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Game 5 (X) Preview: A National TV Matinee

Columbus Blue Jackets at Pittsburgh Penguins
Saturday, September 27 – 4:00 PM EDT
CONSOL Energy Center – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
TV – NHL Network
Opponents’ Blog: PensBurgh

This one is on TV… assuming, of course, that you have Time Warner, DISH, or DirecTV here in Columbus. For the rest of us… well, tough shit, I guess.

Suffice it to say, this is not the same Penguins lineup that the Blue Jackets shut out at Nationwide on Tuesday. Not at all. Still no Evgeni Malkin, but the Penguins will be rolling a much more veteran forward lineup out today than they did last Tuesday. The Jackets, conversely, are a lot younger throughout the lineup, though they will give Sergei Bobrovsky another crack at the Penguins. He stopped 30 of 30 shots faced through two periods the other night.

The matchup I want to see–assuming it shakes out that way–is whether or not Brandon Dubinsky and Sidney Crosby are again facing off against each other. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see someone like Blake Comeau or Steve Downie on Crosby’s line tonight as “insurance” if you will.

At any rate, here are the full rosters for today’s game:

Blue Jackets Roster

Forwards

Josh Anderson
Oliver Bjorkstrand
Matt Calvert
Michael Chaput
Sean Collins
Brandon Dubinsky
Brian Gibbons
Simon Hjalmarsson
Kerby Rychel
Corey Tropp
T.J. Tynan
Alexander Wennberg

Defense

Austin Madaisky
Brett Ponich
Dalton Prout
David Savard
Frederic St. Denis
Will Weber

Goaltenders

Sergei Bobrovsky
Curtis McElhinney

Penguins Roster

Forwards

Blake Comeau
Sidney Crosby
Steve Downie
Bobby Farnham
Marcel Goc
Kasperi Kapanen
Chris Kunitz
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond
Zach Sill
Brandon Sutter
Nick Spaling
Oskar Sundqvist

Defensemen

Taylor Chorney
Simon Despres
Christian Ehrhoff
Scott Harrington
Kris Letang
Philip Samuelsson

Goaltenders

Marc-Andre Fleury
Jeff Zatkoff

There’s definitely a lot more veteran presence there, no?

This should be a nice tester for the Jackets. Look for some roster moves after the game, so it may also be the “last chance” for some of the fringe guys to make a big impression on the front office and coaching staff. Expect some of those young guys to play balls-to-the-wall to make one last, good impression.

Enjoy!