The Blue Jackets make only their second playoff appearance in franchise history against the Penguins. Will their playoff run be longer than their first appearance when they were quickly bounced in the opening round?
Pittsburgh didn’t have much trouble with the Blue Jackets during the regular season. Pittsburgh was a perfect 5-0 versus Columbus this season, but there’s one catch that Columbus can take some comfort in – the Jackets’ Vezina-winning goalie Sergei Bobrovsky started only one of those games.
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The Penguins played through an injury-plagued regular season, and they may still be missing one of their big guns when the postseason begins. Evgeni Malkin finished the season on the sidelines with an injured foot and may not be ready for Game 1. If he’s not ready Sidney Crosby, James Neal and Chris Kunitz will need to pick up the slack.
The Blue Jackets’ young guns finally started to grow up this season, especially Ryan Johansen, who netted a team-high 30 goals. Strong series by Johansen, Brandon Dubinsky, Cam Atkinson, James Wisniewski and of course Bobrovsky, could lead the Jackets to an upset over the favored Pens.
You’ll find the Penguins third on the Bodog Stanley Cup futures at 7/1. The Blue Jackets are huge underdogs at the bottom of the Bodog futures at 50/1.