BREAKING — 12:45pm

Johnny Gaudreau is out day to day with a lower body injury suffered against the Winnipeg Jets. This ends his Ironman streak at 349 consecutive NHL games.

He held the third longest active Ironman streak behind Brent Burns and Phil Kessel.

Lane Pederson makes his Columbus debut tonight against Dallas, after being out of the lineup since his waiver claim due to visa issues.

This also means every single Columbus player from the opening night roster has sustained an injury this season…

Onto the preview

The Columbus Blue Jackets look to avoid the sweep in their season series with the Dallas Stars from Nationwide Arena.

The top dog in the west has had an impressive reset with their young guns leading the way, while their veterans are still providing success.

Who they buy at the deadline is a great question, as they don’t have their first this year, but could they push the future further away to get a Patrick Kane?


The Blue Jackets are coming into tonight off a clash with the Winnipeg Jets, with a stunning upset over one of the west's best.

Dallas has not played since Tuesday, where they lost to the Bruins in regulation.

Dallas is 10-9-10 against non-playoff teams this season, and that is a wildly concerning stat. If you struggle with the weak, how can you withstand the strong?

Also furthers the point of how weak the western conference as a whole is.

Dallas on the puck line has a 94% change of winning from the odds makers.

This is also one of the healthiest rosters in the league, only missing Joel Kiviranta from tonight.

Scott Wedgewood is in the crease for the Stars.

Columbus has been seeing Zach Werenski and Yegor Chinakov on the ice and around the team recently, but Z is not playing again until the fall.

Joonas Korpisalo will start against Dallas, where it is expected Elvis Merzlikins will go in tomorrow against the Arizona Coyotes.

Projected Lineups


Dallas Stars

Jason Robertson--Roope Hintz--Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment--Radek Faksa--Tyler Seguin
Jamie Benn--Wyatt Johnston--Tye Dellandrea
Frederik Karlstom--Luke Glendenning--Dennis Gurianov

Miro Heskianen--Colin MIller
Ryan Suter--Nils Lundkvist
Esa Lindell--Jani Hakanpaa

Scott Wedgewood
Jake Otteinger

Scratched -- Joel Hanley

Injured -- Joel Kiviranta


Columbus Blue Jackets

Patrik Laine--Boone Jenner--Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson--Cole Sillinger--Lane Pederson
Liam Foudy--Jack Roslovic--Emil Bemstrom
Eric Robinson--Sean Kuraly--Mathieu Olivier

Tim Breni--Erik Gudbranson
Gavin Bayreuther--Adam Boqvist
Nick Blankenburg--Andrew Peeke

Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched -- Vladislav Gavrikov

Injured -- Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Gustav Nyquist, Jake Bean, Justin Danforth, Yegor Chinakov, Carson Meyer, Johnny Gaudreau

Players to Watch

Dallas -- Miro Heskianen -- the top defenseman has 41 points in 53 games this season. Every other defender on the roster has under 20 points, and he's at over 40. He is sixth in league average ice time at 25:28TOI.

Columbus -- Gavin Bayreuther -- the former Stars defender is one point away from matching his previous career high in points in half the games played.


Predicted Final Score

DAL -- 5
CBJ -- 1

Thoughts? More to come...

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