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BOSTON BRUINS FRIDAY, DEC. 27 7:00 P.M. NATIONWIDE ARENA COLUMBUS, OH |
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The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to continue their home-cookin' Friday night in the first half of a home-and-home series against the Boston Bruins.
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Nationwide Arena, where the Blue Jackets are 9-2-3 in their last 14 games. That includes a thrilling 5-4 win Monday night over the Montreal Canadiens in a game that featured a little bit of everything — including some extra motivation after the comments of former Blue Jacket Patrik Laine earlier in that day.
One of those things the game delivered: the NHL debut of Denton Mateychuk, the Blue Jackets prized defensive prospect whose first game was "real good", according to coach Dean Evason.
"We loved his composure," said Evason. "He didn't look out of his place. He played key moments in that hockey game and conducted himself very well."
Mateychuk was on the ice for 18:36 in the win, including 1:06 on the power play. He looked all the part of an NHL defenseman, and is in the lineup Friday night for what will be his second career NHL game
Here's what else to know when the Blue Jackets and Bruins go to battle in front of the home crowd before it's Boston's turn Saturday:
| BOS | SEASON STATS | CBJ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.64 | 26th | GOALS FOR | 9th | 3.31 |
| 3.03 | 16th | GOALS AGAINST | 30th | 3.63 |
| 13.6% | 31st | POWER PLAY | 19th | 19.2% |
| 77.3% | t-22nd | PENALTY KILL | t-27th | 74.0% |
| 27.7 | 21st | SHOTS FOR | t-5th | 30.4 |
| 26.8 | 6th | SHOTS AGAINST | t-21st | 29.1 |
| BOSTON: LAST THREE GAMES | ||||
| THU, 12/19 | @ Oilers | L, 3-2 (OT) | ||
| SAT, 12/21 | vs. Sabres | W, 3-1 | ||
| MON, 12/23 | vs. Capitals | W, 4-1 | ||
| BOSTON: TEAM LEADERS | ||||
| GOALS | Brad Marchand | 15 | ||
| ASSISTS | David Pastrnak | 23 | ||
| POINTS | David Pastrnak | 35 | ||
| ODDS & PROJECTIONS | ||||
| CBJ WIN PER MONEYPUCK: | 40% | |||
| CBJ ODDS PER ESPNBET: | +130 | |||
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RE: BRUINS
Former Blue Jacket Joonas Korpisalo gets the start in net Friday night for Boston. In 12 starts this season, Korpi is above .900 on save percentage (.904) and has a pair of shutouts to help keep his goals against average down at 2.42. He's been great in limited action. ... Joe Sacco took over for Jim Montgomery after the latter was fired on November 19th. Since then, Boston is 11-4-1 but has only a +7 (47-40) goal differential since then. A lot of close wins, a few brutal losses.
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ELVIS GETS THE START
Elvis has looked average at best in three of his last four starts — but the other one, a 40-save performance against the New Jersey Devils on December 19th, was one of the best performances of his career. This will be his second start of the season against the Bruins, with a 28 save (on 29 shots) performance in Beantown on November 18th in a 5-1 win.
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MONAHAN-OV AND THE RUSSIANS
Kirill Marchenko had the game-winner Monday, his third point of the night — but his linemates were on top of their game too. Sean Monahan had three assists and Dmitri Voronkov scored twice for a combined 8-point effort from the Blue Jackets top trio. If they can match that effort Friday night, the sellout crowd may hear that cannon more than a couple of times.
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LINEUPS & PROJECTIONS
With seven defensemen in the lineup, the Blue Jackets are going with 11 forwards. This should mean a heavy dose of the top line of Voronkov, Monahan, and Marchenko. Here are the complete projections:
| LW | C | RW | |||
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| 10 | Dmitri Voronkov | 23 | Sean Monahan | 86 | Kirill Marchenko |
| 21 | James van Riemsdyk | 19 | Adam Fantilli | 27 | Zach Aston-Reese |
| 91 | Kent Johnson | 4 | Cole Sillinger | 24 | Mathieu Olivier |
| 82 | Mikael Pyyhtia | 7 | Sean Kuraly | ||
| LD | RD | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Zach Werenski | 15 | Dante Fabbro |
| 5 | Denton Mateychuk | 9 | Ivan Provorov |
| 2 | Jake Christiansen | 78 | Damon Severson |
| 3 | Jack Johnson | ||
| Starting Goalie | Back-Up | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | Elvis Merzlikins | 40 | Daniil Tarasov |
