Game Preview #10 - We're Going As Falcons For Halloween!
The Jackets dress up for Halloween as the Springfield Falcons to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at Nationwide tonight.
Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets
October 31, 2014 - 7:00 pm EDT
Nationwide Arena - Columbus, Ohio
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Pension Plan Puppets
Welp, Halloween is supposed to be scary. Look at the lineup below. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Done throwing up yet? No? OK, I'll wait.
Back? Good. The good news (ha!) is that Nick Foligno will be back, which is nice if only from the standpoint that his injury was much less serious than it looked when he collided with the linesman on Sunday. Thank goodness for that bit of good news!
The bad news? This lineup is a lot of guys that should be in Springfield. And it doesn't include Brian Gibbons and Cody Goloubef, who probably should be as well. By my estimation, in a perfect world the following guys would be in Springfield: Wennberg, Tropp, Chaput, Dano, Cracknell, Collins, Gibbons, Goloubef, and Forsberg. Yikes. Trick of treat!
(Sorry, that was a lie. There are no treats.)
The Maple Leafs aren't good. That said, they're probably better than this Jackets lineup. I will say, however, that Columbus generated a ton of shots and played very hard the other night. I don't think either Toronto goalie can play like Lehner did, so if they can somehow do that again they can hang around.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(4-5-0, 8 Points; 7th division, 14th conference)
| Scott Hartnell | Ryan Johansen | Cam Atkinson |
| Nick Foligno | Alexander Wennberg | Jack Skille |
| Corey Tropp | Michael Chaput | Marko Dano |
| Adam Cracknell | Sean Collins | Jared Boll |
| Jack Johnson | Fedor Tyutin |
| Ryan Murray | David Savard |
| Tim Erixon | Dalton Prout |
| Curtis McElhinney |
| Anton Forsberg |
Toronto Maple Leafs
(4-4-1, 9 Points; 7th Division, 13th Conference)
| Joffrey Lupul | Nazem Kadri | Phil Kessel |
| James van Riemsdyk | Tyler Bozak | David Clarkson |
| Leo Komarov | Mike Santorelli | Daniel Winnik |
| Richard Panik | Peter Holland | Matt Frattin |
| Dion Phaneuf | Cody Franson |
| Morgan Rielly | Roman Polak |
| Jake Gardiner | Stephane Robidas |
| Jonathan Bernier |
| James Reimer |
Season Series
10/31/14 - Toronto at Columbus
01/09/15 - Columbus at Toronto
04/08/15 - Toronto at Columbus
Head to Head Stats
| Toronto | Columbus | |
| 2.78 (13) | GPG | 2.78 (14) |
| 2.78 (18) | GAPG | 3.33 (23) |
| 16.2% (19) | PP% | 18.4% (16) |
| 85.3% (9) | PK% | 78.6% (24) |
| Phil Kessel, 5 | G leader | Ryan Johansen, 5 |
| Tyler Bozak / Leo Komarov, 6 | A leader | Scott Hartnell, 9 |
| Tyler Bozak / Phil Kessel, 10 | Pts leader | Ryan Johansen, 12 |
| Dion Phaneuf, 23 | PIM leader | Jared Boll, 26 |
| 2-0-1 | Road/Home | 2-2-0 |
| 4-4-1 | Last 10 | 4-5-0 |
| 10/28 vs. Buffalo, W 4-0 | Last Game | 10/28 vs. Ottawa, L 5-2 |