Oceans Rise, Empires Fall

Columbus is coming off a 4-1 win in San Jose and now make their way to Los Angeles to take on the Kings.

The Jackets went back to their roots and played with a tenacity that led to their victory. A major key to their play was Bobrovsky playing like his old self.

In his last two games, Bob made 67 out of 69 saves for a .971 save percentage. The veteran hasn’t had the best record this season, so he gained a major psychological boost when he stopped the puck with 2.5 seconds remaining.

Even if the Sharks had scored in those final seconds, they still wouldn’t have won; nevertheless, the easy point would have further messed up Bob’s GAA, so the Russian was especially ecstatic after the save.

Bobrovsky is expected to start against the Kings tonight with Korpisalo projected to start against the Anaheim Ducks to finish off the California road trip. Columbus will return to Nationwide on Tuesday to take on the Dallas Stars.

Back in Los Angeles, the Kings have lost seven of their last eight games. Their current record is 3-8-1. They have allowed three goals in eight straight games and have even gone so far as to allow four or more goals in their past seven games. To say they’re having rough time is an understatement.

In other news, Columbus has activated Brandon Dubinsky off of injured reserve. Dubinsky has missed the last 10 games with a strained oblique sustained during a practice on October 7.

The centerman got points in Columbus’ first two games and won 68.8% of his face-offs. Last season, he averaged 14:27 TOI while also garnering six goals and 10 assists. He’ll make his return centering Riley Nash and Markus Hannikainen.

In his absence, Sonny Milano made his way to the lineup. In eight games this season, Milano recored one goal. During his time with the team last season, he was second among the rookies for points with 14-8-22. The 22 year old played 55 games.

CBJ Projected Lineup

Artemi Panarin — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Cam Atkinson

Nick Foligno — Boone Jenner — Josh Anderson

Oliver Bjorkstrand — Alexander Wennberg — Anthony Duclair

Riley Nash — Brandon Dubinsky — Markus Hannikainen

Zach Werenski — Seth Jones

Ryan Murray — Markus Nutivaara

Scott Harrington — David Savard

Sergei Bobrovsky

Joonas Korpisalo

LA Kings Projected Lineup

Alex Iafallo — Anze Kopitar — Dustin Brown

Tanner Pearson — Jeff Carter — Tyler Toffoli

Ilya Kovalchuk — Andrian Kempe — Trevor Lewis

Kyle Clifford — Nate Thompson — Matt Luff

Derek Forbort — Drew Doughty

Jake Muzzin — Alec Martinez

Dion Phaneuf — Oscar Fantenberg

Jack Campbell

Peter Budaj