Jackets Game 5 (X) Preview: Hunting The Wild
After the Jackets lost both games of the back to back with Pittsburgh, they had a few days to rest and go through some "Walkthroughs" of coach Arniel's system before getting back on the war path.
On the one hand, the Wild have gone 0-3 in the pre-season, scored all of three goals, and been lit up for 10 goals in those three games. On the other, they went through and made another round of cuts yesterday, so they're almost (but not quite) down to their full NHL lineup...and they activated their entire remaining roster for this game.
Hoo, boy.
Fearless Predication: Given my track record lately, this could go horribly wrong, but Nikita Filatov had his NHL hat trick against a very similar Wild lineup, so I figure he gets at least one goal tonight.
Game Time: 7:00ET
Opponent's Blog: Hockey Wilderness
TV: Streaming online at Fox Sports Ohio
Radio: WWCD-FM (102.5)
More after the jump...
From the Columbus Dispatch:
Here are the lineups:
| Kristian Huselius | Antoine Vermette | Tomas Kubalik |
| Nikita Filatov | Kyle Wilson | Chad Kolarik |
| Tom Sestito | Ben Guite | Michael Blunden |
| Ethan Moreau | Andrew Murray | Chris Clark |
| Rostislav Klesla | Cody Goloubef |
| Nick Holden | Anton Stralman |
| John Moore | Mike Commodore |
| Mathieu Garon |
| David LeNeveu |
| EXTRA: Jonathan Sigalet, Steve Delisle |
| INJURED/SICK: Gustaf Wesslau, Kris Russell, Tomas Kana |
The Wild are not announcing their lines ahead of time, but they did provide a list of the players dressing for the game:
3 Marek Zidlicky D
4 Clayton Stoner D
5 Greg Zanon D
6 Marco Scandella D
7 Matt Cullen C
8 Brent Burns D
10 Mikko Koivu C
11 John Madden C
12 Chuck Kobasew RW
15 Andrew Burnette LW
16 Brad Staubitz RW
17 Casey Wellman C
20 Antti Miettinen RW
21 Kyle Brodziak C
22 Cal Clutterbuck RW
23 Eric Nystrom LW
24 Martin Havlat RW
25 Cam Barker LW
28 Matt Kassian LW
41 Justin Falk D
42 Drew Bagnall D
48 Guillaume Latendresse LW
55 Nick Schultz D
32 Niklas Backstrom G
35 Anton Khudobin G
Aside from the injured Josh Harding, who may be done for the season, it's pretty much their NHL lineup plus a few guys who will probably be the first callups from Houston. The Jackets need to get them on their heels with that quick attack the way we saw them come out against Atlanta, Washington, and the second Pittsburgh game, and not let the pressure up.