Game Preview #69 - Tank Busters!
Three wins in a row. The tank appears to be up on skids in the shop right now!
Carolina Hurricanes at Columbus Blue Jackets
March 15, 2015 - 5:00 pm EDT
Nationwide Arena - Columbus, Ohio
Radio - WBNS 97.1 FM - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Canes Country
First of all, sorry for the tardiness of this preview. Busy morning, forgot the game was early. Yikes!
At any rate, the Jackets are riding a nice little three game winning streak, and take on the team against which they started it, finishing the season series against the Hurricanes. The Canes came into that last meeting with the league's top PK unit, and have since been hemorrhaging goals, dropping down to fourth in that span. The Jackets haven't been much better, though we have finally seen some signs of life on the Power Play again.
Brandon Dubinsky will play tonight, though we don't know at what spot. There was an optional morning skate, and the lineup should be finalized at game time. That said, the Jackets will be the more rested crew, as the Hurricanes played last night in Raleigh, traveled, and have the quick turn-around for the 5:00 start. The Jackets need to do what they did against Edmonton the other night: come out strong.
Also, not blowing the lead after that would be good, too.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(30-34-4, 64 Points; 7th division, 13th conference)
| Rene Bourque | Ryan Johansen | Cam Atkinson |
| Brandon Dubinsky | Artem Anisimov | Nick Foligno |
| Scott Hartnell | Alexander Wennberg | Marko Dano |
| Corey Tropp | Mark Letestu | Jared Boll |
| Jack Johnson | David Savard |
| Fedor Tyutin | Dalton Prout |
| Kevin Connauton | Ryan Murray |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Curtis McElhinney |
Carolina Hurricanes
(25-34-8, 58 Points; 8th Division, 15th Conference)
| Eric Staal | Jordan Staal | Elias Lindholm |
| Jeff Skinner | Riley Nash | Alexander Semin |
| Chris Terry | Victor Rask | Andrej Nestrasil |
| Brad Malone | Jay McClement | Nathan Gerbe |
| Ron Hainsey | Justin Faulk |
| Michal Jordan | Rasmus Rissanen |
| John-Michael Liles | Brett Bellemore |
| Cam Ward |
| Anton Khudobin |
Season Series
CAR - 2-0-1
CBJ - 1-1-111/04/14 - Carolina 4 at Columbus 2
11/07/14 - Columbus 2 at Carolina 3 (OT)
03/10/15 - Columbus 4 at Carolina 3 (SO)
03/15/15 - Carolina at Columbus
Head to Head Stats
| Carolina | Columbus | |
| 2.30 (26) | GPG | 2.53 (24) |
| 2.67 (18) | GAPG | 3.13 (26) |
| 19.7% (9) | PP% | 21.5% (6) |
| 85.5% (4) | PK% | 78.6% (26) |
| Eric Staal, 19 | G leader | Nick Foligno, 24 |
| Justin Faulk, 31 | A leader | Nick Foligno, 37 |
| Justin Faulk, 44 | Pts leader | Nick Foligno, 61 |
| Brad Malone, 58 | PIM leader | Jared Boll, 102 |
| 10-20-4 | Road/Home | 13-19-2 |
| 4-5-1 | Last 10 | 4-6-0 |
| 3/14 vs. Florida, L 2-0 | Last Game | 3/13 vs. Edmonton, W 5-4 (SO) |