Thursday, October 3, 2024 – 7:00 PM EDT
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Streaming: BlueJackets.com; Radio: 97.1 FM
It’s the home finale for the preseason, as the Columbus Blue Jackets once again send out a mostly NHL lineup against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Expect some call-ups from Cleveland for tomorrow’s rematch in Pittsburgh.
Lineups
The most interesting thing here is the D pairs. Ivan Provorov moves over to the right side, which suggests the coaches weren’t sold with Damon Severson on the top pair and David Jiricek on the middle pair. Jake Christiansen moves up to the middle pair, which hopefully indicates that he has an inside track on making the cut.
Mikael Pyyhtia gets to play on the fourth line, and he’s another player who has gotten a lot of appearances in preseason so far.
Gavin Brindley is on the IR with a broken finger, so that leaves 14 forwards and 9 defensemen.
11 forward locks are in the lineup tonight. Pyyhtia, Dylan Gambrell, and Owen Sillinger are battling for two spots.
Werenski/Provorov/Severson/Gudbranson are locks on defense and Jack Johnson and Jordan Harris likely are as well. But both Christiansen and Denton Mateychuk have impressed so it could be hard to send them down. Then there’s the question of whether David Jiricek makes it or not. He’s one of just three RHD in the mix, but Harris can play on the other side and Provorov is doing so tonight. With 13 forwards, you can carry 8 D, so my inclination would be to drop Johnson and rotate Christiansen/Mateychuk/Harris/Jiricek.
No one cares about the Penguins but their roster can be found here.
No Crosby/Malkin/Letang but we do get our old friend Emil Bemstrom, former first round picks Rutger McGroarty and Jesse Puljujarvi, the other Sebastian Aho, and the other Jon Gruden. SPIDER 2 Y BANAN