Columbus Blue Jackets at Winnipeg Jets
Thursday, December 29, 2016 – 8:00 EST
MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
TV: Fox Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 WBNS FM
Game Faceoff
After closing out the home portion of calendar year 2016 with a win on Tuesday night, Columbus hits the road for the final two games of the year. Tonight, they put their NHL-leading 13 game winning streak to the test against the Winnipeg Jets, who are fresh off of a victory over the Chicago Blackhawks in the United Center. The Jets sit just outside the playoff picture in the Western Conference, but boast some youth ready to take advantage of any Columbus mistakes in the defensive end. The three members of the Jets’ first line account for the leaders in each scoring column, and Patrik Laine (the second overall pick in this past summer’s draft) is second in the NHL in goals scored. Shutting that line down will be crucial to another win for Columbus.
No lineup changes are expected for the Blue Jackets tonight. They recalled Markus Hannikainen for the two game road trip, but he is just being brought along as an extra forward.
Go Jackets. A win tonight and a Wild win sets up a monster showdown on New Year’s Eve. Let’s make it 14 straight.
PROBABLE LINEUPS
Columbus Blue Jackets
| Brandon Saad | Alexander Wennberg | Nick Foligno |
| Boone Jenner | Brandon Dubinsky | Cam Atkinson |
| Scott Hartnell | William Karlsson | Josh Anderson |
| Matt Calvert | Lukas Sedlak | Sam Gagner |
| Zach Werenski | Seth Jones |
| Jack Johnson | David Savard |
| Markus Nutivaara | Ryan Murray |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Curtis McElhinney |
Winnipeg Jets
| Nikolaj Ehlers | Mark Scheifele |
Patrik Laine |
| Mathieu Perreault | Bryan Little | Blake Wheeler |
| Marko Dano | Nicolas Petan | Drew Stafford |
| Shawn Matthias | Adam Lowry | Joel Armia |
| Josh Morrissey | Dustin Byfuglien |
| Tobias Enstrom | Jacob Trouba |
| Ben Chiarot | Paul Postma |
| Connor Hellebuyck |
| Michael Hutchinson |