The Columbus Blue Jackets travel east to Pittsburgh for their first trip of two and second battle of three with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tonight’s game is at 7pm from Fan Duel Sports Network Ohio and SportsNet Pittsburgh.
Since the November meeting, Pittsburgh has added forward Phillip Tomasino and defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph via trade from Western Conference teams. Tomasino is expected to be out week to week after leaving against Florida on Friday with a lower body injury.
A regulation win for either team will get them in the wild card spot.
Both teams have collected two points to start the new year; the Pens had two overtime losses; Columbus had a regulation win over the Blues.
Columbus is expected to have Kevin Labanc back in the lineup after becoming a father over the weekend. This will be the first time this year the Jackets will use 12 forwards and 6 defenders.
Damon Severson and Jordan Harris will be the healthy scratches. This is the second straight same the $6.25M blueliner is out. If this continues for the 30 year old veteran, does he get shopped or bought out? He has had 17 points in 38 games this season.
Tristian Jarry and Elvis Merzlikins is expected to be the backstop battle.
Keys to Win: 1. Puck On Net - both Pens’ goalies have under a 0.900 save percentage and a goals against over 3.2GAA. They are last in GAA in the league; Columbus is 31st. 2. Score! The Jackets have six different 10 goal scorers this season. Only three other teams have that many or more. 3. Avoid Special Teams - Pitt is in the top 12 for PP, PK, and FO%.
Projected Lineups
Pittsburgh Penguins Rickard Rakell -- Sidney Crosby -- Bryan Rust Michael Bunting -- Evgeni Malkin -- Cody Glass Drew O’Connor -- Kevin Hayes -- Jesse Puljujarvi Matt Nieto -- Blake Lizotte -- Noel Acciari
Marcus Pettersson -- Kris Letang Matt Grzelcyk -- Erik Karlsson Owen Pickering -- P.O Joseph
Tristan Jarry Alex Nedeljkovic
Scratched: Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves, Anthony Beauvillier
Injured: Philip Tomasino (lower body)
Columbus Blue Jackets
Dmitri Voronkov -- Sean Monahan -- Kirill Marchenko James van Riemsdyk -- Cole Sillinger -- Kent Johnson Zach Aston-Reese -- Adam Fantilli -- Mathieu Olivier Mikael Pyyhtia -- Sean Kuraly -- Kevin Labanc
Zach Werenski -- Dante Fabbro Denton Mateychuk -- Ivan Provorov Jack Johnson -- Jake Christiansen
Elvis Merzlikins Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: Jordan Harris, Damon Severson
Injured: Yegor Chinakhov (upper body), Justin Danforth (lower body)
Players to Watch 🇷🇺
Pittsburgh — Evgeni Malkin — the Magnitogorsk native has only one goal in his previous five.
Columbus — Dmitry Voronkov — the Angarsk native has five goals and two helpers in his last five games. He has a two goal night in the last game, including the game winner.
Predicted Final Score
PIT — 4
CBJ — 5