On Saturday, the Columbus Blue Jackets (15-23-9, 39 points, 8th Metro) play the third game of a five-game road trip out west when visiting the NHL leading Vancouver Canucks (32-11-5, 69 points, 1st Pacific). Columbus snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night but the Blue Jackets have lost seven of the last 10. Vancouver was defeated by St Louis 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday, snapping a three-game winning streak for the Canucks. Columbus will play without Patrik Laine, while Jack Roslovic and Adam Boqvist are both day-to-day. Vancouver will play without Carson Soucy, Phillip Di Guiseppe and Tucker Poolman.
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Columbus is averaging just 2.96 goals per game which is 22nd in the NHL while taking an average of 29.6 shots per game which is also 22nd. Columbus is winning 47.4% of its face offs, which is 25th and the power play for Columbus scores 14.7% of the time, which is also 25th. Kirill Marchenko is the leading goal scorer for Columbus with 14 and Boone Jenner is second with 13. Zack Werenski is the leader in assists with 25 and Johnny Gaudreau is second with 22. Gaudreau is the leader in points with 29 and Adam Fantilli is second with 26.
Columbus has a goals against average of 3.70, which is 31st or next to last in the NHL while allowing an average of 33.7 shots per game which is 29th. The Columbus penalty kill unit is successful 79.7% of the time that the Blue Jackets are shor t-handed, which is 18th in the NHL. Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins is 8-10-6 with a 3.29 goals against average and .903 save percentage. Two other goalies for Columbus that have seen action in between 9 and 13 games have goals against averages of 3.65 and 3.86.