To end the pre-Olympic portion of the schedule, the Chicago Blackhawks will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Chicago Blackhawks are going to face the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time in under a week. There was a match against the San Jose Sharks smashed in the middle, but it’s another opportunity for Chicago to cool down red-hot Columbus.
Chicago defeated the Sharks at home on Monday night, while Columbus beat the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Tuesday night. Now, with points at a premium, these two will battle it out for the positive momentum heading into the break.
Scouting Columbus
The Columbus Blue Jackets have been incredible since hiring Rick Bowness, including their win in Chicago last Friday night. Winners of 6 straight and 9-1-1 in their previous 10, Columbus is four points out of a playoff spot at 28-20-7 for 63 points.
This is a big, strong, heavy team that forechecks hard, defends well, and is getting saves from its goalies.
Marchment -Fantilli - Lundestrom
Voronkov -Monahan - Johnson
Sillinger - Coyle -Olivier
Heinen - Jenner - Wood
Werenski -Severson
Provorov - Mateychuk
Fabbro - Gudbranson
Greaves
Elvis Merzlikins shut out the Devils on Tuesday night, so Jet Greaves is in line to get the start against the Blackhawks on Wednesday. Other than that, this was their winning lineup that they are unlikely to mess with too much.
They were missing Kirill Marchenko on Tuesday due to illness, so he may draw in for someone if he is good to go at home against the Blackhawks.
Charlie Coyle had a hat trick on Friday when the Blue Jackets were at the United Center last week, so expect Coyle to come out with some juice again, knowing the success he's capable of against this Hawks team. With Sean Monahan and Adam Fantilli, they create a great 1-3 punch down the middle.
Projected Lines, Defense Pairs, & Goalie For Chicago
The Chicago Blackhawks are going to scratch Ryan Greene, Sam Lafferty, and Artyom Levshunov for this match. Levshunov is currently going through a program that includes him missing games while he works through a development plan.
Sam Lafferty is a scratch more often than not, so this isn't coming as a surprise at all, either. However, Ryan Greene has played all 56 games to open the year as a rookie. He will miss this one as Nick Foligno draws back in from injury.
Nazar-Bedard-Bertuzzi
Teräväinen-Moore-Burakovsky
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Dach-Foligno-Slaggert
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Murphy
During practice on Tuesday, Oliver Moore jumped up to the second line where Ryan Greene was previously. He will skate in a top-six center role again, where he has shown some promise in recent tries.
Connor Bedard will skate with Frank Nazar again, but this may be the last game that happens. If Bedard is good enough to take faceoffs after the break, Nazar is likely to draw back into a center role, which will add more offensive depth to the team.
We will see during warmups if Jeff Blashill goes with Arvid Soderblom or Spencer Knight. The latter was missing from practice for a maintenance day on Tuesday.
After switching around the first and third defensive pair in the last game against the Sharks, they seem to be going back to normal for this game.
How To Watch
The game can be heard locally on AM 720 WGN in the Chicagoland area. To view this game, it can be found on CHSN locally. Nationally, it can be streamed on ESPN+. The puck will drop shortly after 6:00 PM CT.
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