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It’s more than Eastern Conference ties than bring the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets together.
Like Boston, without the services of Zdeno Chara, Adam McQuaid, David Warsofsky, Brad Marchand and still less than 100 percent David Krejci and Kevan Miller, the Blue Jackets are battered with injuries throughout their lineup. The Jackets counter Boston’s injured list with (and are you ready for this?) blows to Brandon Dubinsky, Mark Letestu, Ryan Murray, Fedor Tyutin, Cody Goloubef, and former Bruin Nathan Horton. And that’s excluding Matt Calvert and Jack Skille, two players the Jackets hope to get back for tonight’s game against the Bruins, too.
(I just need a good 30 seconds or so to catch my breath here.)
They’re both reeling. They’re both just trying to keep their heads above water. And through a month and a half of hockey, the Bruins have fared just a bit better than their Metropolitan Division counterpart. Boston’s hanging tough in fourth in their division, just one point behind third-place Detroit, and seven points away from the first-place Montreal Canadiens. Columbus, however, has struggled mightily, coming into tonight’s game in the basement of the Metro with just six wins and 13 points in 18 games this season.
That’s to be expected, though, as the Jackets’ losses have been greater than that of the Black and Gold, and yes, that’s taking Chara’s injury into account. Would-be top-liner Horton has not played in a single game this year. The same with the heart of the Jackets, Dubinsky. Even Sergei Bobrovsky has been on the shelf at times.
If there’s one thing the Jackets know, even dating back to last year, it’s how to handle adversity.
The Bruins are hoping to build a similar reputation throughout the league, especially on their point, which will rely heavily on Matt Bartkowski and Miller to shoulder more of the defensive load in light of McQuaid (expected to miss the next 6-to-8 weeks with a broken thumb) and Chara’s absences.
“We may not be where we want to be right now, but those guys are battling,… B’s coach Claude Julien said of his defensive corp on Tuesday night. “We’re a young crew right now and the way that they handled themselves against pretty powerful team – they deserve a lot of credit.…
He’s been as inconsistent as they come, I know, but if there’s one player that the Bruins need to step up right now, it’s the Pennsylvania native, Bartkowski. He turned in a marvelous night against St. Louis back on Tuesday, collecting an assist and a plus-2 rating in almost 21 minutes of time on ice, but now the pressure’s on the 26-year-old to do more than just be a fill-in that’ll surprise at times. His contributions at both ends of the rink are certainly expected now, at least from the sound of Julien and company, and that’s a much larger responsibility than sliding up into the top-four in the middle of a game.
One of the big reasons the Bruins traded Johnny Boychuk out of town at the end of the preseason was that they felt that Bartkowski was one of their young blue-liners ready to take the leap to full-time NHL duty. And now it’s on Bartkowski to prove to his coaching staff, front office, and the fans that he’s just that.
The Bruins are expected to give the start to the 25-year-old backup, Niklas Svedberg. Svedberg took the loss in his last start despite stopping 29-of-34 in a 5-1 loss to Montreal back on Nov. 13, and has not played the Blue Jackets in his still-relatively-newborn NHL career. In three road starts this year (five games in total), Svedberg is 2-1-0 with a .910 save percentage and 2.35 goals against average.
Columbus will turn to Sergei Bobrovsky for this one. And in his first two games since returning from a finger injury, it’s been two starts with two completely different results for Bob. In start one (last Saturday against San Jose), the former Vezina winner stopped all but one of the 37 shots the Sharks threw at him. In start two, however, Bobrovsky surrendered five goals on 40 shots against the Detroit Red Wings. Woof. The 26-year-old has been a hard luck loser against Boston in his career, too, as he takes to the ice tonight with zero wins but a stellar .930 save percentage in four games against the Black and Gold.
And how's this for an insane stat, courtesy of my friend in Columbus, the Jackets' own Rob Mixer.
If Niklas Svedberg starts for Boston, it's the first time since at least 1950 that two goaltenders wearing No. 72 face off in a game. #CBJ
— Rob Mixer (@RobMixer) November 21, 2014- B’s winger Loui Eriksson has 10 goals and 17 points in 30 career games against Columbus.
- David Krejci has points in all but three of his 11 games played this season.
- Seth Griffith does not have a single point on the road this season (six games).
- Columbus forward Scott Hartnell has nine goals in 33 career games against the Bruins.
- Ryan Johansen has four goals and 10 points in nine games at Nationwide Arena this season.
News and Notes
Brad Marchand (undisclosed) did return to practice with the club, but will not play tonight. Matt Fraser will begin the night on the left wing on the Bergeron line in his place.
And given the injury to Marchand, rookie forward Alexander Khokhlachev is back up with the squad on an emergency basis, and isn’t expected to play in tonight’s game. The 5-foot-11 Russian forward has five goals and 16 points in 15 games for the Providence Bruins this year. I’ve talked about this before, so there’s no sense in ranting about it once more, but I think he’s due for an actual NHL look soon.
The Bruins also recalled Zach Trotman from Providence as their seventh defenseman.
Boston won all three meetings against the Jackets last season.
I appeared on the HockeyBuzzCast once again this afternoon, and dished with Ek and company about all things hockey, including the rumor linking Evander Kane to the Bruins once again.