Yle Sporten broadcasts: The weekend’s NHL double begins with Laine against Aho – can injury-affected Columbus take on shot-crazy Carolina?

This weekend, Yle is offering real NHL treats. On Sunday, Dallas meets Florida, but before that, Columbus will try to stop Carolina on home ice.

At 23.00 Columbus–Carolina, TV2 and Arenan

Commentator: Mattias Simonsen

Talk about two teams that trended in completely opposite directions during the beginning of the season.

Carolina started the season tentatively, but has really picked up speed lately. After winning more games in a row than ever before, only a living wall in Juuse Saros stopped them from beating Nashville in their last game.

Columbus, on the other hand, has had it lead heavy ever since October. The summer’s signing of Johnny “Hockey” Gaudreau made fans raise their expectations – now the regular season already feels like a transport stretch to the summer’s draft.

The injured squad is still doing its best. In their last game, the Blue Jackets offered Washington a strong resistance for two periods, but then the stamina ran out.

Will Laine pull it off? And how long does Kotkaniemi get to play?

When it comes to the blue and white topics of conversation, the focus is on some Finns who have not had the season they had hoped for so far. Patrik Laine has been plagued by several injuries and has only scored nine goals this season.

Considering that he only played 22 games, that number is still not quite as deplorable as it might otherwise feel.

Columbus’ criticized coach Brad Larsen has recently matched Laine in the second chain (with Jack Roslovic and Gustav Nyqvist) instead of letting the scoring spray play with Gaudreau. This means fewer goal chances as Laine, on the contrary, has to act as a playmaker when the trio is on the ice.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s days are also beginning to be numbered. The points balance is 6+7 in 39 games and when Max Pacioretty is finally fit, there is no guaranteed place in the lineup anymore.

Against Nashville, Kotkaniemi got to play with Pacioretty and Derek Stepan. But the question is whether he can stay as Stefan Noesen is back from his minor injury. Noesen is still Carolina’s leading scorer on the power play this season.

Tonight’s clash may also offer a Finnish goalkeeping duel in the form of Joonas Korpisalo-Antti Raanta, as Elvis Merzlikins and Pyotr Kotjetkov stood the last time the teams were in the hot air. But it will clear up later tonight.

The damage hell that lowers the hosts’ shares

It’s not just the total number of points this season that speaks for Carolina. In fact, Columbus is among the teams hit with the heaviest injury-hits in the entire league this season.

Jakub Voracek hasn’t played since the detour to Tampere (remember the trip Patrik Laine later regretted?), Zach Werenski and Jake Bean are out for the rest of the season and first baseman Boone Jenner hasn’t been able to play lately either.

At the same time, Carolina has only a few minor players (in addition to Noesen, especially Ondrej Kase, who can even count on being sent to the AHL when he is healthy) in the infirmary. Frederik Andersen is certainly still injured, but Raanta and Kotjetkov have made sure that the fans do not miss the Dane.

A small consolation for the home team is that Nick Blankenburg is able to practice in full and is expected to return to the playing set any day.

And when that is the great consolation, you can calculate that the situation is catastrophically bad.

Commentator’s Tip: Not even a star goaltender can save Columbus this time

Certainly, above all Joonas Korpisalo can stand on his head in a rain of pucks. And there will be a hail of shots tonight. Carolina shooting a lot against Nashville the other day wasn’t a one-off – this is a team that wants to pepper their opponents.

And of course, the possibility exists for Korpisalo or Merzlikins to frustrate the visitors to the point that the Blue Jackets can pull off a blowout victory.

But Columbus tends to score their goals on turnovers (mostly in the entire league, actually) and Carolina is amazingly good at preventing turnovers with a frenetic forecheck and also quick in their turnovers backwards.

There is simply too much that speaks against the home team’s chances. And considering that a loss means the odds of getting JVM superstar Connor Bedard in this summer’s draft will improve, not many fans will be depressed if it goes that way.

4–2 to Carolina.