Game 43

Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Location: Honda Center

TV: PRIME

Radio: AM 830

Your Enemy: Jackets Cannon

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The Anaheim Ducks are coming off a thrilling shootout win over the Nashville Predators and will now turn their focus to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who visit Anaheim one night after playing up the freeway against the Los Angeles Kings.

This will be the second consecutive opponent that the Ducks face on the second half of a back to back situation and they should look to implement a similar strategy to the one that succeeded against the Predators. The Ducks started the game fast and controlled a majority of the possession early on. It resulted in the Ducks finding the back of the net first, and despite a couple ugly stretches that allowed Nashville back into the game, they ended up on top at the end with two points.

The Blue Jackets struggled mightily early this season but have begun to pull it together and are 7-1-2 in their last 10 contests. However, they are without starting goaltender Joonas Korpisalo for the time being, and the Ducks are expected to see Matiss Kivlenieks, who is expected to make his NHL debut tonight in Anaheim. If you haven’t ever heard of him before, then good news! Neither have I, so I guess we’ll see how that goes.

The Blue Jackets are coming off a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, and that improved their overall road record to a respectable 8-6-6. Based on the numbers there, they seem to like close games on the road, having 6 losses in either OT or a shootout, so hopefully the Ducks can avoid this and find a regulation win to keep their legs as fresh as possible for the arrival of a tough Dallas Stars team on Thursday night.

Keys to the Game

Power Play - Daniel Sprong has fixed the Anaheim Ducks power play. All is forgiven and the steam engine can now leave the station on its quest for the Ducks’ miraculous Stanley Cup run that began with the win over Nashville. In reality, this probably won’t be the case, but the power play looks a lot better now and I want them to keep that rolling tonight.

Goaltending - Ryan Miller vs. Man Making NHL Debut. Please find the upper hand in this battle.

Discipline - While the Blue Jackets don’t boast one of the top power plays in the league, sitting currently at 16.7%, or 24th in the NHL, the Ducks would be wise to avoid being shorthanded for too long tonight. It doesn’t really help with the whole “we can’t score a lot of goals” thing if we spend a lot of time playing 4v5.

Projected Lineups

Anaheim Ducks

Adam Henrique - Ryan Getzlaf - Daniel Sprong

Rickard Rakell - Isac Lundestrom - Jakob Silfverberg

Max Jones - Sam Steel - Ondrej Kase

Nicolas Deslauriers - Devin Shore - Carter Rowney

Hampus Lindholm - Josh Manson

Cam Fowler - Erik Gudbranson

Jacob Larsson - Michael Del Zotto

Ryan Miller

John Gibson

Columbus Blue Jackets

Gustav Nyquist - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Nathan Gerbe

Sonny Milano - Boone Jenner - Nick Foligno

Emil Bemstrom - Alexander Wennberg - Kevin Stenlund

Jakob Lilja - Riley Nash - Eric Robinson

Zach Werenski - Seth Jones

Vladislav Gavrikov - David Savard

Scott Harrington - Markus Nutivaara

Matiss Kivlenieks

Elvis Merzlikins