat writer Amanda Stein confirmed that Blackwood will get his first NHL start against the Blue Jackets on Twitter.

It’s not certain, however Sergei Bobrovsky will likely be given the start in a divisional game coming off of a shutout.

The Columbus Blue Jackets can’t afford to keep dropping points and they’ll certainly need to score more than one goal against the weakened New Jersey goaltending corps if they want to make sure they walk out of Nationwide Arena with a win.