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Game Preview #7 – Shake It Up. Might As Well. Wait, No.

If you’re a bettin’ man/woman, you see the lineup for tonight’s game and notice a conspicuous absence: that of one Cam Atkinson. That bet you might place? Trade time.

Or, who knows? Todd Richards has been very plain with his dislike for Atkinson’s game when it’s not going well. He’s no stranger to the healthy scratch.

Atkinson, Jared Boll, and Kerby Rychel sit tonight amongst the forwards, though expect Rychel probably to head back to Lake Erie if no further updates come on any potential trades (UPDATE – got the note right after I published that he has, in fact, been sent back to LEM). That’s because Wennberg is now off of IR and will play tonight, so a roster spot will be needed today. Kevin Connauton continues to sit on defense. Curtis McElhinney gets the start in net.

The Isles’ offense has been lighting it up thus far on the season, which, of course, does not bode well for the Jackets in their current state. That said, their defense hasn’t been much better (well, everyone’s defense has been much better, but to the degree we can say it…), allowing three goals per game. So, Columbus could make this interesting if they can get their offense going just a bit. But, let’s be real: we can’t predict anything good for Columbus until they show it to us. After dropping my son off at daycare, another dad asked me, “Do you think the Jackets will win tonight?” Without a beat, I said, “Nope. I won’t believe it until I see it.”

Seven games in, and here we are, folks.

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets
(0-5-0, 0 Points; 8th division, 16th conference)

Boone Jenner Ryan Johansen Nick Foligno
Scott Hartnell Alexander Wennberg Brandon Saad
Matt Calvert Brandon Dubinsky David Clarkson
William Karlsson Gregory Campbell Rene Bourque

Jack Johnson David Savard
Ryan Murray Cody Goloubef
Fedor Tyutin Dalton Prout

Curtis McElhinney
Sergei Bobrovsky

New York Islanders
(3-1-1, 7 Points; 2nd Division, 4th Conference)

Anders Lee John Tavares Ryan Strome
Josh Bailey Franz Nielsen Kyle Okposo
Nikolay Kulemin Mikhail Grabovski Brock Nelson
Matt Martin Casey Cizikas Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy Johnny Boychuk
Calvin de Haan Travis Hamonic
Thomas Hickey Marek Zidlicky

Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Greiss