The Columbus Blue Jackets will face the New Jersey Devils tonight at 7 p.m. at the Prudential Center. The Devils have been performing well recently, holding a 5-4-1 record in their last 10 games and winning three of their last four. They currently lead the Metropolitan Division with a 16-8-1 record and 33 points.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets have struggled to consistently score points, particularly during a tough November where they went 5-5-5. Despite this, they remain only six points behind the Devils and have a chance to close the gap with a strong performance tonight. Notably, Columbus lost a third-period lead in seven of their 15 November games, finishing those with a 2-1-4 record, including two penalty shootout wins. Their offense and defense ranks in the NHL show room for improvement, with power play success at 15.5% (27th), penalty kill at 75.4% (27th), goals scored at 70 (26th), and goals against at 81 (22nd).<\/p>\n
In contrast, the Devils\u2019 stats are stronger, with a 23.8% power play success (7th), an 83.3% penalty kill rate (8th), 78 goals scored (11th), and 74 goals against (14th).<\/p>\n
Historically, Columbus has a slightly favorable record against New Jersey overall (29-22-1-3) and at home (12-10-1-3), but recently they have struggled, going 2-8-1 in their last 11 meetings and 0-1 against them this season.<\/p>\n
Key players for the Devils include Dawson Mercer, who leads with 10 goals, Jesper Bratt with 19 assists and 24 points, and goaltender Jake Allen, who has an 8-4-0 record with a .919 save percentage. The Blue Jackets\u2019 players to watch are Zach Werenski (4-5-9 in 25 games versus the Devils), Charlie Coyle with nine points in 35 games, and Sean Monahan, who has scored 25 points in 21 games against New Jersey.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets are dealing with injuries, including Erik Gudbranson (upper body, no return date), Boone Jenner (upper body, possible return this week), Kirill Marchenko (lower body, day-to-day), and Mathieu Olivier (upper body, no return planned). They have lost a total of 43 man-games so far this season.<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s game can be watched on FanDuel Sports Network with Steve Mears on commentary, and the radio broadcast is available on 97.1 Fan with Bob McElligott.<\/p>\n
Fan Take: This matchup highlights the intense competition within the Metro Division and the resilience of teams like Columbus, who despite setbacks, still have a shot at the top spot. For hockey fans, tonight\u2019s game could be crucial in reshaping the division standings and providing exciting, high-stakes action as the season progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Columbus Blue Jackets will face the New Jersey Devils tonight at 7 p.m. at the Prudential Center. The Devils have been performing well recently, holding a 5-4-1 record in their last 10 games and winning three of their last four. They currently lead the Metropolitan Division with a 16-8-1 record and 33 points. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[734],"class_list":{"0":"post-30042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}