| Columbus Blue Jackets | Team | Detroit Red Wings |
| 28-34-4 60 points | Record | 37-17-11 85 points |
| Sergei Bobrovsky (18-16-2 2.84 GAA) | Starting Goaltender | Jimmy Howard (20-9-9 2.55 GAA) |
| The Cannon | SB Nation Blog / Last meeting | Dec 16th (1-0 SOL) |
| 7:30 PM EST | Time – Television | FSD, FS-OH |
Columbus has been very badly bitten with the injury bug this year and it looks like they’re not going to be able to repeat last season’s run to the playoffs. The Red Wings beat them 5-0 earlier this season with four of those five goals coming from the kids. The last time they met, Detroit wasted a 29-save shutout from Jimmy Howard to give the Jackets their seventh straight win.
Things have gone fairly different for both teams since that point. Columbus has fallen farther off and all-but-technically out of the playoff race. They traded for David Clarkson to have a healthy waste of money in their lineup and then he suffered a season-ending injury. That’s just terrible luck.
The Jackets are not a pushover team though. Despite not being All-Star Captain material, Nick Foligno is still actually good at hockey and despite not being All-Star MVP material, Ryan Johansen is still actually better at hockey than Foligno. Bobrovsky is capable of putting up crazy good performances and… well.. I mean I’m sure they have some defensemen whose names I could think up if I spent a few minutes trying. Fedor Tyutin’s still around, right?
Have fun in the comments and let’s go Red Wings.
