Happy Kids Day!
This afternoon, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Edmonton Oilers meet for their second and final time of the 2022-2023 season.
The Kids Day game welcomes the youth of the city and promotes the players when they were younger and growing up as hockey fans.
Edmonton is coming off a dominating 7-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins, where the fans called for the general manager's job to be fired, and also waived Finnish winger Kasperi Kapanen.
Connor McDavid is the best player in the world. Soaking a game in person like I did when seeing him in December, he is scary when he touches the puck. 109 points in 59 games played this season.
This roster needs to add to contend to win the west. Erik Karlsson, Jakob Chychrun, and Vladislav Gavrikov have all been linked. Maybe this is the landing spot for Gavrikov?
Projected Lineups
Leon Drasatil--Connor McDavid--Derek Ryan Zach Hyman--Ryan Nugent-Hopkins--Kailer Yamamoto Warren Foegle--Ryan McLeod--Jesse Puljujarvi Klim Kostin--Derek Shore--Mattias Janmark
Darnell Nurse--Cody Ceci Brett Kulak--Tyson Barrie Phillip Broberg--Evan Bouchard
Jack Campbell Stuart Skinner
Scratched -- Vincent Desharnais
Injured -- Ryan Murray, Evander Kane
Columbus Blue Jackets
Johnny Gaudreau--Boone Jenner--Patrik Laine Kent Johnson--Cole Sillinger--Kirill Marchenko Liam Foudy--Jack Roslovic--Emil Bemstrom Eric Robinson--Sean Kuraly--Mathieu Olivier
Tim Breni--Erik Gudbranson Gavin Bayreuther--Adam Boqvist Nick Blankenburg--Andrew Peeke
Elvis Merzlikins Joonas Korpsialo
Scratched -- Lane Pederson, Vladislav Gavrikov
Injured -- Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Gustav Nyquist, Jake Bean, Yegor Chinakov, Carson Meyer, Justin Danforth
Players to Watch
Edmonton -- Leon Drasatil -- always producing with or without McDavid.
Columbus -- Johnny Gaudreau -- second game back from injury
Predicted Final Score
EDM - 4 CBJ - 1