Columbus Blue Jackets at New York Rangers
The Blue Jackets will finish their four game road trip tonight and hope to pull to .500 on the trip after losses to St. Louis and Colorado and a win in Phoenix. Despite shutting out Phoenix, the Jackets have allowed 16 goals against in their last four games, including six goals on the penalty kill. Those goals have given them a 60-percent PK efficiency over their last five games, bringing them below 80-percent for the season.
Following their 5-2 loss in Pittsburgh, the New York Rangers held a closed-door meeting. The next night, they blew out the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-1. What was nice about those seven goals is that just one of them came with the man advantage, giving their even strength scoring numbers a boost. They are still 29th in the NHL, however, in 5-on-5 shooting percentage at 6.1-percent.
This is the third meeting this year between the two division rivals with each team taking a 4-2 game so far. The Jackets won the most recent meeting, which happened to be in New York. The Rangers fell into a familiar trap that game: Henrik Lundqvist gave up a couple of early goals and the Rangers didn’t have the firepower to come all the way back after that.
Tonight marks the first game back for Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky after missing more than a month with a groin strain. I never take goalies who are returning from injury, even after what Jonathan Quick did the other night, for obvious reasons. I expect the Rangers to get their fair share of goals tonight, and Henrik Lundqvist is cheap enough if you’re feeling lucky.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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Cam Atkinson $7150 |
(NYR) $7750 |
Derek Stepan $9500 |
Michael Del Zotto $6800 |
Blake Comeau $5000 |
