Game Preview #48 - Tortorella and The Flames: What Could Go Wrong?
While there was a whole lot that went wrong for John Tortorella in Vancouver, one event was one of the biggest catalysts for his firing.
Blue Jackets vs. Flames
7:00 PM - Game Faceoff
I'm not going to belabor the point about the line brawl and subsequent attempt to fight the entire Flames' dressing room, other than to point out that we have yet to see that Torts here in Columbus. Does Bob Hartley bring it out of him?
In game news, yet another chance for the Jackets young players to play well, but also a potential chance for them to inch closer to losing the top spot in the Auston Matthews Derby. The Flames are a very similar team to the Jackets in many respects: bad defense, under-achieving in spite of expectations, inconsistent as hell. Their possession and PDO numbers at EV are almost identical. The Flames sport the worst special teams (30th in both) in the league.
Aside from a crazy seven game winning streak and a nine-of-11 run, they're as bad as the Jackets overall. Amazing how close they are, and one team has an eight-game losing streak and the other a seven game winning streak. That's life in the NHL, I guess.
The Jackets get Scott Hartnell and Fedor Tyutin back in the lineup tonight at the expense of Jared Boll and Justin Falk, respectively. No complaints here, I'm guessing.
Keep an eye on Johnny Hockey tonight. He's leading the Flames in all offensive categories, including nose hair. When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(17-26-4, 38 Points; 8th division, 16th conference)
| Boone Jenner | Alexander Wennberg | Brandon Saad |
| Scott Hartnell | Brandon Dubinsky | Cam Atkinson |
| Kerby Rychel | William Karlsson | Josh Anderson |
| Markus Hannikainen | Gregory Campbell | Rene Bourque |
| Ryan Murray | Seth Jones |
| Jack Johnson | Cody Goloubef |
| Fedor Tyutin | Dalton Prout |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
Calgary Flames
(20-21-3, 43 Points; 6th Division, 13th Conference)
| Johnny Gaudreau | Sean Monahan | Michael Ferland |
| Sam Bennett | Mikael Backlund | Michael Frolik |
| Joe Colborne | Markus Granlund | Jiri Hudler |
| Brandon Bollig | Matt Stajan | David Jones |
| Mark Giordano | TJ Brodie |
| Kris Russell | Dougie Hamilton |
| Dennis Wideman | Deryk Engelland |
| Karri Ramo |
| Jonas Hiller |