Game #7 Preview: Columbus Blue Jackets at New York Rangers

Friday, October 29, 2021 – 7:00 EST
Madison Square Garden – New York, New York
TV: Bally Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 FM and BlueJackets.com
Opponent’s Blog: Blueshirt Banter

Columbus Blue Jackets (4-2-0, 8 points, 5th Metropolitan, 8th East)
at
New York Rangers (4-2-1, 9 points, 3rd Metropolitan, 6th East)

After a three game homestand, which ended with a resounding 4-1 win over Dallas, the Blue Jackets look to continue their momentum into a three game road trip. That starts tonight in Manhattan against the New York Rangers. CBJ forward Max Domi returns to the lineup after missing 10 days due to a fractured rib, booting (checks notes) Yegor Chinakhov from the lineup. Justin Danforth was sent back to Cleveland. Also of note: this will be Columbus’ first game in MSG since Matiss Kivlenieks made his NHL debut there back in January of 2020.

Player to Watch

Artemi Panarin

The former Blue Jacket makes only his fourth rendezvous with his old club since joining the Rangers in the summer of 2019. After posting 17 goals and 58 points in 42 games last year, the electric left wing only has four points through seven games. Breadman’s been on 100-point paces for both of the Covid-shortened seasons, so here’s to hoping he waits one game more before returning to form.

Blue Jackets Notes

The wild start to the season continues for the CBJ, as to date they have a pair of games each where they’ve dominated start to finish (vs Arizona and Dallas), earned back-and-forth OT wins ended by Patrik Laine (vs Seattle and the Islanders), and suffered blowout losses (at Detroit and vs Carolina). Monday’s game vs Dallas was the first game where the Blue Jackets were unsuccessful in all of their powerplays, going 0-for-4 to push their percentage down to 26.3%. Dean Kukan will not play after suffering an injury in that Dallas game; Scott Harrington will draw in on the third pair.

Rangers Notes

After sweeping their four-game road trip through Eastern Canada and Nashville, then getting beat badly by the Flames 5-1, the Rangers are looking to get MSG it’s first win of the 2021-22 season. Only two Rangers games so far have seen both teams score multiple times, so this one will likely be either pretty low-scoring or pretty one-sided. New York, who similar to Columbus are a young team with multiple offensive threats, also have a new head coach this season in Gerald Gallant.

Season Series

10/29/21 CBJ at NYR
11/13/21 NYR at CBJ
1/27/22 NYR at CBJ

Stats

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets

New York Rangers