PREVIEW: Bruins head to Columbus for road-trip nightcap

Just the facts

When: 7 PM EST

Where: Nationwide Arena - Columbus, Ohio

How to follow: SN360, SNE, FS Ohio, NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Jackets Cannon

Know your enemy

• Columbus is 22-16-8, 52 points, 6th in the Metropolitan Division
• Goals: Pierre-Luc DuBois, 15G
• Assists: Gustav Nyquist, 21A
• Points: DuBois, 34
• Goalie: Joonas Korpisalo would be the de facto starter, with a 17-10-4 record, sporting a .913 Sv% and a 2.49 GAA. Elvis Merzlikins has been forced into starter duties, however, and though he had a rough start to the season in his interim duties, he’s done well: after taking the loss in his first ten games, he’s 5-2-0 in his last seven and is sporting a nice .944 Sv% and 1.85 GAA in that span. The rookie has got his spark for the time being.

Game notes

• What’s better than Monday night hockey? Tuesday night hockey! Boston gets back in action on the third roadtrip game in a row - and in a back-to-back, no less. It’s a challenging short-term trip for sure. Good thing they got thing started off on the good foot.. and then clubbed themselves in the foot for game two of the trip.
• Quietly, Columbus has put together a... what we’ll call a VALID season. The Metro is a strong division in the East right now, and it’s a strangely difficult fight into the wild card race, but the Blue J’s are were tied with the Flyers and have a few points to gain on the Hurricanes before they’re back in the thick of things. Pundits thought that losing Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky would torpedo them, but that has not been the case.
• Tangentially, I wonder if the Bruins can get Torts screaming and cost him $25K? Probably not, but it would be HILARIOUS. (To me. And hopefully others.)
• On the Bruins’ end, there’s been no such thing as healthy for the team this season... but, the roster has been about as complete as it’s going to get over the last few weeks. Matt Grzelcyk played last night after departing early the game prior and John Moore has subbed in well enough in Connor Clifton’s spot.