Game Preview #52 - Come On, These Guys Don't Even NEED Auston Matthews
It's a "battle" of the two worst teams in the league. Who is worse?
Blue Jackets at Oilers - 9:00 PM
Game Faceoff
But for the Jackets having played--and lost--one more game, these teams would have identical records. Whether they have identical futures is up for debate. The Oilers *should* be loaded up front. However, they languish near the bottom of the league in goals scored, though injuries (notably, Connor McDavid and now Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) have played a role in that.
Defensively, they are the same old Oilers.
Both teams languish at the bottom of their respective conferences. Safe to say the Jackets didn't look like the worst team in the league last week against Montreal (though, how bad do they look right now?), but that was a week ago. A week off for this crew? Who knows what to expect. Both teams will probably be rusty, given that the Oil has had nine days off between games.
Rexall Place has historically been a place where the Jackets struggle, for whatever reason. John Tortorella--fresh off of mapping out his entire 2016 training camp schedule (think he's chomping at the bit to turn this into *his* team, or what?) will be with the team behind the bench. #FreeHartsburg
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(19-27-5, 43 Points; 8th division, 16th conference)
| Boone Jenner | Brandon Dubinsky | Cam Atkinson |
| Brandon Saad | Alexander Wennberg | Nick Foligno |
| Scott Hartnell | William Karlsson | Matt Calvert |
| Kerby Rychel | Gregory Campbell | Rene Bourque |
| Ryan Murray | Seth Jones |
| Jack Johnson | Justin Falk |
| Fedor Tyutin | Dalton Prout |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
| Anton Forsberg |
Edmonton Oilers
(19-26-5, 43 Points; 7th Division, 14th Conference)
| Taylor Hall | Leon Draisaitl | Teddy Purcell |
| Benoit Pouliot | Connor McDavid | Jordan Eberle |
| Zack Kassian | Mark Letestu | Nail Yakupov |
| Lauri Korpikoski | Matt Hendricks | Iiro Pakarinen |
| Andrej Sekera | Mark Fayne |
| Griffin Reinhart | Eric Gryba |
| Darnell Nurse | Adam Clendening |
| Cam Talbot |
| Anders Nilsson |