While the Stars have lost 3 of their last 5, as a whole they’re the complete opposite of the Blue Jackets. They had every reason to be bad this year. Losing Brad Richards to free agency and getting nothing in return had to hurt. But they’re doing pretty well for themselves and a lot of credit goes to Kari Lehtonen. Lehtonen’s stats started to slide his last couple years in Atlanta, but he’s rebounded well and has the Stars in contention for the Pacific Division, just one point behind the Sharks.
Will they go up 3-0 in the season series against Columbus?
On the other hand, the Jackets are in the middle of a nightmare season that no one realized could go this low. But Howson has seen enough and made his intentions to make some trades public yesterday. Will this wake up the locker room? Can Mason continue to take steps towards improvement? Or will they sleepwalk through another game and get blasted by the Stars?
The road to respectability is going to be long for Columbus. This season has made that journey even longer. Can it begin tonight?
You call it
| Jackets get blown out by the Stars | 5 |
| It’s a close game, win or lose | 6 |
| The Jackets wake up and blast the Stars | 1 |