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G5 Blue Jackets @ Senators: Battle Of The Backups

October 18, 2014, 12:01 PM ET [4 Comments]
Todd Cordell
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Match-up - Columbus Blue Jackets (3-1-0) @ Ottawa Senators (3-1-0)
Road/Home records - 1-0-0 -------------- 1-0-0
TV - FSO, SN
Puck drop - 7:00 p.m. ET
Season series - 0-0
Projected starting goalies - Curtis McElhinney vs Robin Lehner



Projected lines for the Sens via DailyFaceoff.com:

Clarke MacArthur - Kyle Turris - Mark Stone
Bobby Ryan - Mike Zibanejad - Alex Chiasson
Milan Michalek - Zack Smith - Curtis Lazar
Mike Hoffman - David Legwand - Chris Neil

Chris Phillips - Erik Karlsson
Patrick Weircioch - Cody Ceci
Eric Gryba - Mark Borowiecki

Projected lines for the Blue Jackets:

Nick Foligno - Ryan Johansen - Cam Atkinson
Scott Hartnell - Artem Anisimov - Alex Wennberg
Matt Calvert - Mark Letestu - Jack Skille
Corey Tropp - Michael Chaput - Jared Boll

Jack Johnson - David Savard
Tim Erixon - James Wisniewski
Fedor Tyutin - Dalton Prout

Game notes:

- Erik Karlsson is sporting a 54% Corsi, and no other Sens defenseman is controlling shot attempts at a rate above 45%. Karlsson may be the best in the league at his position and, even with him, you could argue the Sens have one of the worst defense cores in hockey. The Blue Jackets need to take advantage of this.

- Ottawa's allowing almost 40 shots a game and have been horrible in possession, so if Robin Lehner doesn't stand on his head, and the Jackets play like they have all season, Ottawa probably doesn't have much of a chance.

- Ryan Johansen has started the season as well as anyone could have imagined, as he's currently on a four-game point streak and has six points (3G, 3A) in that span while being one of the team's better possession players. It'll be interesting to see how long this streak continues.

- Ryan Murray is nearing a return to the lineup, and will surely be inserted as soon as he's ready, so this may be the last chance for Dalton Prout and Tim Erixon to make their cases to stay in the lineup. Both have been good thus far, in my opinion, but someone has to come out to make room for Murray.

- The Jackets have been perfect killing penalties this season and have done a relatively good job at staying disciplined and keeping out of the box. They don't want to get away from that tonight, because Karlsson doesn't need many man advantage opportunities to make you pay.

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