Gameday #63: Chop Suey

Monday, March 9, 2026 – 4:00 PM ET
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
TV: FDSNOH; Radio: 97.1 FM

Los Angeles Kings (25-23-14, 64 points, 6th Pacific, 10th West)

at

Columbus Blue Jackets (32-21-9, 73 points, 4th Metro, 9th East)

WAKE UP
THIS WEIRD AFTERNOON GAME IS A MAKE-UP

Previously

Sitting in the stands on Saturday night, with the Jackets down 4-2 to the Utah Mammoth, I thought “well, this sucks.”

Then, the Jackets rallied to tie the game up. Hooray! Then they lost in an OT where Utah dominated possession. That sucked!

Silver linings:

The two-goal comeback was driven by the Adam Fantilli line. We’re all invested in Fantilli becoming The Franchise and this was a good example of that requires. Sometimes a great player has to will his team to victory, and even take it on himself to get them there.

Wasn’t a great Elvis Merzlikins performance, but you some of these goals were more the result of a) good offensive play (Logan Cooley is really good, y’all) or b) defensive breakdowns (Ivan Provorov in OT…what?). Look, I think everyone except possibly Rick Bowness and Niklas Backstrom believes that Jet Greaves is better than Elvis, but with this compressed schedule we need to play both goalies a lot, and since Bones took over, Elvis has been “acceptable” at worst and “peak Elvis” at best. It is what it is.

Conor Garland had a great CBJ debut. He was noticeable in every shift and seemed to click immediately with Sean Monahan and Kent Johnson. I worried that it was too many playmakers on one line, but they made it work. The Fantilli and Coyle lines are what they are, so I think this could give us a really solid, reliable top 3 as we go down the stretch.

Notes

This game was originally scheduled for January 26, but was postponed because Columbus was buried in a Level 3 snow emergency. Today, six weeks later, the high is 73 degrees. Ohio weather, folks!

The Los Angeles Kings made a big swing before the Olympic break by acquiring former Blue Jacket Artemi Panarin…but they have have gone 2-4-0 since the NHL resumed and they fired coach Jim Hiller. The new coach is D.J. Smith, who I am amused to find out is the only NHL coach in history whose name is two professions.

The Kings lost Kevin Fiala for the season after he took a dirty hit from Tom Wilson in the Olympics. Typical!

On the Columbus front, the last player we’re waiting to return from injury is Dante Fabbro. He’s been skating with the team in practices this weekend, so that’s a good sign he should be available tonight.

In local hockey news, the OSU women’s hockey team upset #1 Wisconsin to claim the WCHA title on Saturday. That earned Nadine Muzzeral’s Buckeyes the top seed in the NCAA tournament. They will host the winner of Yale and Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday at 6:00 PM in Columbus for a bid in the Frozen Four.

At the boys’ high school level, Dublin Jerome upset top seed St. Charles to earn the Central Ohio berth in the OHSAA final four. Those games will be held on the main ice at Nationwide this weekend. Congrats, Celtics!

Stats

Projected Lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets

Los Angeles Kings