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Game Preview #69 – Tank Busters!

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 – 1-1-1

11/04/14 – 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)