{"id":390351,"date":"2026-01-04T15:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/390351\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T15:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T15:11:10","slug":"preview-chinakhov-returns-to-columbus-as-penguins-face-blue-jackets-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/390351\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW: Chinakhov returns to Columbus as Penguins face Blue Jackets Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PGHHockeyNOW.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">PGHHockeyNOW.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-penguins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pittsburgh Penguins;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> (19-12-9) have won four in a row, are in a playoff position, and are feeling pretty good about their game. The Penguins finish back-to-back weekend games when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets (18-16-6) Sunday at Nationwide Arena.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Penguins\u2019 winning streak isn\u2019t the only storyline Sunday, as winger <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/yegor-chinakhov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Yegor Chinakhov;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Yegor Chinakhov<\/a> will make his homecoming to Columbus. Chinakhov publicly requested a trade after last season, due in large part to issues with coach Dean Evason and his reduced fourth-line role.<\/p>\n<p>The Penguins now have the third-best winning percentage in the Metro Division and seventh-best in the Eastern Conference. Based on overall points, they have the second wild-card position.<\/p>\n<p>Columbus has fallen back in the East and is the last-place team in the conference, though they are only five points out of a playoff spot and are over .500 (.525). Columbus has also won four of their last five games, including a solid 5-1 stomping of the Buffalo Sabres at Nationwide Arena Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/pittsburgh-penguins-news-egor-zamula-suspended\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here to read more from PGHHockeyNOW.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click here to read more from PGHHockeyNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:FREE WPXI News app;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Watch WPXI NOW;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared on PGHHockeyNOW.com. The Pittsburgh Penguins (19-12-9) have won four in a row, are in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,229,897,230,5179,5,2912,4,100,2171,8523],"class_list":{"0":"post-390351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-columbus","12":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","13":"tag-columbusbluejackets","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-nationwide-arena","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","18":"tag-the-penguins","19":"tag-yegor-chinakhov"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115837474460551200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}