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Game #15 Preview: Dallas Stars at Columbus Blue Jackets

Dallas Stars at Columbus Blue Jackets
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 – 7:00 EST
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
TV: Fox Sports Ohio – Radio: 97.1 WBNS FM
Opponent’s Blog: Defending Big D

Dallas Stars, 8-5-1, 17 points, 3rd Central, 5th West
@
Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-6-1, 15 points, 4th Metro, 9th East

Tonight, the Columbus Blue Jackets and their powerless play return to Nationwide Arena to try to stem the bleeding after notching just three points on their California road trip. Three out of six possible points might not look bad, but the two losses came to the worst team in the NHL in the Los Angeles Kings (who fired their coaching staff the morning after their 4-1 victory) and the Anaheim Ducks (who had lost seven straight coming into the tilt).

Across the ice will be the Dallas Stars, a team that has righted the ship after a slow start. The Stars played last night in Boston, and eventually fell 2-1 in overtime. Dallas is traveling and playing in Columbus on the second night of a back to back. The Stars are a fast team, give up few goals per game, and play well on special teams. The Blue Jackets will have to put together a consistent sixty minute effort to get the win against the Stars. Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get the start in net, while Ben Bishop (by virtue of not playing for the Stars last night) will take the opposing net. No other lineup changes are expected for the Blue Jackets.

Player to Watch

Miro Heiskanen

Miro Heiskanen, rookie defenseman, has made an impact thus far in his rookie season. Over the summer, as the Stars attempted to trade for Erik Karlsson, Heiskanen was made untouchable despite the Senators’ best attempt to pry him out of Dallas. Heiskanen, a smooth-skating second pairing player, has notched two goals and five points thus far, showing confidence and awareness that should remind Blue Jackets fans of their own young first pairing players, Seth Jones and Zach Werenski. Heiskanen has been praised as having a maturity and hockey sense beyond his years – Columbus could be watching one of the league’s fellow young rising blue line stars tomorrow night.

Jackets Notes

The Blue Jackets power play is on an 0-20 streak dating to the October 27th game against the Buffalo Sabres. Over the course of this streak, the team has taken four penalties that negated power play opportunities, and allowed three shorthanded goals … The power play is 2-38 dating to the Tampa Bay Lightning game on October 13, and both power play goals came in the seven goal outburst against the St. Louis Blues … Oliver Bjorkstrand might be a candidate for a healthy scratch in the near future if he doesn’t find his game soon. He’s been given second line minutes and power play time this season, yet has just one goal and two assists this season playing sheltered 58.8% oZS … Pierre-Luc Dubois entered into a tie for second with Cam Atkinson and Nikolai Zherdev for goals in a Blue Jackets player’s first 100 games in the NHL with 26, he has four games left to reach 100 and try to catch Rick Nash’s 35 goals scored for first place.

The Other Bench

Dallas played last night in Boston against the Bruins, so despite the lack of rest for the Blue Jackets after their California road trip, at least the Stars will be worn out as well … The Stars are on an 8-2-0 streak after starting the season 0-3, finding their footing after a slow start behind the offensive wizardry of Tyler Seguin, leading the Stars with 14 points … Alexander Radulov will miss the game with an injury, and he did not make the trip … Dallas is in the midst of a six game road trip, and have defeated Eastern Conference heavyweights in the Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals on the trip.

Season Series

11/06/2018 DAL @ CBJ
11/12/2018 CBJ @ DAL

Stats

Dallas Columbus
3.08 (15) GPG 3.29 (9)
2.62 (5) GAPG 3.64 (25)
23.7% (12) PP% 10.7% (31)
85.0% (6) PK% 76.6% (23)
46.89% (26) EV Corsi % 49.57% (18)
0.999 (18) EV PDO 1.008 (10)
Jamie Benn, 6 G Leader Josh Anderson, 7
Tyler Seguin, 11 A Leader Artemi Panarin, 10
Tyler Seguin, 14 P Leader Artemi Panarin, 15
Brett Ritchie, 15 PIM Leader Pierre-Luc Dubois, 16
3-3-0 Home / Road 3-4-0
5-4-1 Last 10 4-5-1

Projected Lineups

Artemi Panarin Pierre-Luc Dubois Cam Atkinson
Nick Foligno Boone Jenner Josh Anderson
Anthony Duclair Alexander Wennberg Oliver Bjorkstrand
Riley Nash Brandon Dubinsky Markus Hannikainen
Zach Werenski Seth Jones
Ryan Murray Markus Nutivaara
Scott Harrington David Savard
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Devin Shore Tyler Seguin Mattias Janmark
Jamie Benn Jason Spezza Valeri Nichushkin
Blake Comeau Radek Faksa Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith Jason Dickinson Justin Dowling
Esa Lindell John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen Roman Polak
Dillon Heatherington Julius Honka
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin

UPDATE, 11:03 AM

Torts has made two lineup changes today. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Scott Harrington will be healthy scratched. Lukas Sedlak and and Dean Kukan draw in to the lineup.