Columbus Blue Jackets at Edmonton Oilers
March 28, 2013 – 9:30pm EDT
Rexall Place – Edmonton, Alberta
Radio – WWCD 102.5 – TV – Fox Sports Ohio
Opponents Blog: The Copper and Blue
SBNation Game Page
First and foremost, sorry for the lateness of this preview. Sometimes life–and the bill-paying day job that comes with it–gets in the way. All of that said…
This is going to be an interesting one. Some roster house-keeping: James Wisniewski is officially off of IR, and will play tonight. However, Brandon Dubinsky is back on IR. Now comes the fun part.
The Jackets are technically carrying EIGHT defensemen. John Moore will be a healthy scratch tonight. That said, Todd Richards is playing seven defensemen. Now, Nick Foligno is a no-go tonight as well, but emergency call-up Sean Collins will get his spot.
The interesting part comes on D. Adrian Aucioin isn’t 100%, but Richards said something to the effect of not wanting to be exposed should a D man go down. Plus, Wiz hasn’t played in a month. So…
Seven defensemen!
Colton Gillies is out to make way for the extra D-man.
At any rate, this game is important for both squads. The Oilers need the points, sitting just behind the Jackets in the standings. The Jackets need to prove they can win a game on the road.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(13-13-7, 33 Points; 5th division, 11th conference)
| R.J. Umberger | Ryan Johansen | Sean Collins |
| Matt Calvert | Artem Anisimov | Cam Atkinson |
| Vinny Prospal | Derick Brassard | Mark Letestu |
| Derek MacKenzie | Jared Boll |
| Fedor Tyutin | Jack Johnson |
| Tim Erixon | Adrian Aucoin |
| Nikita Nikitin | Dalton Prout |
| James Wisniewski |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Steve Mason |
Edmonton Oilers
(12-13-7, 31 Points; 3rd Division, 12th Conference)
| Taylor Hall | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | Jordan Eberle |
| Magnus Paajarvi | Sam Gagner | Ales Hemsky |
| Ryan Jones | Shawn Horcoff | Nail Yakupov |
| Lennart Petrell | Ryan Smyth | Mike Brown |
| Ladislav Smid | Jeff Petry |
| Nick Schultz | Justin Schultz |
| Ryan Whitney | Corey Potter |
| Nikolai Khabibulin |
| Devan Dubnyk |
Season Series
02/10/13 – Edmonton 3 at Columbus 1
03/05/13 – Edmonton 3 at Columbus 4 (SO)
03/28/13 – Columbus at Edmonton
Head to Head
Edmonton Columbus 2.34 (28) GPG 2.15 (30) 2.75 (17) GAPG 2.48 (12) 22.5% (5) PP% 13.7% (27) 83.6% (9) PK% 85.6% (6) Sam Gagner, 12 G leader Vinny Prospal, 9 Taylor Hall, 22 A leader Fedor Tyutin, 14 Taylor Hall, 30 Pts leader Vinny Prospal, 18 Ladislav Smid, 41 PIM leader Jared Boll, 79 5-5-4 Home/Road 3-9-2 3/26 @ St. Louis, W 3-0 Last Game 3/26 @ Vancouver, L 1-0 (SO) 4-4-2 Last 10 6-1-3
Columbus got great goaltending on Tuesday night to keep them in an otherwise ugly game. If they can’t start scoring goals, it’s not going to get any easier.