GDT: Game 3: CBJ at St. Louis Blues - The Gauntlet Continues.

[NotWendell]

BLUE JACKETS (0-2-0) at BLUES (0-0-0) ​

Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Enterprise Center

TV: Bally Sports Ohio, Bally Sports Plus, ESPN+

Radio: Blue Jackets Radio Network - 97.1 The Fan

Gameday Preview: Blue Jackets at Blues | Columbus Blue Jackets

Columbus finishes a stretch of three games in four days to start the season tonight in St. Louis

www.nhl.com

Back-to-back for the Jackets. It's the Blues season opener?!? Up the difficulty level up about 3 notches.

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[Jovavic]

This will be ugly, 7-2 Blues

 

[Byrral]

Looking forward to the game. Don't care who plays but please tighten up the defense. Expect to lose. Expect improvement.

 

[DarkandStormy]

This game is critical.

 

[GoJackets1]

The defensive support we’ve been getting from our centers other than Boone has been horrendous so far.

Johnson should be tried at center sometime very soon. I have a hard time believing he’d be worse than Jack defensively, and Kuraly has been pretty bad too. Just see what happens and if it doesn’t work, don’t keep him there.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

There’s no reason Gudbranson AND Olivier need to be in the lineup at the same time. Unless there are injuries, of course.

Toughness is great and all but toughness doesn’t win you games. You can defend yourself while also being a useful player. Not saying Olivier has been terrible, he hasn’t, but he just doesn’t bring anything else to the table.

Since you can’t pull Gudbranson due to his contract, as major major said last game, just tell him to fling the puck up the wall and deal with the rest. He can’t handle it at all.

Take Olivier out of the lineup and put in Foudy. A fourth line with as much speed as Robinson-Kuraly-Foudy interests me.

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

This game is critical.

Agreed. When we miss the playoffs by 15 points, we will look at this game and say, "That could have been 13 points we missed by."

 

[VT]

I'm very interested in the roster. Especially the first line and whether Foudy will play.

 

[stevo61]

Almost no chance to win? Im gonna say 4-1 Jackets

 

[JacketFanInFL]

Everyone expecting a loss - usually a game we play well in, but still lose. 4-3 Jackets.

 

[DougKnowsBest]

Another game tonight feels like eating way to much little Caesar’s pizza

 

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

Easier game than the previous two, and Elvis is back. 4-3 win, Goals for Johnny, Jenner, Chinakhov, Sillinger

 

[CBJWerenski8]

I’ll go 5-2 blues

 

[majormajor]

There’s no reason Gudbranson AND Olivier need to be in the lineup at the same time. Unless there are injuries, of course.

Toughness is great and all but toughness doesn’t win you games. You can defend yourself while also being a useful player. Not saying Olivier has been terrible, he hasn’t, but he just doesn’t bring anything else to the table.

Since you can’t pull Gudbranson due to his contract, as major major said last game, just tell him to fling the puck up the wall and deal with the rest. He can’t handle it at all.

Take Olivier out of the lineup and put in Foudy. A fourth line with as much speed as Robinson-Kuraly-Foudy interests me.

To be clear I actually do think you can pull Guddy sometimes, although I don't expect them to do it vs the Blues and maybe not for the first quarter or half of the season.

I just hope to see more of Blanks soon. We could really use him.

 

[NotWendell]

8-4 Blues.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[stevo61]

I like Danforth but I think Larsen likes him way too much. Would like someone with a bit more offensive upside on the top line. Even on the PP its been frustrating how many shots hes fanned on or near empty nets he's missed and its only been 2 games.

 

[MoeBartoli]

Why isn’t Blanks drawing in? What am I missing?

 

[MAHJ71]

One can hope the Blues come out flat (yes, even in a home opener) after not playing for a week.

Either way, we're due for a few things to go our way.. and no pucks off skates crap.. Jackets 4-2. Nyquist EN.

 

[majormajor]

I like Danforth but I think Larsen likes him way too much. Would like someone with a bit more offensive upside on the top line. Even on the PP its been frustrating how many shots hes fanned on or near empty nets he's missed and its only been 2 games.

Idk what you're remembering but when he was in one timer position on the PP I saw one fanned one timer and one rocket that would have beat plenty of goalies not named Vasilevskiy. I could have missed some bad plays though, not sure.

Why isn’t Blanks drawing in? What am I missing?

Failed the height exam I guess. It's the Blues so they're going to try and look real big.

 

[NotWendell]

Failed the height exam I guess. It's the Blues so they're going to try and look real big.

 

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

Two games played against two of the best teams in NHL and half of the people here have lost all the positivity energy the season started with.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Two games played against two of the best teams in NHL and half of the people here have lost all the positivity energy the season started with.

It would be different if they were 0-2 but just losing because it’s Tampa and carolina

They’re losing in ways that seems sustainable and not correctable during the season. You can’t make players better on the wall, or better at forechecking. That’s just who they are. And we don’t have much of that right now.

There were alarm bells going off in that preseason game against Carolina but some dismissed it because of the roster that played there. But unfortunately, the big roster has the same issues right now.

It’s not all is lost, obviously, but the alarm bells are certainly ringing again. In my opinion of course

 

[NotWendell]

It would be different if they were 0-2 but just losing because it’s Tampa and carolina

They’re losing in ways that seems sustainable and not correctable during the season. You can’t make players better on the wall, or better at forechecking. That’s just who they are. And we don’t have much of that right now.

There were alarm bells going off in that preseason game against Carolina but some dismissed it because of the roster that played there. But unfortunately, the big roster has the same issues right now.

It’s not all is lost, obviously, but the alarm bells are certainly ringing again. In my opinion of course

The system we are using is clearly not aligned with the skillsets we have on defense. I don't let the guy coaching the blue line off the hook, not at all.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

The system we are using is clearly not aligned with the skillsets we have on defense. I don't let the guy coaching the blue line off the hook, not at all.

Yes. The defensive systems were thrown off last year when Levefbre was let go right before camp and we had to yank McCarthy out of Cleveland rather than an established coach. I can excuse that a bit.

But this year they decided to retain McCarthy rather than going out and getting an established assistant coach for the defense. That might have been a mistake

(Also it’s not just the defenseman who can’t defend. Our forwards can’t do it either. It’s a full team issue. Not just the D)