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It’s an interconference battle on the ice in the Gateway City as the opening week of the NHL season continues. The Columbus Blue Jackets are on the road as they travel to face the St. Louis Blues Saturday night. Columbus was in action at home Friday night against Tampa Bay so they’ll be playing the second game of a back-to-back situation here. The Blue Jackets lost their season opener as they were beaten 4-1 at home by Carolina Wednesday night. St. Louis kicks their season off here. The Blues finished last season 49-22-11 for 109 points, leaving them third in the Central Division. They beat the Wild in six games in the opening round of the playoffs before falling in six games in the conference semifinals to Colorado. The Blues own a 6-3-1 advantage in the last 10 meetings though it was the Blue Jackets earning a 5-4 home win in the most recent matchup on March 19, 2022.
Columbus was at home Friday night against Tampa Bay so they are playing the second game of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights to open the season here. That could prove to be taxing for a Blue Jackets team that is without their top two goaltenders at the moment with Joonas Korpisalo on injured reserve with a hip injury while Elvis Merzlikins is trying to get back up to speed after missing a few days with an illness. That kept him out of Friday’s contest as Daniil Tarasov got the call for the second straight game. In addition, winger Patrik Laine suffered an elbow injury in the opener and is expected to be out until mid-November, taking a key contributor in the top-six forward group out of the mix.
Against Carolina, Columbus hung tough for a while but they eventually were overwhelmed by the offensive onslaught of the Hurricanes to wind up with the defeat in their road opener. Th e Blue Jackets saw the shots even at 10 in the opening period but the teams were unable to light the lamp, keeping things scoreless after 20 minutes of play. In the second period, the Blue Jackets held a 14-13 shot advantage but were outscored 2-1 to trail by that margin after two periods of play. Patrik Laine opened the scoring in the contest with his first of the season at the 11-second mark of the stanza off an assist from Zach Werenski. The Blue Jackets gave up two unanswered goals later in the period to trail at the second intermission. In the third period, Columbus was outshot 20-8 and outscored 2-0 to wind up losing the game comfortably. Daniil Tarasov made 39 saves for the Blue Jackets, who were outshot 43-32, in the loss. With Merzlikins’ status still murky, it could be Tarasov again between the pipes here but keep an eye out for updates.
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