CBJ\u00a0Playoff Chase Tracker<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\tIf they can win Sunday and then in the finale Tuesday against the Washington Capitals, the Blue Jackets will need just one regulation loss for the Flyers in their last two games (or two overtime losses) to clinch a first-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
But that’s a Monday worry. For today, it’s all about the Blue Jackets, who will certainly look to repeat last night’s performance.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t“(It’s) probably one of the best games we\u2019ve played all year,\u201d\u00a0head coach Rick\u00a0Bowness said. \u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0how we want to play. We were solid\u00a0defensively,\u00a0we spent a lot of time in their zone, created a lot of good scoring chances off the forecheck.”\n<\/p>\n
\n\tHere are five other things to know before the 6:00 p.m. puck-drop on fan appreciation night:\n<\/p>\n
\t\tBoston comes to Columbus on a five-game losing streak, going 0-3-2 so far in April. The latest loss was Saturday, a 2-1 defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning. But, as a result of the Detroit Red Wings loss, the Bruins clinched a playoff spot anyway. They’ll be in a wild card spot. … Jeremy Swayman started Saturday, so while there is an official announcement yet, it’s highly likely that former Blue Jacket Joonas Korpisalo gets the start Sunday. His season line is shaky: 13-9-6 with a 3.19 goals against average and .892 save percentage. But he’s allowed just three total goals in his last two starts, stopping 46 of 48 shots in those games. He also was phenomenal in his last start against the Blue Jackets, stopping 36 of 38 in a Bruins win on Feb. 26.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tAs for who is in net for the Blue Jackets, that’s a question head coach Rick Bowness will need to decide in this pivotal game. If it’s Greaves, who Bowness has relief heavily on down the stretch, it will be his third time this season starting back-to-back games. Greaves is 2-0-1 in those three with 87 total saves on 94 total shots for a .926 save percentage.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tZach Werenski picked up the primary assist on the first goal scored Saturday, tying the franchise record for most assists in a single season with 59. Werenski did it last season, and Artemi Panarin did it in 2018-19. Z’s next assist will break the record and his next point in any form will tie his career high in points (82), which he also set last season.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tTwo players who got off the schneid Saturday night were Kirill Marchenko and Sean Monahan. Marchenko’s sweet goal was his first in five games and just his second time finding the net in the last 14. As for Monahan, he had been held without a point in 11 straight games before the goal, which was his first since March 3.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Blue Jackets are not on the ice at all Sunday, so it will be later in the day before we find out what \u2014 if any \u2014 changes there will be to the lineup. Don’t expect much though, especially for the forwards. All four lines were rolling Saturday night. Here are the complete lineup projections:<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tLW <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tC <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tRW <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t86<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tKirill Marchenko<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t19<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tAdam Fantilli<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t21<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tIsac Lundestr\u00f6m<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t4<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tCole Sillinger<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t3<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tCharlie Coyle<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t83<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tConor Garland<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t17<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tMason Marchment<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t38<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tBoone Jenner<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t43<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tDanton Heinen<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t11<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tMiles Wood<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t23<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tSean Monahan<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t91<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tKent Johnson<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tLD <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tRD <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t8<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tZach Werenski<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t15<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tDante Fabbro<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t9<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tIvan Provorov<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t5<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tDenton Mateychuk<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t2<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tJake Christiansen<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t44<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tErik Gudbranson<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tStarting Goalie<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tBack-Up<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t73<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tJet Greaves<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t90<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tElvis Merzlikins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOS \u00a0 CBJ 15-16-9 ROAD \/ HOME 20-11-18 3.26 GOALS FOR 3.04 3.06 GOALS AGAINST 3.08 23.4% POWER…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-551200","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-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116392408132219829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551200","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=551200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}