Yawn. Still tired from staying up last night to watch the thrashing in San Jose? OK, I’m sure almost no one stayed up. The Blue Jackets are right back at it again tonight–same bat time, same bat channel–in the City of Angels to face the Kings.
This one should be a low-scoring affair (he said hopefully, looking in your direction turnover-prone Jackets’ defense) with the two worst offenses in the league. Last time out in this same building? A 1-0 Blue Jackets win. But that was a long time ago both in injuries and level of play for Columbus.
The Kings are currently in a playoff spot, so this game is a little more important for them. In addition, it’s their first game back from the AS break, and they will be a bit fresher than are the Jackets.
The Dispatch is reporting that Andrew Joudrey is making his debut tonight for Columbus, at the expense of Ryan Johansen. The report is that Johansen is moderately ill, but Todd Richards was apparently going to bench him anyway. Stand by whilst I bang my head on the desk for a few minutes.
…
All better. Marc Methot is out again with the flu, and is apparently already in Anaheim in advance of Friday’s game. Look for the same pairings as last night on the blue line in front of Curtis Sanford. Finally, it looks like there will be some major lineup changes. Porty is reporting the following:
“Derick Brassard will open on a line with R.J. Umberger and Rick Nash, while Vinny Prospal will slide down to the No. 3 line with Sammy Pahlsson and Derek Dorsett. The guess here is that Colton Gillies, Antoine Vermette and Jared Boll form a line, leaving Joudry with Derek MacKenzie and Ryan Russell.”
Well, allow me to be the first to say WHAT. THE. FUNK. The guess here is that this lineup will score negative amounts of goals. Buckle up!