It's the last game before the break, so naturally it starts in the middle of the [bleep]ing night.
Columbus Blue Jackets at San Jose Sharks
February 7, 2014 - 10:30 pm EST
HP Pavilion - San Jose, California
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Fear The Fin
SBN's Sharks vs Blue Jackets Coverage
Yes, there will be Olympic hockey. But damn it, man, I will miss the Jackets for the next three weeks. And, of course, best of luck to The Russian Four, our Olympians, and literally my only reason for not rooting for Team Russia to lose all of its games (most of the reasons for doing so have to do with Vladimir P., so we'll leave it at that).
After last night's all-nighter that ended with a thud, the Jackets get a quick chance to end the road trip--and head into the break--on a very high note. They've grabbed three of four points on the road trip, and with a point or two tonight could head into the break as high as a tie for second place in the Metro (in which they'd hold the tie-breaker in games played with New York, assuming the Rags lose against the Pens).
The Jackets--especially this nucleus--has had the Sharks' number of late, winning their last four against the Sharks by a combined score of 20-8. I don't have much else to offer. It's one game before the break. No reason not to skate your asses off, boys.
(Any lineup changes--I haven't seen much today in that the team didn't skate to my knowledge--will be noted as I get them.)
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(29-23-5, 63 Points; 4th division, 9th conference)
| Boone Jenner | Ryan Johansen | Nathan Horton |
| Nick Foligno | Artem Anisimov | R.J. Umberger |
| Matt Calvert | Brandon Dubinsky | Cam Atkinson |
| Derek MacKenzie | Mark Letestu | Corey Tropp |
| Jack Johnson | Fedor Tyutin |
| Ryan Murray | James Wisniewski |
| Nikita Nikitin | David Savard |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Curtis McElhinney |
San Jose Sharks
(36-16-6, 78 Points; 2nd Division, 4th Conference)
| Patrick Marleau | Joe Thornton | Brent Burns |
| Matthew Nieto | Joe Pavelski | Tommy Wingels |
| James Sheppard | Bracken Kearns | Martin Havlat |
| Adam Burish | Andrew Desjardins | Mike Brown |
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic | Dan Boyle |
| Brad Stuart | Justin Braun |
| Scott Hannan | Matt Irwin |
| Antti Niemi |
| Alex Stalock |
Season Series
02/07/14 - Columbus at San Jose
03/13/14 - San Jose at Columbus
Head to Head Stats
San Jose Columbus 2.81 (10) GPG 2.88 (7) 2.33 (4) GAPG 2.75 (17) 17.6% (18) PP% 19.0% (15) 83.2% (11) PK% 81.8% (16) Joe Pavelski, 29 G leader Ryan Johansen, 23 Joe Thornton, 48 A leader James Wisniewski, 30 Joe Thornton, 56 Pts leader Ryan Johansen, 44 Andrew Desjardins, 72 PIM leader Brandon Dubinsky, 84 21-4-3 Home/Road 13-12-3 2/5 vs. Dallas, W 2-1 Last Game 2/6 @ Los Angeles, L 2-1 (OT) 6-4-0 Last 10 6-3-1