The Nationwide Arena will be emotional but also excited for his homecoming affair as the Columbus Blue Jackets welcome the Colorado Avalanche for their first meeting of the 2025-2026 regular season. The Jackets welcome Cam Atkinson as he is on a one day contract to retire with the team that drafted him and is the third all time leading scorer with 627 points. The Blue Jackets also welcome back Gavin Brindley, the best friend of Adam Fantilli, who was dealt by Waddell in June for Coyle and Wood. With Wood out with injury, Yegor Chinakov is set to make his season debut on the fourth line tonight against the Avs. Elvis Merzlikins gets the start against Scott Wedgewood.
Projected Lineups
Colorado Avalanche
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog -- Brock Nelson -- Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton -- Jack Drury -- Victor Olofsson
Joel Kiviranta -- Parker Kelly -- Gavin Brindley
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Josh Manson -- Brent Burns
Ilya Solovyov -- Sam Malinski
Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner
Scratched: Zakhar Bardakov, Jack Ahcan
Injured: Mackenzie Blackwood (lower body), Logan O’Connor (hip surgery), Samuel Girard (upper body)
Columbus Blue Jackets
Kent Johnson -- Sean Monahan -- Kirill Marchenko
Cole Sillinger -- Adam Fantilli -- Dmitri Voronkov
Boone Jenner -- Charlie Coyle -- Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese -- Isac Lundestrom -- Yegor Chinakhov
Zach Werenski -- Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov -- Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen -- Denton Mateychuk
Elvis Merzlikins
Jet Greaves
Scratched: None
Injured: Erik Gudbranson (upper body), Miles Wood (upper body)
Players to Watch
Colorado - Gavin Brindley - with only one NHL game in Columbus with Fantilli before the end of the 23-24 season, the Michigan alumni has scored his first NHL goal in an Avs' sweater. His homecoming may be an entertaining one.
Columbus - Yegor Chinakov - finally, the first rounder gets his shot in the lineup.
Predicting Final Score
COL - 5
CBJ - 3
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