Florida Panthers at Columbus Blue Jackets
December 1, 2014 – 7:00 pm EST
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Radio – WBNS 97.1 – TV – Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent’s Blog: Litter Box Cats
Arty’s gone for essentially the rest of the year. He probably won’t be back until March, and at that point, what will be the point? If a tree falls in the forest and such…
At any rate, welcome back DMac. I know I was one of many who understood the logistics of it, but who misses the MAN that is DMac. I’m only sad that it’s December 1st and thus the Fu Mac Chu might not be there anymore. 🙁
At any rate, I actually feel like if the Jackets play like they did Saturday night, they can win this game. The Panthers are not a high-scoring club, but they play a solid defensive game. The Jackets get backup goalie Al Montoya, who has been asked to play more of late due to injury for Roberto Luongo. Losing Anisimov hurts, for sure, but if the Jackets can just avoid the 15-minute lapses they’ve had lately they can hang around with Florida.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(6-15-2, 14 Points; 8th division, 16th conference)
| Scott Hartnell | Ryan Johansen | Nick Foligno |
| Kerby Rychel | Boone Jenner | Cam Atkinson |
| Matt Calvert | Michael Chaput | Jack Skille |
| Brian Gibbons | Adam Cracknell | Jared Boll |
| Jack Johnson | Dalton Prout |
| Jordan Leopold | David Savard |
| Kevin Connauton | James Wisniewski |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Curtis McElhinney |
Florida Panthers
(9-6-6, 24 Points; 6th Division, 9th Conference)
| Jonathan Huberdeau | Nick Bjugstad | Brandon Pirri |
| Sean Bergenheim | Aleksander Barkov | Brad Boyes |
| Tomas Fleischmann | Vincent Trocheck | Jimmy Hayes |
| Tomas Kopecky | Derek MacKenzie | Shawn Thornton |
| Brian Campbell | Aaron Ekblad |
| Willie Mitchell | Dmitry Kulikov |
| Dylan Olsen | Erik Gudbranson |
| Al Montoya |
| Roberto Luongo |
Season Series
12/01/14 – Florida at Columbus
12/04/14 – Columbus at Florida
01/29/15 – Columbus at Florida
Head to Head Stats
| Florida | Columbus | |
| 2.10 (28) | GPG | 2.26 (26) |
| 2.38 (8) | GAPG | 3.56 (30) |
| 14.7% (22) | PP% | 22.5% (7) |
| 80.0% (17) | PK% | 75.9% (26) |
| Nick Bjugstad, 8 | G leader | Nick Foligno, 10 |
| Jussi Jokinen, 10 | A leader | Ryan Johansen, 16 |
| Nick Bjugstad / Jussi Jokinen, 12 | Pts leader | Ryan Johansen, 25 |
| Shawn Thornton / Scottie Upshall, 20 | PIM leader | Jared Boll, 42 |
| 4-2-5 | Road/Home | 3-8-1 |
| 5-3-2 | Last 10 | 2-7-1 |
| 11/28 vs. Ottawa, W 3-2 | Last Game | 11/29 @ Nashville, L 2-1 |