In their first game back in North America after two games in Tampere, Finland, the Columbus Blue Jackets return to home ice to do battle with John Tortorella and the Philadelphia Flyers this upcoming evening.
It has been a downward spiral in Philadelphia, but the ship has been corrected by Torts and his culture change into the locker room.
With that, Chuck Fletcher has made plenty of changes to the roster in the summer out of desperation to save his job from Comcast’s ownership.
Fletcher went out and acquired hometown boy Anthony DeAngelo from the Carolina Hurricanes for 3 draft picks, covering 3 different drafts. The money bag was also thrown at Nicolas Deslauriers. Defenseman Justin Braun was also brought back after being traded at the deadline to the New York Rangers.
The cupboard for the Leigh Valley Phantoms has also been covered, with the signings of forwards Adam Brooks and Cooper Marody; defenseman Louis Belpedio; and goaltender Troy Grosenick.
Since the regular season, the Flyers have also made two waiver claims: center Lukas Sedlak and winger Kiefer Bellows.
Sedlak is back in North America after a multi season hiatus overseas, last being with Columbus.
This is the first battle of Larsen v Tortorella, it’ll be intriguing to see how this teacher student matchup goes down for the staff and the players in the room. Is it motivation? Is it pressure? Is it going to be violent, given the Flyers’ roster and animosity for failing to get Gaudreau?
In this evenings matchup, it has been reported by Jeff Svoboda of NHL.com that Kent Johnson and Sean Kuraly are both day to day. Aaron Portzline of the Athletic has reported that Jakub Voracek is day to day, with an unknown return.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett—Kevin Hayes—Travis Konecny Joel Farabee—Scott Laughton—Wade Allison Noah Cates—Lukas Sedlak—Zach MacEwen Nicolas Deslauriers—Morgan Frost—Tanner Laczynski
Ivan Provorov—Anthony DeAngelo Travis Sanheim—Justin Braun Nick Seeler—Rasmus Ristalonen
Carter Hart Felix Sandstrom
Scratched — Kiefer Bellows, Yegor Zamula Injured — Ryan Ellis, Sean Couturier, Bobby Brink, Patrick Brown, James van Reimsdyk, Cam Atkinson
Columbus Blue Jackets
Johnny Gaudreau—Boone Jenner—Patrik Laine Gustav Nyquist—Jack Roslovic—Emil Bemstrom Eric Robinson—Cole Sillinger—Yegor Chinakov Liam Foudy—Brendan Gaunce—Mathieu Oliver
Zach Werenski—Nick Blankenburg Vladislav Gavrikov—Andrew Peeke Jake Bean—Erik Gudbranson
Joonas Korpisalo Elvis Merzlikins
Scratched — Gavin Bayreuther Injured — Jakub Voracek, Joona Luoto, Justin Danforth, Kent Johnson, Sean Kuraly, Adam Boqvist
Player to Watch
Philadelphia — Lukas Sedlak — everything from the preview is self explanatory regarding the former Columbus forward. It’s also the first of four meetings, their stars are mostly injured or are a success right now, and has 3 points in 8 games since joining the Flyers off the waiver wire.
Columbus — Emil Bemstrom — the current leading scorer of the Cleveland Monsters makes his season debut against Philadelphia and Torts on the second line. Call for desperation on the management brass to have him jump into the top 6 pressure, but we will see where it goes for Bemstrom. The Swede has 36 points in 117 career NHL games.
Prediction
I see a 4-3 OT/SO for Columbus tonight. The Flyers won’t go down easy but the Torts thing may motivate the Jackets more. Win number 4.
More to come …