Chicago Blackhawks at Columbus Blue Jackets – Preview & Game Thread

  

Chicago Blackhawks (27-27-8, 62 points) at Columbus Blue Jackets (30-26-5, 65 points)

7:00PM Eastern/6:00 Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: NBCSCH

 

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Arizona:
Sergei Bobrovsky (25-20-5 W-L | 2.45 GAA | 0.919 SV% | 4 SO)

Chicago:
Anton Forsberg (7-12-3 W-L | 2.90 GAA | 0.910 SV% | 0 SO)

 

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Columbus

Artemi PanarinPierre-Luc DuboisCam Atkinson
Boone JennerAlexander WennbergOliver Bjorkstrand
Matt CalvertBrandon DubinskyJosh Anderson
Markus HannikainenLukas SedlakZac Dalpe

Zach WerenskiSeth Jones
Jack JohnsonRyan Murray
Scott HarringtonDavid Savard

Chicago

Brandon SaadJonathan ToewsTommy Wingels
Tomas JurcoArtem AnisimovPatrick Kane
Anthony DuclairNick SchmaltzAlex DeBrincat
Ryan HartmanDavid KampfVinnie Hinostroza

Duncan KeithJordan Oesterle
Erik GustafssonJan Rutta
Connor MurphyBrent Seabrook

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:
Columbus – 14.1% (31st)
Chicago – 15.8% (29th)

Penalty kill:
Columbus – 76.3% (27th)
Chicago – 82.7% (6th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5):
Columbus – 51.7% (7th)
Chicago – 53.5% (3rd)

Faceoffs:
Columbus – 47.7% (28th)
Chicago – 49.5% (19th)

 

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks come into this game after a solid 3-1 win the previous night against the San Jose Sharks, at the United Center. They will travel to Columbus for this game and then return home for a short four day break, before heading out to San Jose on Thursday 3/1, following the trade deadline.

This may be the last time you see some of the players that will be in the lineup tonight. If reports come true, players like Tommy Wingels, Lance Bouma, and even Artem Anisimov could be playing elsewhere by Monday’s trade deadline.

Anisimov would be interesting, because the rumor has been that these very Blue Jackets would be the team trying to acquire him.

As far as the game goes, the Blackhawks will be facing that very familiar name of Artemi Panarin. As far as the rest of the team goes, they are are struggling much like the Blackhawks. In fact, they are only three points apart as far as records go. The difference is that Columbus is hanging on to the second wild card spot in their conference, while the Blackhawks sit ten points behind the second wild card spot in their conference.

The Blue Jackets went from one of the top power play teams in the league, last season, to being even worse than the terribly inept Blackhawks power play, if you can imagine that.

If you’re at the game, go find Jaeckel and throw Ju-Ju Bees at him.

Chicago Blackhawks at Columbus Blue Jackets - Preview & Game Thread

Expect a recap early in the AM

Join the game thread below for real-time conversation on the action with JJ, Gatekeeper and the rest of the RinkRats.

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About Jeff Osborn

Jeff has covered the Blackhawks since 2009 with his former website www.puckinhostile.com and podcast The Puckin Hostile Shoutcast until 2017, when he moved over to The Rink. After a short hiatus to cover the inaugural Seattle Kraken season, he came back to Blackhawks coverage and started "The Net Perspective" podcast to discuss goaltending and goaltender development.

     

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