Game #21 preview, the Blue Jackets take on broken Leafs in Toronto

The Blue Jackets will look to bounce back on the road tonight, as they are in Toronto to take on a shorthanded Maple Leafs team.

The Jackets dropped a 5-2 decision in Winnipeg on Tuesday night, playing their 6th game in 9 days. It was a tough stretch that saw them play in all four time zones. As one might expect, they looked exhausted from the start of that one.

After a day off, they should have better legs tonight against a Toronto team that is battling some injuries to a lot of their key players.

The Opponent

The Leafs are 9-9-2 (20 points), sitting 15th in the Eastern Conference right now. This is our second matchup against Toronto this season, with the first one resulting in a 6-3 Blue Jackets win at Nationwide, back on October 29.

The battered Leafs will be without star forwards Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, depth foward Nicolas Roy, defensemen Brandon Carlo and Chris Tanev; and goaltender Anthony Stolarz.

That's a lot of important pieces on the shelf for a team that has some depth, but not enough to make up for them. Not many teams would be able to make up for the loss of that kind of talent, honestly.

That's two of their top-5 scorers, two shutdown defensemen (both right shots), a middle six center, and their starting goaltender out of the lineup. Yikes. As a result, they will line up like this:

Suffice to say, outside of that top line, the Jackets should have little problem beating this team tonight. But, with that said, this is the Blue Jackets, so anything is possible.

The Leafs are going to probably revert to playing above the puck tonight, with the hopes of winning this game in low scoring fashion. I would expect no less from a Craig Berube coached club missing so much of their lineup.

They would be wise to do so with Joseph Woll backstopping them. He's only gotten into two games so far this year as he started the campaign on IR. But, in those two games, he's only allowed 5 goals on 61 shots (.934% save percentage).

Woll is 1-1-0 against the Blue Jackets in his career, with a .909% save percentage and a 3.03 GAA.

I'm interested to see if the Jackets can impose their will on a team like this, or if they play down to their level and let them hang around.

The Good Guys

Dean Evason continues to tinker with the pieces he has available as he tries to find the right combinations to unlock more offense from his group.

Tonight, Yegor Chinakhov returns after being a healthy scratch on Tuesday. He will replace Zach Aston-Reese on the fourth line, with Jet Greaves starting in goal. These are the only changes to the lineup from the Winnipeg game.

We know what we can expect from the first and third lines. But, to really put teams like this away, they are going to need more contributions from the second and fourth lines. Hopefully getting Chinakhov's speed back into the lineup will help them burn the Leafs tonight.

I'm also interested to see how Greaves takes back to the crease, after really finding his game over his last two starts. He was terrific in his lone start in Toronto - his first NHL start - stopping 46 of 49 shots against his hometown Leafs.

The Jackets would love to see that kind of effort from their goaltender tonight. Hopefully with fewer shots against.

Three Keys to Success

1. Let them make the mistakes. The Leafs are going to have some uncomfortable line combinations tonight. So, the Jackets should pounce on any mistakes and make them pay.

2. Don't let the Woll build up. They have a confident goaltender, so it would be nice to get one early on Joseph Woll and then pour on the offense. Cycle pucks, wear down their shorthanded defense, and grind them into submission.

3. Finish strong. If they can get that early goal, capitalize off of Toronto's mistakes, and have a lead in the third period; it would be nice to see this team finish a game out strong. Don't back off and play the prevent, keep playing CBJ hockey for 60 minutes.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 Eastern time tonight from Toronto. You can catch the game locally via FDSN, nationally via ESPN+, or tune in to Bob McElligott via NHL radio. Let's go Jackets.