Game Preview: With A Chance To Go Above .500, Blue Jackets Head To Montreal For Saturday Matinee Against Canadiens

MONTREAL CANADIENS

8–31–7 (23 points; .250%) ROSTER / SCHEDULE

12:30 P.M. – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH CENTRE BELL MONTREAL, QC, CANADA

BALLY SPORTS OHIO ESPN+ (Out of Market)

For the second time in two weeks and the final time this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets travel to the province of Quebec for a Saturday afternoon meeting with the Montreal Canadiens.

It's an early start — the earliest of the season, in fact — with puck drop slated for 12:30p.m. A win would send the Blue Jackets above .500 for the first time since early January.

Columbus picked up a 6-3 win in Montreal back on January 30th, scoring four goals in the opening period. Patrik Laine had two goals in the win, the first of three straight games in which the sniper scored two goals. It was the second of a still-active five-game point streak for Laine, who has six goals and four assists during the run.

RE: MONTREAL

Montreal has eight wins in 46 games. This was a team that was in the Stanley Cup Finals less than a year ago. To call their season a dumpster fire would be an insult to garbage cans. Injuries have battered the team, but only so much can be blamed on health. They've lost eight straight and are 1-10-4 since the end of the holiday break. They've been outscored 75-35 in that span, and have allowed five or more goals in six straight games, including the six scored by Columbus in their first meeting. 

Goaltender Jake Allen was doing his best to keep Montreal respectable, with a .901 save percentage and 3.15 goals against average. But Allen is only halfway through a lower body injury that's expected to keep him out two months, and in his place, the tandem of Cayden Primeau and Sam Montembeault have a combined .883 save percentage and goals against averages of 4.88 and 3.96, respectively.

Scoring has been a struggle, too. The Canadiens are the only team in the league without a goal-scorer in double digits; Nick Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli, and former Blue Jacket Josh Anderson each have nine. Suzuki and Toffoli are two of the four Montreal skaters with more than 10 assists, Jonathan Drouin and Artturi Lehkonen are the others. As a result, the club ranks last in scoring (2.20 goals per game) and second-to-last in power play percentage (13.9%). 

STORYLINES

• FIRST LAINE CLICKIN'
  Laine has joined with Boone Jenner and Gus Nyquist on the top lineup, and the result has been one that will keep the trio together until proven otherwise. They averaged 4.05 goals per 60 minutes, which is the best of any Blue Jackets line with 60 minutes or more (they have 118) of ice time together this season. By comparison, the Washington Capitals top line of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Tom Wilson has 343 minutes together, and a goals per 60 of 3.85. In all, the Laine/Jenner/Nyquist line ranks 15th in the category of any club with the same or more minutes played.
   
• YOUNG GUNNIN'
  It's only been two games, but 22-year-old Trey Fix-Wolansky looks like he belongs in the league. He scored a big goal in his debut, a Blue Jackets victory over the Capitals, and added a key assist in his second game — Thursday's win over Buffalo. TFW nearly added a goal against the Sabres, but the puck was a few inches wide of the net. Combine him with Yegor Chinakhov and Cole Sillinger seeing increases in minutes, and it's become easy to see why the future is bright.

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*SUBJECT TO CHANGE