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Saturday, April 3, 2021 - 7:00 EST
BB&T Center - Sunrise, Florida
TV: Bally Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Blog: Litter Box Cats
Columbus Blue Jackets (14-16-8, 36 points, 6th Central)
at
Florida Panthers (24-9-4, 52 points, 2nd Central)
After splitting two games in Tampa in which they showed renewed effort, the Blue Jackets travel to the other coast of Florida to face the second place team in the division in a weekend back-to-back. Can the Blue Jackets take advantage of some key injuries and stop the Panthers’ four game winning streak?
Player to Watch
Alex Wennberg
Bought out of his contract after the Domi acquisition, former Columbus center Wennberg found a new home in Florida and has thrived this season in a top six role. He has eight goals on the season, which exceeds the seven goals he had in the previous two seasons with the Jackets. He’s not shooting much more than he did before, but is benefiting from skilled linemates, offensive zone deployment, and an absurdly high shooting percentage of 17% (more than double his career shooting percentage in Columbus). Wennberg’s eighth goal was an overtime winner on Thursday:
Make it 4️⃣ straight wins for the @FlaPanthers!
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 2, 2021
Alex Wennberg fires home the @SUBWAYCanada OT winner! pic.twitter.com/0IqHNNiVkm
Jackets Notes
Elvis Merzlikins has started four straight games, so there’s a good chance we see Joonas Korpisalo back in net either today or tomorrow. Elvis has a record of just 1-3-0 in those games, but the losses weren’t on him thanks to a stellar .932 save percentage ... Keep an eye on the Robinson/Domi/Laine line. They were clicking on Thursday, with John Tortorella praising Laine for having his best game of the season ... The Blue Jackets lost all but one of the four games against Florida which were played in Columbus this season, but did manage to collect a loser point in two of those losses because of course they did.
The Other Bench
The Panthers have won four straight despite missing many of their key players. Forwards Aleksander Barkov have missed the last week but could be back this weekend. Anthony Duclair remains out with an upper body injury, while star defenseman Aaron Ekblad will miss twelve weeks due to a broken leg suffered on Sunday ... Yesterday the Panthers made a small trade, swapping seldom used Vinnie Hinostroza for minor leaguer Brad Morrison ... Another interesting transaction this week was the signing of Spencer Knight, a goaltending prospect and 2019 first round pick. Knight would be expected to be the future at that position, but our old friend Sergei Bobrovsky is still signed for five more years at a cap hit of $10 million a year. Backup Chris Driedger (who has outplayed Bobrovsky) is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and has appeared on some trade lists. Would GM Bill Zito flip him for assets now and trust Bob and Knight in the postseason, or stick with the goalie rotation which has gotten the team this far? I’d go with that latter approach, since a playoff run is worth more than the small return you’d get for Driedger at the trade deadline.
Season Series
01/26/2021 FLA 4 @ CBJ 3 (SO)
01/28/2021 FLA 2 @ CBJ 3 (SO)
03/09/2021 FLA 4 @ CBJ 2
03/11/2021 FLA 5 @ CBJ 4 (OT)
04/03/2021 CBJ @ FLA
04/04/2021 CBJ @ FLA
04/19/2021 CBJ @ FLA
04/20/2021 CBJ @ FLA
Stats
Florida | Columbus | |
---|---|---|
3.27 (5) | GPG | 2.47 (26) |
2.68 (13) | GAPG | 3.11 (23) |
24.0% (9) | PP% | 14.8% (26) |
80.5% (12) | PK% | 75.9% (25) |
52.2% (7) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 46.1% (31) |
52.3% (8) | 5v5 Unblocked shot attempt % | 47.0% (28) |
7.5 (22) | 5v5 Shot % | 7.5 (22) |
.924 (11) | 5v5 Save % | .917 (20) |
Carter Verhaeghe, 17 | G Leader | Oliver BJORKSTRAND and Cam Atkinson, 13 |
Jonathan Huberdeau, 28 | A Leader | Oliver BJORKSTRAND, 17 |
Jonathan Huberdeau, 42 | P Leader | Oliver BJORKSTRAND, 30 |
MacKenzie Weegar, 39 | PIM Leader | Max Domi, 37 |
12-4-3 | Home / Road | 7-10-2 |
6-4-0 | Last 10 | 4-4-2 |
Projected Lineups
Patrik Laine | Max Domi | Eric Robinson |
Oliver BJORKSTRAND | Jack Roslovic | Cam Atkinson |
Nick Foligno | Alexandre Texier | Boone Jenner |
Liam Foudy | Riley Nash | Zac Dalpe |
Zach Werenski | Seth Jones |
Vladislav Gavrikov | David Savard |
Dean Kukan | Mikko Lehtonen |
Joonas Korpisalo |
Elvis Merzlikins |
Mason Marchment | Noel Acciari | Carter Verhaeghe |
Jonathan Huberdeau | Alexander Wennberg | Brett Conolly |
Frank Vatrano | Juho Lammikkko | Owen Tippett |
Ryan Lomberg | Eetu Luostarinen |
Gustav Forsling | Mackenzie Weegar |
Riley Stillman | Anton Stralman |
Keith Yandle | Radko Gudas/Markus Nutivaara |
Sergei Bobrovsky |
Chris Driedger |