Game Preview: Blue Jackets Aim To Stay Perfect In Bowness Era; Face Crosby, Pens Saturday Night In Pittsburgh

It might sound like hyperbole, but the Columbus Blue Jackets may well be playing their biggest game of the season Saturday night when they make a quick trip to Pittsburgh to battle the Penguins.

The Blue Jackets have won three straight, including two in a row under new head coach Rick Bowness.

For the first time in what seems like weeks, Columbus feels like an organization that can genuinely contend for a playoff spot. 

A regulation win Saturday, combined with a Washington Capitals regulation loss, would put the Blue Jackets just three points out of third place in the Metropolitan Division.

The top three teams in each division are guaranteed a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Here are five things to know before a big 7:00 p.m. puck-drop:

• The Penguins ended a three-game losing streak Thursday night with an offensive explosion in a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Former Blue Jacket Egor Chinakhov scored in the win and now has three goals and an assist in eight games since being dealt to Pittsburgh. Three of the goals came via the power play for the Pens, and they'll enter this game with the league's second-best power play, at 29.4%. Their 83.2% penalty kill rate is also amongst the best in the NHL.
   
• This is the last meeting of the season between these two teams, barring a postseason clash. The first three were decided in overtime, and they all featured Columbus blowing a multi-goal lead in the third period. The Penguins won two of those, both at Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets win, which came in Pittsburgh, was a 5-4 shootout victory October 25th. Dmitri Voronkov scored twice in that game and was amongst ten Blue Jackets to register a point.
   
• Zach Werenski has nine goals and 12 assists (21 points) in his last 13 games, with points in all of them minus the shutout last weekend against the Colorado Avalanche. Kirill Marchenko is hot as well, with seven goals and seven assists (14 points) in his last dozen games. Charlie Coyle had scored in three consecutive games and has 199 career goals.
   
• At even strength, the Blue Jackets defense has looked much improved under Bowness. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins noticed it in the win Thursday, saying after the game that "the pucks are coming (in) clear now, from a farther distance as well, not from the slot right away. The guys are cleaning the puck really well in front of me and that's huge." On the penalty kill, though, there's still work to be done: the Blue Jackets have successfully killed just one of five opposition power plays in the last two games.
   
• A pair of changes to the lineup: Zach Aston-Reese comes in for Danton Heinen, and Egor Zamula is back in, while Jake Christiansen sits. Bowness said he wants to give both of them a chance to play. Coming off his best start of the season, Merzlikins gets his second straight start. Here are the complete projections: