Match-up - Dallas Stars (0-1-1) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (2-0-0) Road/Home records - 0-1-0 -------------- 1-0-0 TV - Fox Sports-Ohio, Fox Sports-South West Puck drop - 7:00 p.m. ET Season series - 0-0 Projected starting goalies - Kari Lehtonen vs Sergei Bobrovsky
Projected lines for the Stars:
Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Colton Sceviour Patrick Eaves - Jason Spezza - Ales Hemsky Antoine Roussel - Cody Eakin - Ryan Garbutt Shawn Horcoff - Vernon Fiddler - Erik Cole
Alex Goligoski - Trevor Daley Brendan Dillon - Jordie Benn Patrik Nemeth - Jamie Oleksiak
Projected lines for the Blue Jackets:
Nick Foligno - Ryan Johansen - Cam Atkinson Scott Hartnell - Artem Anisimov - Alex Wennberg Matt Calvert - Mark Letestu - Marko Dano Jack Skille - Michael Chaput - Jared Boll
Jack Johnson - David Savard Tim Erixon - James Wisniewski Fedor Tyutin - Dalton Prout
Game notes:
- After outplaying Chicago but coming up short in their season opener, Dallas put up a bid of a dud in Nashville. They're a team with high expectations that hasn't won yet, obviously, so they're going to come out flying tonight. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin are both pointless through two games, so you get the feeling once they get on the board they'll go off. Jack Johnson and David Savard will have their hands full.
- Ryan Johansen's ice has been limited early on in the season, as he's averaged about 14:30 per contest. Now that he has a couple games and practices under his belt it'll be interesting to see if Todd Richards gives him a boost in ice time. Columbus wasn't thrilled with the amount of rust he showed after arriving in camp, but he has three points in two games so perhaps that's been overblown.
- Antoine Roussel is one of the better bottom-6 forwards in hockey and is quite good at pissing off the opposition and drawing penalties. The Jackets will make sure they don't retaliate to anything he does, because they can't afford to give Seguin, Benn, Spezza, and co. many power play opportunities. If they do, the end result won't be good.
- If there's one weakness to this Stars team, it's defensive depth. Their bottom-4 doesn't exactly jump out at you, and at home Richards will get last change allowing him to dictate the matchups. With the way the Foligno - Johansen - Atkinson line has played thus far, I think it's fair to say they'd have a decisive advantage over any pairing that isn't Goligoski - Daley.
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