Sunday, August 2, 2020 – 8:00 EST
Scotiabank Arena – Toronto, Ontario
TV: Fox Sports Ohio & NHL Network; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Blog: Pension Plan Puppets
Columbus Blue Jackets (33-22-15, 81 points, 6th Metro, 9th East)
vs.
Toronto Maple Leafs (36-25-9, 81 points, 3rd Atlantic, 8th East)
This is it: after almost five months of waiting, the postseason has arrived for the Blue Jackets. It’s a fascinating clash of contrasting styles: Toronto with two lines stacked with highly-paid, high-scoring forwards vs. Columbus with a relentless defensive structure which prevents even the best teams from getting many high danger scoring chances.
Despite those contrasts, there are some similarities: these teams both survived many injuries, and ended up with the same record in the same number of games. They are two of the bottom three teams in penalty minutes, so hopefully these are games with few whistles. Both squads won their warm-up games in dominant fashion: Columbus 4-1 over Boston and Toronto 4-2 over Montreal.
The lines below have been the practice lines all week, so expect those 36 skaters to play. The lines for Columbus may shuffle in-game, as Torts is wont to do. As for the Jackets netminders, the starter has been named, but we won’t know until closer to gametime:
Are you ready to name a starting goaltender? Has anyone emerged for you?
John Tortorella: “Yeah, but I’m not going to talk to you about it at this point, @Aportzline, (smile) you know better.
“Very comfortable with our goaltending. I know nothing about Andersen.”
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) August 1, 2020
Rather than our usual team notes for this preview, here are the series previews from us and Pension Plan Puppets to get you up to speed before puck drop:
From The Cannon:
Q&A with Pension Plan Puppets
Columbus fans don’t view the Blue Jackets as Cup contenders
A guide for bandwagon CBJ fans
Goalie preview
Forward preview
Defense preview
Cannon Cast playoff preview episode
From Pension Plan Puppets:
Series predictions
Blue Jackets vs. Bruins recap
Profile of Jackets defense
Back to Excited podcast preview episode
How the Maple Leafs have done in best of five series
Breakdown of Jackets special teams
Profile of Jackets forwards
Blue Jackets: who scores, who defends
Goalie preview
Who are the Columbus Blue Jackets?
Breakdown of the Toronto lines and pairs
Further discussion of the third line, and rookie Nick Robertson’s place on it
Season Series
10/04/2019 TOR 4 @ CBJ 1
10/21/2019 CBJ 4 @ TOR 3 (OT)
Stats
| Toronto | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.39 (3) | GPG | 2.57 (28) |
| 3.17 (26) | GAPG | 2.61 (4) |
| 23.1% (5) | PP% | 16.4% (27) |
| 77.7% (21) | PK% | 81.7% (12) |
| 52.0% (6) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 49.2% (19) |
| 51.3% (9) | 5v5 Unblocked shot attempt % | 50.9% (11) |
| 8.6 (9) | 5v5 Shot % | 6.8 (28) |
| .912 (25) | 5v5 Save % | .928 (5) |
| Auston Matthews, 47 | G Leader | Oliver BJORKSTRAND, 21 |
| Mitch Marner, 51 | A Leader | Pierre-Luc Dubois, 31 |
| Auston Matthews, 80 | P Leader | Pierre-Luc Dubois, 49 |
| Justin Holl, 43 | PIM Leader | Nick Foligno, 62 |
| 18-9-7 | Home/Away | 13-10-11 |
| 5-4-1 | Last 10 | 3-4-3 |
Projected Lineups
| Alexandre Texier | Pierre-Luc Dubois | Oliver BJORKSTRAND |
| Nick Foligno | Alexander Wennberg | Cam Atkinson |
| Gustav Nyquist | Boone Jenner | Liam Foudy |
| Eric Robinson | Riley Nash | Emil Bemstrom |
| Zach Werenski | Seth Jones |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | David Savard |
| Ryan Murray | Dean Kukan |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| William Nylander | Auston Matthews | Zach Hyman |
| Ilya Mikheyev | John Tavares | Mitch Marner |
| Nick Robertson | Alexaner Kerfoot | Kasperi Kapanen |
| Kyle Clifford | Frederik Gauthier | Jason Spezza |
| Jake Muzzin | Justin Holl |
| Morgan Rielly | Cody Ceci |
| Travis Dermott | Tyson Barrie |
| Frederik Andersen |
| Jack Campbell |