Friday, December 27, 2024 – 7:00 p.m. EST
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
TV: FDSNOH; Radio 97.1FM

Boston Bruins (19-13-4, 42 points, 3rd Atlantic, 6th East)

at

Columbus Blue Jackets (14-15-6, 34 points, 5th Metro, 10th East)

Tonight is the first game of what the NHL should be doing more of: a home-and-home series. The Bruins host Nationwide tonight and the Jackets will travel to Boston after tonight’s game. These games tend to get a little more exciting, and to make things even more interesting, former Blue Jacket Joonas Korpisalo will likely nab one of the starting spots.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t resist the cover photo.

Player to keep an eye on

Kirill Marchenko

Marchenko is currently on a six-game point streak with 3-7-10 in those games. He has 13 goals and 37 total points in 35 games. He has taken his game to new levels this season and the chemistry between him and Monahan has developed. Both together are dangerous every night and highlight whoever plays on the other side.

Notes on jackets

Mateychuk and Pyyhtia were recalled from Cleveland. It looks like Mateychuk will be playing his second NHL game tonight…Severson will be back after recovering from injury…It sounds like they’ll be playing at 11/7 again – hopefully Chinakhov will be back soon.

The other bank

The Bruins didn’t get off to a good start to the season, but have now won 11 of their last 16 games. On paper, this is a pretty even matchup, but the Bruins are on a hot streak.

David Pastrnak had to leave the Bruins’ last game early due to an upper body injury. At the time of publishing this article, his status this evening is unknown.

Brad Marchand currently has the longest points streak in the NHL at 10 games.

Season series

November 18, 2024 CBJ5 @MTL 1
12/27/2024 BOS @ CBJ
12/28/2024 CBJ @ BOS

statistics

Boston		Columbus
2.64 (26)	GPG	3.31 (9)
3.03 (16)	GAPG	3.63 (30)
13.6 (31)	PP%	19.1 (19)
77.3 (23)	PK%	74.0 (27)
49.6 (16)	5v5 Shot Attempt %	49.3 (17)
49.2 (21)	5v5 unblocked shot attempt %	49.3 (20)
8.4 (24)	5v5 Shooting %	10.1 (5)
91.4 (14)	5v5 Save %	90.1 (26)
Brad Marchand, 15	G-leader	Kirill Marchenko, 13
David Pastrnak, 12	A leader	Marchenko & Verensky, 24
David Pastrnak, 35	P-leader	Kirill Marchenko, 37
Nikita Zadorov, 67	PIM leader	Mathieu Olivier, 62
8-7-2	Home/Street	10-4-3
7-2-1	Last 10	3-4-3

Planned lineups

Columbus Blue Jackets

Dmitry Voronkov	Sean Monahan	Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk	Adam Fantilli	Zach Aston Reese
Mathieu Olivier	Cole Sillinger	Kent Johnson
Mikael Pyyhtia	Sean Kuraly

Zach Werenski	Dante Fabbro
Denton Mateychuk	Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen	Damon Severson
Jordan Harris

Elvis Merzlikins

Daniil Tarasov

Boston Bruins

Morgan Geekie	Pavel Zacha	David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand	Elias Lindholm	Charlie Coyle
Justin Brazeau	Trent Frederick	Oliver Wahlstrom
John Beecher	Mark Kastelic	Cole Koepke

Nikita Zadorov	Charlie McAvoy
Jordan Oesterle	Brandon Carlo
Bricklayer Lohrei	Andrew Peeke

Jeremy Swayman

Joonas Korpisalo