The Columbus Blue Jackets are back on the ice tonight, but this time in the nation’s capital to take on the Washington Capitals in their first meeting of the regular season of four. First time at home is December 12.

Columbus and Washington faced off in the preseason twice, once on the road and once on home ice at Natiownide. With that, there is not a team breakdown of the offseason moves.


Preview
 
The Blue Jackets are completing their first back to back matchups of the year. This also starts their first game of five for their road trip that will take them to the Pacific Division.

Washington is red hot to start the season, with an undefeated Logan Thompson in the crease. Alexander Ovechkin is 36 goals away from matching the record for most goals of all time set by Wayne Gretzky at 894. Former Blue Jackets’ first rounders Sonny Milano and Pierre-Luc Dubois are reunited in D.C. PLD has only one goal in the Screaming Eagle. Milano is out injured.

There will be animosity between these teams after their previous collisions in the Calder Cup
Playoffs. The farm clubs were in the most recent Conference final matchup, and players including Dylan McIlrath, Hendrix Lapierre, David Jiricek, and Jake Christiansen were in those games.

Expect Daniil Tarasov and Charlie Lindgren defending their creases.

Keys to Victory
 
1. The Great 8 - Alex Ovechkin’s goal chase will be the Washington Capitals’ head story every single contest as he closes in on the record of the Great One.
 
2. Injury Bug - the Capitals have been hit by the injury bug as offseason acquisition Jakob Chychrun has been placed on the injured reserve last evening.
 
3. Road Test - Columbus has their first big test on the road with not getting their regular home matchups. While it blew up at home last night against the Jets, avoiding a losing streak tonight is massive.
 
Projected Lineups
 
Washington Capitals
 
Alex Ovechkin -- Dylan Strome -- Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Michael Sgarbossa -- Andrew Mangiapane
Brandon Duhaime -- Nic Dowd -- Taylor Raddysh

Martin Fehervary -- John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin -- Dylan McIlrath
Alexander Alexeyev -- Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre, Vincent Iorio

Injured: Matt Roy (lower body), Jakob Chychrun (upper body)

 
Columbus Blue Jackets
 
Cole Sillinger -- Sean Monahan -- Kirill Marchenko
 
Mikael Pyyhtia -- Adam Fantilli -- Yegor Chinakhov
 
Zach Aston-Reese -- Justin Danforth -- Mathieu Olivier
 
James van Riemsdyk -- Sean Kuraly – Dmitri Voronkov
 
Zach Werenski -- Ivan Provorov
 
Jake Christiansen -- Damon Severson
 
Jack Johnson -- Jordan Harris
 
Elvis Merzlikins
 
Daniil Tarasov
 
Scratched: David Jiricek, Kevin Labanc
 
Injured: Boone Jenner (upper body), Gavin Brindley (finger), Erik Gudbranson (upper body), Kent Johnson (upper body)
 
Players to Watch
 
Winnipeg -- Alex Ovechkin -- a veteran Russian against a young Russian, what could possible go wrong?
 
Columbus -- Sean Monahan -- the offseason acquisition reached a milestone 250 career goals last night against his former team. Will his production continue to shock teams around the league?
 
Predicted Final Score
 
WSH - 5
 
CBJ - 3
 

Obituaries

https://www.danjolell.com/obituary/john-michael-gaudreau/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYM9fikwQbNkPlcwmTBaP2udJZw1oMBCmyXjp-GyttBpDhIoWnqY8lxQSQ_aem_zW3gpaArqsSO7D5ZI-Pdog

https://www.danjolell.com/obituary/matthew-ryan-gaudreau/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZ33XNOJYMaSDfXxs3NcH7AY99EWfo9ObneKgMrpds4HwrC3U6Gkj0igr0_aem_qqWUcGWcBFf0sebC0an4RQ

Want to support the Gaudreau family? Here’s several ways how:


https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-madeline-and-baby-tripp-after-tragedy - Donate to Gaudreau Family Fund. At the time of writing it is at $691K

https://youtu.be/7ax8zyd8nk0?si=xoI63iohdyn2vVvD - View Johnny B Goode Tribute - personal touch. Loved this slowed down clip by the voice of Calgary. Skip to the 25 second mark.


https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/giving - Nationwide Children's Hospital (Johnny's widow, Meredith's workplace) support the children today.

https://foundation.ohiohealth.com/ - Ohio Health Foundation (where donations from a joint mental health charity drive from Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine went) Johnny joined the mission after Laine attended the NHLPA assistance club last season

https://www.childrenshospital.ab.ca/ways-to-help/donate/ - Alberta Children's Hospital for those in need and touched by the loss

https://kidsportcanada.ca/donate/ - Donate to the Youth Sporting Charity in Canada (Johnny Gaudreau donated for money each goal he scored to the Calgary chapter)

https://sniderhockey.org/support-snider/ - the Philadelphia Youth Hockey Charity (where Johnny and Matthew are from and started their youth hockey)

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