Sunday, March 9, 2025 – 6:00 PM EST
Madison Square Garden – New York, New York
TV: SN, TVAS, FDSNOH, MSG; Radio: 97.1 FM
Columbus Blue Jackets (30-24-8, 68 points, 4th Metro, 8th East)
at
New York Rangers (31-26-8, 68 points, 5th Metro, 9th East)
The Rangers lost, in overtime unfortunately, to the Ottawa Senators yesterday. The Senators, Rangers, and Jackets are the main 3 contenders for the Eastern Wild Card spots, all of these games have massive impacts on the playoff race.
Player to Watch
Luke Kunin and Christian Fischer
It was a fairly quiet trade deadline for the Jackets, but their two newest acquisitions look to draw into the lineup tonight. Luke Kunin (11-7-18) is a veteran forward with positional flexibility in the bottom 6 who spent some time with Evason in Minnesota. Christian Fischer (from waivers) is a defensively responsible 4th liner who should be able to help on the PK. He had a fun quote this week:
New #CBJ Christian Fischer played against the team in last week’s Stadium Series. He described the result with a wry smile: “I’m on the right side of it now. That was not a penalty at the end. All was good there. God, the Detroit friends are gonna hate me for saying that.”
Jackets Notes
Complete mix-up in the bottom 9 today after the shutout in Florida. Let’s see if there is a bit more offensive chemistry as the Jackets work to bring in Chinakhov, the new guys, and replace Sillinger (shoulder injury). Erik Gudbranson continues to skate at practices.
The Other Bench
Adam Fox is still out due to injury for the Rangers. They’ve had a large shakeup of their defensive corp throughout the year, staples Lindgren and Trouba are no longer with the team and Soucy and Borgen were recently acquired through trade.
Jonathan Quick has had a late career resurgence in New York and will once again look to provide trouble for his former team.
Season Series
01/18/2025 CBJ 0 @ NYR 1
02/08/2025 NYR 4 @ CBJ 3
03/09/2025 CBJ @ NYR
03/15/2025 NYR @ CBJ
Stats
| Columbus | New York | |
| 3.27 (7) | GPG | 3.03 (13) |
| 3.29 (26) | GAPG | 3.02 (20) |
| 20.7 (19) | PP% | 19.6 (23) |
| 74.7 (26) | PK% | 83 (3) |
| 47.29 (29) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 48.63 (21) |
| 47.87 (26) | 5v5 Unblocked Shot Attempt % | 48.94 (21) |
| 10.3 (3) | 5v5 Shooting % | 9.36 (8) |
| 91(19) | 5v5 Save % | 91.13 (18) |
| Kirill Marchenko, 24 | G Leader | Artemi Panarin, 27 |
| Zach Werenski, 46 | A Leader | Adam Fox, 43 |
| Zach Werenski, 66 | P Leader | Artemi Panarin, 66 |
| Mathieu Olivier, 118 | PIM Leader | Sam Carrick, 52 |
| 10-18-4 | Home/Road | 16-13-3 |
| 4-5-1 | Last 10 | 5-3-2 |
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
| Dmitri Voronkov | Adam Fantilli | Kirill Marchenko |
| Kent Johnson | Boone Jenner | Mathieu Olivier |
| Yegor Chinakhov | Justin Danforth | Luke Kunin |
| Zach Aston-Reese | Sean Kuraly | James Van Riemsdyk |
| Zach Werenski | Dante Fabbro |
| Denton Mateychuk | Ivan Provorov |
| Jake Christiansen | Damon Severson |
| Daniil Tarasov |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
New York Rangers
| Artemi Panarin | Vincent Trocheck | Alexis Lafreniere |
| Will Cuyle | JT Miller | Mika Zibanejad |
| Chris Kreider | Sam Carrick | Juuso Parssinen |
| Brennan Othmann | Jonny Brodzinski | Matt Rempe |
| K’Andre Miller | Will Borgen |
| Urho Vaakanainen | Braden Schneider |
| Carson Soucy | Zac Jones |
| Jonathan Quick |
| Igor Shesterkin |