The Birds Attack

Another night, another game at Nationwide Arena. The Columbus Blue Jackets will face off against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at 7:00.

This fight will be a reunion for a couple of the guys in blue. Both Artemi Panarin and Anthony Duclair came from the Hawks.

In Thursday night’s game, Duclair had an absolute beauty of a goal in the team’s 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s been bombarded with texts and videos about how great the goal was, but the young player is ready to move on.

"It's a cliché to say, but you've got to move on after that," he said. "I still think I can play better. Apart from the goal there's still things I can clean up."

Duclair has very few ties attaching him to his former team. He said he maintains contact with a couple of the players, bur beyond that, there’s not much for him after the club made him a free agent over the summer.

During his stay in Chicago, Duclair didn’t spend much time with the major league. He only played 23 games for the club and got a total of eight points. With Columbus, a mere six games in, he already has four points.

In addition to Duclair, Panarin was also incorporated into the Blue Jackets lineup from Chicago. The winger was acquired before the start of the 2017-2018 season. In his first season, he had 82 points.

On the Blackhawks end, the team is looking to redeem themselves after a 4-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.

So far, Chicago is 3-1-2 this season, the first five games going into overtime. Their loss against Arizona was the first game that was decided in regulation.

The most exciting thing to come out of that game was that goaltender Corey Crawford was back in action. Crawford has been MIA after suffering a severe concussion on December 23, 2017.

Crawford has missed ten months, and during his absence, rumors began spreading about his return. Nevertheless, when his name was announced, the crowd erupted into cheers. Every save was met with fanfare, even the routine saves. One would think he hadn’t missed a single game the way he played.

"Obviously he's looking like his old self," captain Jonathan Toews said. "I think that's a great sign.”

Back in Columbus, the team is still without a vital player: Seth Jones. Jones has missed 24 days after he suffered a knee injuring during a stint with the Buffalo Sabres in preseason. The original prediction was he’d be out 4-6 weeks, but if everything goes according to plan, he should be back closer to that 4-week mark.

There was an optional skate the morning of October 18 that he participated in. He also took part in practice yesterday and was even playing with some contact.