The Columbus Blue Jackets return to home ice to faceoff against the Toronto Maple Leafs in their first meeting of three this season, and the only time Toronto will be in Columbus. Over the weekend resulted in a 1-1-0 record with 2 goals for and 2 goals against.
The Jackets only goal in their game at home against the New York Rangers came Saturday in overtime from Kent Johnson with 1:34 remaining from Zach Werenski and Charlie Coyle.
Sunday in Minnesota, Danila Yurov had the first period goal with 1:48 left from Yakov Trenin. Adam Fantilli responded a minute later for his second goal of the season from Werenski and Sean Monahan. Kirill Kaprizov had a power play game winning goal for his league leading 10th of the year from Maxim Shabanov and Joel Eriksson Ek.
As spooky as it sounds, the results on the ice are as frightening as the standings appear to be for this dim Monday, as the Jackets sit second to last in the Eastern Conference at a 3-4-0 record for 6 points over 7 games. While the least amount of games played is good news as they have had the most rest, the results are well below expectations.
Columbus is coming into tonight dead last. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh both have 7 points, meanwhile the Blue Jackets have 6 in 2 fewer games played. Columbus and Philadelphia are the only teams that haven’t scored 20 goals in the East. Columbus, Detroit, and Philadelphia are the only Eastern teams that haven’t won on the road yet.
Zach Werenski leads all skaters with 29:22 TOI across the league. Burned and burned out are the Jackets at both ends. The number 2, 3, 4 are out to start the season, so all the time goes to the 1? Give the guy a break, he needs legs for playoffs, Bones!
Columbus needs their defense to be more reliable and responsible in all 3 zones for any hope of the postseason and passing the Penguins and Flyers.
For the first team since the blockbuster trade, Kirill Marchenko, Nick Blankenburg, Jack Roslovic, and Sergei Bobrovsky return to Columbus in blue and white.
Speaking of Blue and White, Gavin McKenna makes his first career appearance at Nationwide Arena. Seeing him and Columbus defenseman prospect and first rounder Jackson Smith last season at Beaver Stadium sold me on McKenna’s generational player status. This guy is destined for stardom, could be in the Bedard or Lafreniere stage but not the McDavid or Celebrini stage. Easy 100 point season but might not be until the early 2030s.
The Columbus Maple Leafs had a whirlwind of turnover this summer, as crazy ownership turned new heads John Chayka and Mats Sundin helped the roster and coaching staff return to playoffs, hopefully.
McKenna through the draft, Nick Paul and Darren Raddysh via trades from Tampa Bay, Teddy Bleuger, Colton Sissons, and Roslovic and Blankenburg from free agency. Sergei Bobrovsky with big money in free agency to solidify the trio of Bob, Stolarz, and Akhtyamov going forward. Depth from the Calder Cup win including Bo Grolux, Vinni Letteri, and Easton Cowan also made the Leafs roster. Toronto is on the war path for playoffs in the toughest division of all hockey.
Columbus is on the war path to just win. Sunday’s game saw the healthy benching of Emile Andrae and Dmitry Voronkov, two of the younger players that they need to showcase.
The Jackets are hosting a Toronto team that defeated San Jose last night in their arena and are flying into town to look to do the same thing and push Auston Matthews to be the greatest American and league goal scorer of all time. Columbus needs to most of this as they are having a very rested October, because after this, next game is Saturday.
Matthew Knies on facing his former club via Off the Roster Podcast:
“There’s honestly a lot of them to chirp. When you spend three years with some guys, it’s pretty easy to come up with some material.”
“Almost all of them called to say their goodbyes, wish me well and say we’d keep in touch. My first call was Morgan Reilly. I spent three years with him, and he was one of the veteran players who helped me when I was a young player.”
Tonight’s goaltending duel is backup Anthony Stolarz, who has a better win loss record than Bobrovsky, facing off against Jet Greaves, the Cambridge, Ontario, native.
Projected Lineups
Toronto Maple Leafs
Jack Roslovic -- Auston Matthews -- William Nylander
Easton Cowan -- Nick Paul -- Kirill Marchenko
Gavin McKenna -- Colton Sissons -- Vinni Letteri
Brandon Duhaime -- Teddy Blueger -- Zack MacEwen
Morgan Rielly -- Troy Stecher
Jake McCabe -- Darren Raddysh
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Nick Blankenburg
Anthony Stolarz
Artur Akhtyamov
Scratched: Marshall Rifai, Bo Groulx, Sergei Bobrovsky
Injured: Dakota Joshua (core), Max Domi (undisclosed), Chris Tanev (upper body), John Tavares (lower body), Elvis Merzlikins, Miles Wood,
Columbus Blue Jackets
Matthew Knies -- Adam Fantilli -- Kent Johnson
Valeri Nichushkin -- Sean Monahan -- Dmitri Voronkov
Cole Sillinger -- Charlie Coyle -- Mathieu Olivier
Ryan Lomberg -- Luca Del Bel Belluz -- Conor Garland
Zach Werenski -- Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen -- Denton Mateychuk
Emil Andrae -- Erik Gudbranson
Jet Greaves
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Danton Heinen, Carson Soucy
Injured: Dante Fabbro (broken hand), Ivan Provorov (lower body), Isac Lundestrom (lower body)
Players to Watch
Toronto — Gavin McKenna. Yes, over Matthews’ hot start and the return of Marchenko. As highlighted, he is the real deal. While his transition and evolution into the pro game has been slow, he already has 3 goals and could be the Calder winner. Between his time with Cayden Lindstrom in WHL and Jackson Smith at Penn State in NCAA both being teammates of his, Columbus needs to shut him down.
Columbus — Adam Fantilli — if there was ever a time to make him the player to watch, the richest Jackets’ skater has eyes on him here for this contest. I get it, he just scored against Minnesota, but $13M is meant for more results for the top line center. Another below production year is not good enough for the third overall pick of 2023 when his other podium partners are more paid than him. 2 goals in 7 games is not enough.
Predicted Final Score
TOR — 2
CBJ — 3
OT/SO — Knies SO Winner