Ottawa Senators at Columbus Blue Jackets
Thursday, January 19, 2017 – 7:00 EST
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
TV: Fox Sports Ohio; Radio: WBNS FM
Game Faceoff
The Blue Jackets returned home on Tuesday after losing 4 of their last 6 games, desperately in need of some momentum to right the ship after the long winning streak (and to ease the collective fanbases’ minds). They beat the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 4-1 and tonight, the team will look to keep that momentum going.
The Blue Jackets play host to the Ottawa Senators in the first of three meetings between the teams this season. Ottawa comes in clinging to their playoff lives, in a tight battle for the final wild card spot with Philadelphia, Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay. In the Atlantic division, second and 6th place are separated by just 4 points, so Ottawa cannot afford to drop points – expect a spirited effort from the Senators tonight.
The Jackets come in after a dominating win on Tuesday night that saw them chase Cam Ward 29 minutes into the game, saw Brandon Dubinsky break an 18 game goal scoring drought, and saw Boone Jenner extend his goal scoring streak to three games. It’s nice to see two guys who have been struggling this year finally get going. As they’ve heated up, the first line has fallen off, however, so watching to see if they can get going tonight will be a key. They did look better in the third period last night, driving possession for extended periods of time, which is promising. Also key to get back on track tonight will be the power play. After being completely stymied by the Hurricanes twice in one week, can they get back on track? Let’s hope so.
The Blue Jackets sent Markus Hannikainen back to Cleveland yesterday afternoon, so expect no lineup changes among the forwards. Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch reported yesterday that Zach Werenski was feeling ill and did not practice, so his status is up in the air. This post will be updated should his status change. If Markus Nutivaara and Werenski cannot go, expect to see both Scott Harrington and Dalton Prout in the lineup.
Go Jackets. Keep the homestand rolling.
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 |
| Scott Harrington | Ryan Murray |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
Ottawa Senators
| Zack Smith | Derick Brassard |
Mark Stone |
| Mike Hoffman | Jean-Gabriel Pageau | Tom Pyatt |
| Ryan Dzingel | Kyle Turris | Bobby Ryan |
| Chris Kelly | Curtis Lazar | Chris Neil |
| Marc MEthot | Erik Karlsson |
| Dion Phaneuf | Cody Ceci |
| Mark Borowiecki | Chris Wideman |
| Mike Condon |
| Chris Driedger |