Preview: Jackets Head to the Land of Cream Cheese
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers faceoff tonight in Philadelphia at 7pm.
Thursday, February 22nd, 2018; 7 pm est
Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennslyvania
TV: Fox Sports Ohio
Radio: 97.1 WBNS FM
Opponent’s Blog: Broad Street Hockey
Columbus Blue Jackets; 30-25-5, 65 points, 5th Metropolitan, 8th West
vs
Philadelphia Flyers; 31-19-10, 72 points, 3rd Metropolitan, 6th West
Season Series
12/23/2017 - PHI (1) @ CBJ (2) - game faceoff - preview - recap
02/16/2018 - PHI (2) @ CBJ (1) - game faceoff - preview - recap
02/22/2018 - CBJ @ PHI
03/15/2018 - CBJ @ PHI
Stats
| Philadelphia | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.00 (11) | GPG | 2.55 (28) |
| 2.82 (13) | GAPG | 2.77(12) |
| 21.6% (6) | PP% | 14.3% (31) |
| 75.0% (28) | PK% | 76.1% (27) |
| 49.55% (17) | EV Corsi % | 51.64% (8) |
| 92.2 (12) | EV PDO | 92.3 (11) |
| Sean Courtier, 29 | G Leader | Josh Anderson, 17 |
| Jakub Voracek, 55 | A Leader | Artemi Panarin, 32 |
| Claude Giroux, 70 | P Leader | Artemi Panarin, 48 |
| Radko Gudas, 66 | PIM Leader | Nick Foligno, 46 |
| 15-9-6 | Home / Road | 13-14-3 |
| 7-1-2 | Last 10 | 3-6-1 |
Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers face each other for the third time this season. Both previous meetings have ended with a score of 2-1. If it happens again, let’s hope the Jackets are on the two end of that score.
The Flyers are great at walking away with the extra point. If they are down in the third period, they will find any way possible to tie up the score and push the game into extra stanzas. The Jackets will need to run up the score as much as possible in the beginning and stay sharp the whole time to prevent a comeback from happening.
Jordan Weal, Jakub Voracek, and Oskar Lindblom are a few guys the Jackets will need to keep an eye on. All three tend to fall under the radar in games. The Jackets should do their best to smother them. However, double or triple-teaming those three is a bad idea. If they find an opening to pass the puck to someone who is unguarded they will find a way to get the puck on that player’s stick. The Jackets need to be hot and heavy on the man to man coverage.
Petr Mrazek is set to make his debut with the Flyers tonight. Good news, against the Blue Jackets he has a record of 1-3-1. Bad news, Mrazek has a bit of a chip on his shoulder right now. He wants to ensure the starting goaltender spot belongs to him and only him. Look for Mrazek to open up his bag of tricks tonight.
The Jackets need to maintain control of the puck as much as possible. They need to keep turnovers to a minimum and be smart with the puck.
People can spout off all they want about Sergei Bobrovsky and Joonas Korpisalo when a game goes badly. The truth is the best teams are the ones who don’t have a goalie.
Projected Lineups
| Artemi Panarin | Pierre-Luc Dubois | Cam Atkinson |
| Boone Jenner | Alexander Wennberg | Oliver Bjorkstrand |
| Matt Calvert | Brandon Dubinsky | Josh Anderson |
| Markus Hannikainen | Lukas Sedlak | Zac Dalpe |
| Zach Werenski | Seth Jones |
| Jack Johnson | Ryan Murray |
| Scott Harrington | David Savard |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
| Claude Giroux | Sean Courtier | Travis Konecny |
| Jordan Weal | Nolan Patrick | Jackub Voracek |
| Oskar Lindlom | Scott Laughton | Michael Raffl |
| Jori Lehtera | Valtteri Filppula | Dale Weise |
| Ivan Provorov | Shayne Gostisbehere |
| Robert Hagg | Andrew MacDonald |
| Brandon Manning | Radko Gudas |
| Petr Mrazek |
| Alex Lyon |