Game #11: Red Jackets hope the stars are in a-Laine-ment against Dallas

Tuesday, February 2, 2021 – 7:00 EST
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
TV: Fox Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Blog: Defending Big D

Dallas Stars (4-1-1, 9 points, 5th Central)

at

Columbus Blue Jackets (4-3-3, 11 points, 3rd Central)

It’s an evening of debuts: the first game featuring the red “Reverse Retro” jerseys, the first game against the Dallas Stars as a divisional rival, and presumably, hopefully, the Blue Jackets debut of recently acquired winger Patrik Laine

Player to Watch

Patrik Laine

It took nearly a week to secure his work visa, but Laine’s paperwork cleared on Friday and he arrived in Columbus that day. After a 48 hour quarantine, he was able to get on the ice yesterday while the rest of the team had an off day. There is a practice scheduled for this morning and all signs point to Laine dressing tonight.

Now, I have to caution everyone against expecting too much too soon. First, Laine hasn’t played since January 14 due to an upper body injury, so he will have some rust. Second, it can take a new addition a number of games to get used to his linemates and the team’s system. Still, Laine has an elite shot and such a weapon can still make itself known without much work. Just get him the puck and he’ll know what do do with it.

Jackets Notes

Yesterday, the team assigned goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks from the taxi squad to the Cleveland Monsters. Cam Johnson was added to the taxi squad in his place to serve as the third goalie … If Laine is activated, another player will have to be removed from the 23 man roster … We won’t know the lines until after this morning’s practice, so what I have below is my best guess based on the new lines we saw on Sunday in Chicago … It is Joonas Korpisalo’s turn in net:

How good has Joonas Korpisalo been?
GAA = 2.17
Expected GAA (shot quantity & quality he faces) = 3.79, the highest of any goalie with 200+ minutes.

Long and short, no team has benefitted from the play of a goaltender more this season than CBJ has from Korpisalo. #CBJ

— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) February 1, 2021

The Other Bench

The Stars were the first team to have games postponed due to COVID, due to an outbreak that hit the team during training camp which delayed the start of their season … The Stars won their first four games played prior to earning just one point over the weekend in Carolina … Captain Jamie Benn made his season debut during that series, and he already has a goal and assist in two games … 36 year old Joe Pavelski still has something left in the tank, with a team-leading five goals and ten points in six games … Goalie Ben Bishop and center Tyler Seguin are both out until at least March, with a knee and hip injury, respectively.

Season Series

02/02/2021 DAL @ CBJ
02/04/2021 DAL @ CBJ
03/04/2021 CBJ @ DAL
03/06/2021 CBJ @ DAL
03/13/2021 DAL @ CBJ
03/15/2021 DAL @ CBJ
04/15/2021 CBJ @ DAL
04/17/2021 CBJ @ DAL

Stats

Projected Lineups