Pre-game thoughts: Hockey night in Columbus

Another night..another games against the Wings.

The Jackets are 3-2-1 against the league's best team so far this season. That after blowing a 1 goal lead in the 3rd period last Wednesday in Detroit. With two games remaining in the series can the Jackets win a season series against this team for the first time in their history?

Keys to lighting em up

60 minute effort. As Hitch stated in the paper this morning the Jackets have to play a full 60 minutes of checking defensive hockey. If they get off their game like they did on Wednesday night we all saw how the Zetterbergs of the world chewed them up.

Got to contain Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Lindstrom. That only happened for 40 mins last game.

Norrena. Can't lose his composure like he did Wed after that 2nd goal. If he doesn't lose it then he doesn't miss play that ridiculous 3rd goal by Zetterberg and blow what was already a low chance the Jackets could tie it up.

The other Z. Need this guy to kick it up a notch in the scoring department. He's only got 1 point in the past 4 games and is a -1.

STAY OUT OF THE BOX! I can't stress this enough. The Wings make their living by using their 4th ranked PP and I don't care how good of PK you have its damn hard to stop.

Jackets PP. This special team has to do more out there. Its killing the Jackets. 2 PP goals and my bet is the Jackets win this game.

SCORE FIRST!

Final Sat night crowd of the year. Of course there will be plenty of Wings fans on hand but its a home game and the Jackets need to use it to their advantage.

Boll / Frtische / Leclaire. Jackets have their share of wounded players but so do the Wings. Can't use this or any crap like "coming out flat" or "we were tired" as an excuse to play poorly tonight.

Unlikely heroes. Malhotra has been just that lately but the Jackets need more of that from guys like Brule/Lindstrom/Murray/Novotny to help get a win tonight.

Game spotlight

Its been a long road back after a MCL injury but 2004 7th overall pick Alexandre Picard makes his CBJ season debut tonight. Apparently he's been playing so great touch hockey down on the farm and the team would look to him to provide some of that physical play lost in Boll's absence.

Man it sure would be nice to see this kid notch a goal.

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The Wings are winners of two straight while the Jackets have dropped 1 in a row. The Jackets have played Detroit well this year and will need more of the same tonight along with some timely goals and saves.

The Wings have scored some 57 more goals than the CBJ and allowed 25 less. No doubt an "A" effort is needed in every aspect of this game tonight to secure a "W" and a season series win for the first time ever.

GO RBAR & GO JACKETS!

-LTL