Pre-game thoughts: Time to put a streak together

The Columbus Blue Jackets take on a struggling Nashville Predators squad tonight at Nationwide Arena. The Jackets have lost 10 straight to the Preds. Both teams are coming off wins.

The Jackets, who haven't strung together back to back wins since Nov 23rd & 24th, its an opportunity to put together back to back wins and try to put some kind of streak together to get back in the thick of this playoff hunt. For the Preds, its much of the same as they were losers of 5 straight until beating the struggling Kings last night in Nashville and will also look to put a streak together.

Keys to lighting em up

60 minute effort. As Hitch stated in the Dispatch this morning the reason the Preds are so successfull against the Jackets is because they outwork them for longer stretches. The Jackets must outwork this team to win.

Get that first goal. This could pretty much be stickied for every "Pre-game thoughts" post -- its no secret, if the Jackets get on the board first they are a much more successfull team.

Shutdown Arnott. He's hot. He had a hat trick last night and leads this team in points with 28. Erat, Legwand, Dumont and Radulov are their other offensive threats. Jackets have to outwork this group.

Ride Norrena. Freddy No gets the nod again in net and rightfully so. According to the Dispatch he's only allowed four goals in his past 200 minuts (3+ games). Need more of that play from Freddy tonight.

Score more than 2. Jackets got some lucky calls and breaks last game against the Kings. They can't count on that again tonight. Need to find some offense tonight. 2 goals will probably not get it done.

Nash hurtin but need him producin. Easy for me to say from my couch, but the Jackets need #61 to break out of this slump. He's pretty banged up but if he's gonna go, then we need to him putting some points on the board.

Take advantage of Preds 28th ranked PP and 11th ranked PK. Jackets can't afford to give up PP goals to the Preds and must fight through their 11th ranked PK and generate something -- anything -- of their own PP.

Bring your game faces. These two team are known to play each other hard. Hopefully Boll can go tonight to provide some of that energy but regardess, this entire team needs to show up with their game faces and give this home crowd an early x-mas gift with a modest two game winning streak.

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Game starts at 5 tonight. The Jackets round out this month with 4 of the next 5 at home. They are 4-3-2 right now in this month and can really salvage something from this extended home stand.

Another huge one tonight. Jackets are due...they are OVER due for a win against these guys. Need to bring a full 60 minute effort to get it done!

GO JACKETS!!

-LTL