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Home
Columbus Blue Jackets

Preview: Blue Jackets Welcome Bruins Looking For Lucky 13

By Mark Scheig December 27th, 2016

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The Columbus Blue Jackets open their post-Christmas schedule by welcoming the Boston Bruins to Nationwide Arena on Tuesday. A Blue Jackets win will give them 13 straight wins and points in 15 straight. The Bruins hope to give Columbus their third loss in three tries this season.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves Friday to extend the Blue Jackets' winning streak. (Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports)

Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves Friday to extend the Blue Jackets’ winning streak. (Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports)

Last time out, the Blue Jackets held on for a hard-fought 2-1 win over Montreal on Friday. Sam Gagner and Brandon Saad scored the goals, while Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves to give the Blue Jackets their 12th straight win. The win also gave Columbus three wins in their first three games of this homestand.

In franchise history, the Blue Jackets have gone 4-0 in a four-game homestand just once, March 3-9, 2013. The Blue Jackets are healthy coming off the break. Don’t expect any lineup changes. They will hold a full morning skate at 10:30 A.M.

The Bruins last played on Friday in Raleigh, where they lost in overtime 3-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Boston was up 2-0 early in the second before Carolina rallied to score the game’s last three goals, including the overtime winner from Teuvo Teravainen. Ryan Spooner and Brad Marchand scored the Bruins’ goals.

Tuesday is their third game of their four-game road trip. With both Frank Vatrano and David Pastrnak back in the lineup, the Bruins will most likely run a similar lineup to the one they had on Friday. That means Tuukka Rask is expected to start.


Boston Bruins at Columbus Blue Jackets

 Nationwide Arena – 7:00 p.m. EST

TV Broadcast Channels: Fox Sports Ohio/Fox Sports Go and NESN

Radio Broadcast Channels: 97.1 The Fan and 98.5 The Sports Hub

Boston Bruins: 18-14-4, 40 points

Road Record: 10-5-4

Hot Players: Tuukka Rask, David Pastrnak

Key Injuries: Matt Beleskey (lower-body), John-Michael Liles (upper-body)

Projected Lines (How they lined up last game):

Forwards

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak

Ryan Spooner-David Krejci-David Backes

Frank Vatrano-Austin Czarnik-Riley Nash

Anton Bildh-Dominic Moore-Jimmy Hayes

Defense

Zdeno Chara-Brandon Carlo

Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid

Kevan Miller-Colin Miller

Goaltender

Tuukka Rask (Projected Starter)

[irp]

Columbus Blue Jackets: 23-5-4, 50 points

Home Record: 13-3-1

Hot Players: Cam Atkinson, Sergei Bobrovsky, Sam Gagner

Key Injuries: David Clarkson (back, on LTIR)

Projected Lines:

Forwards

Brandon Saad-Alexander Wennberg-Nick Foligno

Boone Jenner-Brandon Dubinsky-Cam Atkinson

Matt Calvert-William Karlsson-Josh Anderson

Scott Hartnell-Lukas Sedlak-Sam Gagner

Defense

Zach Werenski-Seth Jones

Jack Johnson-David Savard

Markus Nutivaara-Ryan Murray

Goaltender

Sergei Bobrovsky (Projected Starter)

[irp]


 Game Notes

1) The Blue Jackets enter Tuesday as the league’s hottest team, winning 12 straight games. They have also earned at least a point in a franchise-record 14 straight games, going 13-0-1. They have gone more than a calendar month since their last regulation loss, a 2-0 loss to Calgary on November 23rd.

2) The Blue Jackets have scored first in 22 of their 32 games, going 17-2-3 in those 22 games. They have outscored their opponents 31-15 in the first period this season, helping them to the largest goal-differential in the league at +45 coming into Tuesday. The Blue Jackets are also second in the league in both goals-for and goals-against.

3) Both goaltenders come into Tuesday’s matchup as hot as anyone in the league. Sergei Bobrovsky comes in with the most wins in the league with 21. He’s 21-5-2 with a 1.87 goals-against and .935 save percentage. Tuukka Rask is 17-4-3 with a 1.87 goals-against and .930 save percentage. Bobrovsky has never defeated the Bruins. They are the only team, except Columbus, that Bobrovsky hasn’t defeated.

4) The Bruins have handed the Blue Jackets 40% of their regulation losses this season. The Bruins are 2-0 against Columbus outscoring them 11-5 in those meetings. A poor last 40 minutes in the first meeting and a poor first 20 meetings in the second meeting doomed the Blue Jackets. Columbus scored first in both meetings and lost both in regulation. These are the only two losses in regulation for the Blue Jackets when scoring first.


Columbus must get to Rask early. The later in the game it gets, the better he plays. For the Blue Jackets to extend their winning streak to 13, they must start fast, then do a better job of locking down the Bruins.

Boston must get their top-line of Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak going early if they want to win. They’ve enjoyed great success against Columbus, especially this season. That line, except for Bergeron, combined for all six goals in the first meeting. Given how well each goaltender is playing, expect a low scoring game.

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