Game #17 Preview/Gamethread: Jackets batten down the hatches for the Hurricanes

Monday, February 15, 2021 – 7:00 EST
PNC Arena – Raleigh, North Carolina
TV: Fox Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Blog: Canes Country

Carolina Hurricanes (9-3-0, 18 points, 3rd Central)

vs.

Columbus Blue Jackets (7-5-4, 18 points, 4th Central)

After a disappointing Saturday night loss-that-should-have-been-a-win in Chicago, the Jackets are in North Carolina to rematch in Raleigh with the Hurricanes, who they played in Columbus last weekend.

And what a week it’s been in between! I feel like part of how quickly this season has been going and with how crammed the games are together and the fact that we play the same handful of teams in our division over and over again is giving me an unsettling feeling of déjà vu.

Here’s the full recap of last weekend’s matchup with the Hurricanes, but to give you a quick refresher, it was the now-infamous game where Patrik Laine was benched for the end of the second period and whole third, and Jack Roslovic jumped in to save the day with the winning goal in a 3-2 game.

Speaking of…

Player to Watch

Patrik Laine

He had a big game Saturday night! Specifically, he had a big first period. Taken from Pale Dragon’s recap: “Patrik Laine opened the scoring with a goal that showed off his speed, strength, and killer shot. He took a feed from Cam Atkinson, entered the zone with speed, then unleashed his wrister around Nicolas Beaudin to beat Kevin Lankinen over his right shoulder. When interviewed in the second intermission, Laine referred to this as ‘textbook top cheese.’”

Will he break the sound barrier again with another one of his “top cheese” shots? We can only hope so. Whatever beef was happening last weekend, it seems to have been shaken out and Laine has been a fun, dynamic player to watch.

Jackets Notes

#CBJ lineup: Stefan Matteau goes in for Mikhail Grigorenko (so a roster move is upcoming), Dean Kukan goes in for Zach Werenski. No update on Z from Torts.

Joonas Korpisalo in net.

— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) February 15, 2021

Zach Werenski is out again with the same lower-body injury that prevented him from playing in three games leading up to Saturday night’s game, which he played in.

The Other Bench

The Hurricanes are on their second-best franchise start of the season right now with a 9-3-0 record in 12 games, but they’re only one slot ahead of the Jackets in the division rankings and lost to the Jackets last weekend despite Laine getting b*nched, so there is definitely room for improvement on Carolina’s behalf.

Season Series

02/07/2021 CAR @ CBJ
02/08/2021 CAR @ CBJ
02/15/2021 CBJ @ CAR
03/18/2021 CBJ @ CAR
03/20/2021 CBJ @ CBJ
03/22/2021 CAR @ CBJ
03/25/2021 CAR @ CBJ

Stats

Projected Lineups