The Jackets and the Red Wings are both stumbling, a combined 1-5-2 in their last four games each. Columbus gets Cam Atkinson back tonight, but has lost Brandon Dubinsky to IR for at least a week or to, per Todd Richards.
Jimmy Howard and Sergei Bobrovsky will be in the respective goals tonight. Howard left his last start with an injury that wasn’t really an injury, and there probably is some concern about burnout: he’s played in 14 of the Wings’ 16 games so far, and his numbers are pretty dreadful.
Both teams have been sucking on the PP–a combined 5-for-42 in each team’s last 21 chances. Yikes.
Can the Jackets finally win their second on the road?