San Jose Sharks at Columbus Blue Jackets
Febuary 21, 2012 – 7:00pm EST
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Radio – WWCD FM 102.5 – TV – Fox Sports Ohio
Opponents Blog: Fear The Fin
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The Jackets head back home for a couple more games heading into the much-discussed trading deadline on Monday. Here tonight are the San Jose Sharks, as these two wrap up their season series. The Sharks are scuffling a bit, hanging on to their division lead by a thin thread over red-hot Phoenix. They’re in the midst of a nine game road trip–this is game six–that has been anything but great: 1-3-1 to this point, including losses in St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Detroit.
The Jackets are getting Nikita Nikitin back tonight, and have placed Jared Boll on IR in his place. James Wisniewski is questionable with a sore groin, as is Aaron Johnson (upper and lower body), and Curtis Sanford is still out. Look for essentially the same lineup as Sunday night, with Nikitin coming in and Ryan Russell the healthy scratch.
Feel the excitement!
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(17-35-7, 41 Points; 5th division, 15th conference)
| R.J. Umberger | Derick Brassard | Rick Nash |
| Vinny Prospal | Jeff Carter | Mark Letestu |
| Derek Dorsett | Samuel Pahlsson | Antoine Vermette |
| Colton Gillies | Derek MacKenzie | Ryan Johansen |
| Fedor Tyutin | Nikita Nikitin |
| Grant Clitsome | John Moore |
| Brett Lebda | David Savard |
| Steve Mason |
| Allen York |
San Jose Sharks
(31-19-7, 69 Points; 1st Division, 3rd Conference)
| Andrew Desjardins | Joe Thornton | Joe Pavelski |
| Patrick Marleau | Logan Couture | Benn Ferriero |
| Jamie McGinn | Michal Handzus | Torrey Mitchell |
| Brad Winchester | John McCarthy | Andrew Murray |
| Dan Boyle | Brent Burns |
| Colin White | Jason Demers |
| Justin Braun | Jim Vandermeer |
| Antti Niemi |
| Thomas Greiss |
| Antero Niittymaki |
Season Series
01/05/12 – Columbus 1 at San Jose 2 – RECAP
01/14/12 – San Jose 2 at Columbus 1 – RECAP
01/31/12 – Columbus 0 at San Jose 6 – RECAP
02/21/12 – San Jose at Columbus
Head to Head
San Jose Columbus 2.82 (9) GPG 2.25 (28) 2.44 (8) GAPG 3.22 (29) 21.1% (3) PP% 16.3% (20) 78.4% (27) PK% 75.8% (30) Logan Couture, 25 G leader Rick Nash, 19 Joe Thornton, 40 A leader Vinny Prospal, 25 Joe Thornton, 52 Pts leader Rick Nash, 40 Brad Winchester, 75 PIM leader Derek Dorsett, 177 13-10-5 Road/Home 10-16-3 2/19 @ Detroit, L 3-2 Last Game 2/19 @ NY Rangers, L 3-2 OT 4-5-1 Last 10 4-5-1
Can the Jackets build on some of the momentum they had Sunday night, taking a very good Rangers team to overtime? Can they finally nip the Sharks, after two 2-1 losses and then a 6-0 thumping? Moreover, how many more times will we get to see Rick Nash at Nationwide in a Union Blue sweater? These questions and more… answered tonight.