Match-up - Columbus Blue Jackets (26-27-3) @ Montreal Canadiens (37-16-5) Road/Home records - 14-13-1 -------------- 15-7-4 TV - TVA Sports, CITY, FS-O Puck drop - 7:00 p.m. ET Season series - 1-0 Habs Last 10 - Blue Jackets: 5-5-0 ------------ Habs: 5-3-2 Projected starting goalies - Curtis McElhinney vs Carey Price
Projected lines for the Canadiens via DailyFaceoff.com:
Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallagher Jiri Sekac - Tomas Plekanec - Lars Eller Brandon Prust - Jacob De La Rose - Dale Weise Michael Bournival - Manny Malhotra - Christian Thomas
Andrei Markov - P.K. Subban Nathan Beaulieu - Tom Gilbert Jarred Tinordi - Greg Pateryn
Projected lines for the Blue Jackets:
Scott Hartnell - Ryan Johansen - Alex Wennberg Matt Calvert - Brandon Dubinsky - Cam Atkinson Nick Foligno - Artem Anisimov - Marko Dano Corey Tropp - Mark Letestu - Jared Boll
Jack Johnson - David Savard Kevin Connauton - James Wisniewski Fedor Tyutin - Cody Goloubef
Injured: Boone Jenner, Jeremy Morin, Nathan Horton, Ryan Murray, Sergei Bobrovsky.
What to watch:
1) Curtis McElhinney has been playing great hockey of late, having won nine of his last 12 games. I still highly doubt the Blue Jackets get in, but McElhinney has them 10 points out with two games in hand. I guess it's possible...
2) The Habs are a highly mediocre 5 vs 5 team, so the Jackets should be able to hold their own in that regard tonight. That said, they'll need McElhinney to be good because we know Carey Price will be.
3) Brandon Dubinsky is red hot right now, as he's scored four goals, recorded six points and tallied 12 shots on goal in his last four games. The Jackets need him to keep producing at a high rate if they want to have any shot of climbing back into a playoff spot.
4) More than anyone else, the Jackets will need to play Max Pacioretty tight. He has three goals and 23 shots in his last five games, and already has 27 goals on the season. He's a high volume, relatively high percentage shooter so if he gets a handful of pucks towards the net he'll probably pot one.
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