Saturday, November 2, 2019 – 7:00 EST
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
TV: Fox Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Blog: Matchsticks and Gasoline
Calgary Flames (7-6-2, 16 pts, 5th Pacific, 8th West)
vs.
Columbus Blue Jackets (5-5-3, 13 pts, 6th Metro, 12th East)
The Blue Jackets return home to take on the Calgary Flames. The Flames were last seen beating Nashville in OT with a fairly above-average goal, I guess, from Matthew Tkachuk. It wasn’t no Sonny Milano, but it was aight.
Matthew Tkachuk with some absolute silliness to win it in OT pic.twitter.com/hjW6p6mglk
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) November 1, 2019
Calgary made some offseason news when the team traded for Milan Lucic in a move to make the Flames ‘tougher to play against’. He has 3 assists in 15 games and 26 PIM. That might be what Calgary was hoping for but… doesn’t seem like the kind of addition that gets you to the playoffs. On the other hand, their offense is poor, but better than Columbus’. So are the Calgary special teams. I think the Jackets can take the win, though.
Columbus is playing its second game in two nights after falling to the St. Louis Blues in overtime last night. Silver lining from that result is that St. Louis scored so quickly, the fellas didn’t get too tired out from their 6th OT game of the year. Elvis Merzlikins played well but St. Louis was able to take advantage of defensive gaffes from the forwards to take the win. Oliver Bjorkstrand and the power play got on the board, but the penalty kill gave up two more. There’s plenty of work still to do. I expect Joonas Korpisalo to get the call. Hopefully, Markus Nutivaara does a well.
Player to Watch
Cam Atkinson
12 games. 6 points. 3 goals. None on 5v5.
Watch him. Mayhaps the weight of our collective vision will help him score some goals.
Jackets Notes
Oliver Bjorkstrand finally collected his 100th point of his career…Scott Harrington earned his first point of the season against St. Louis…Well, you all saw the game yesterday, you’re pretty much caught up…
The Other Bench
Johnny Gaudreau hit 400 points for his career in the OT win against Nashville…Calgary has alternated wins and losses in the last 8 games…Austin Czarnik (Go Redhawks!) is on the IR list with a lower body injury…
Season Series
11/2/2019 CGY @ CBJ
3/4/2020 CBJ @ CGY
Stats (as of 11:30pm est, last night)
| Calgary | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.73 (22) | GPG | 2.62 (26) |
| 3.07 (16) | GAPG | 3.62 (26) |
| 16.7% (21) | PP% | 14.6% (25) |
| 87.5% (3) | PK% | 73.2% (26) |
| 50.79% (13) | 5v5 Corsi % | 49.26% (21) |
| 49.36% (18) | 5v5 Fenwick % | 50.22% (15) |
| 7.1% (20) | 5v5 Shot % | 6.0% (28) |
| .906 (t-22) | 5v5 Save % | .906 (t-22) |
| Elias Lindholm, 9 | G Leader | Pierre-Luc Dubois, 6 |
| Johnny Gaudreau, 10 | A Leader | Seth Jones, 6 |
| Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, 13 | P Leader | Pierre-Luc Dubois, 10 |
| Milan Lucic, 26 | PIM Leader | Pierre-Luc Dubois, 13 |
| 3-5-1 | Home / Road | 3-3-1 |
| 5-4-1 | Last 10 | 4-3-3 |
Projected Lineups:
| Gustav Nyquist | Pierre-Luc Dubois | Cam Atkinson |
| Sonny Milano | Alexander Wennberg | Oliver BJORKSTRAND |
| Nick Foligno | Boone Jenner | Josh Anderson |
| Jakob Lilja | Riley Nash | Emil Bemstrom |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | Seth Jones |
| Zach Werenski | Dean Kukan |
| Scott Harrington | David Savard |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| Johnny Gaudreau | Sean Monahan | Elias Lindholm |
| Matthew Tkachuk | Mikael Backlund | Michael Frolik |
| Andrew Mangiapane | Derek Ryan | Sam Bennett |
| Milan Lucic | Mark Jankowski | Alan Quine |
| Mark Giordano | TJ Brodie |
| Noah Hanifin | Travis Hamonic |
| Oliver Kylington | Rasmus Andersson |
| David Rittich |
| Cam Talbot |