In part 2 of tonight's split-squad matchup, the Jackets send a contingent to Minnesota to face the Wild.
Columbus Blue Jackets at Minnesota Wild
September 17, 2013 - 8:00pm EDT
Xcel Energy Center - St. Paul, Minnesota
Radio - None - TV - None
Opponents Blog: Hockey Wilderness
SBNation Game Page
The Jackets finish their second night of exhibition hockey with a split squad effort, on the road in Minnesota. Columbus is sending quite the requisite few regulars for this game, but one interesting note is that James Wisniewski and Ryan Murray appear to get another run together tonight.
Making their pre-season debuts tonight are Ryan Johansen, Michael Chaput, and Kerby Rychel, among others. Sadly, Wiz will not get a chance to again see Cal Clutterbuck in the pre-season (wait, that's probably a good thing), but the Jackets need to be wary of professional devil-goon Matt Cooke. He can talk about turning over a new leaf all he wants, but some leopards just never change their spots.
The Wild, despite it being their opener, is not dressing any of their big-name acquisitions from last season in Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Jason Pominville, or Dany Heatley. That said, Columbus will see one of their personal kryptonites in goal in Niklas Backstrom, he of the 2.11 gaa and .925 sv% lifetime against the Jackets in 19 regular season meetings.
Craig Hartsburg leads the Jackets' bench in this game.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(1-0-0 in pre-season)
| Jack Skille | Ryan Craig | Cam Atkinson |
| Blake Comeau | Ryan Johansen | Cody Bass |
| Michael Chaput | Sean Collins | Kerby Rychel |
| Mark Letestu | Jake Hansen | Trent Vogelhuber |
| James Wisniewski | Ryan Murray |
| Ilari Melart | Will Weber |
| Cody Goloubef | Blake Parlett |
| Jeremy Smith |
| Oscar Dansk |
Minnesota Wild
(0-0-0 in pre-season)
| Stephane Veilleux | Kyle Brodziak | Torrey Mitchell |
| Jason Zucker | Mikael Granlund | Justin Fontaine |
| Matt Cooke | Charlie Coyle | Nino Niederreiter |
| Jake Dowell | David Steckel | Carson McMillan |
| Mathew Dumba | Keith Ballard |
| Marco Scandella | Nate Prosser |
| Brian Connelly | Jonathon Blum |
| Niklas Backstrom |
| Darcy Kuemper |
Game Notes
In lieu of game notes, we'll just point out that the Jackets missed the playoffs by a tie-breaker with these guys, and though it means literally nothing to beat them tonight, man would it sure be sweet.be interesting to see how Bob looks, and I'm excited to see Boone Jenner as well.