COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Blue Jackets were in a good spirits during their morning skate ahead of Friday night's tilt with the Philadelphia Flyers. A loose, relaxed atmosphere surrounded them as they went through their game-day practice drills.
Friday night's game takes on added importance due to not only the ceremony honoring Scott Hartnell for 1,000 NHL games, but also the fact that they are division rivals and both are on the outside looking in on the playoffs.
"We have a lot of Eastern Conference games, divisional games coming up," said Matt Calvert, "and they're all four point games. Every game from here on out is the most important game. For us, it's been that way for a while."
While the playoffs are looking more and more like a pipe-dream for the Blue Jackets, a mere eight points separates the Flyers form the eighth place Boston Bruins in the second wild-card spot.
The games between the Flyers and the Blue Jackets have been heavy, physical affairs to date. This one should see the intensity get ramped up even further. "It's going to take desperate hockey to win tonight," Calvert said.
With the pregame ceremony to honor Scott Hartnell for 1,000 games played plus the addition of a surprise gift from the Philadelphia Flyers, can the Blue Jackets channel this energy, this positive vibe into something that will ultimately work to their advantage and give them some extra motivation?
"Hopefully, for some guys it does," Mark Letestu said. "Knowing that it was his 1,000th game against L.A., I think guys should have had more energy. But, I think to see the ceremony today with some career highlights and things, it's important for Scott.
"As a teammate, you want to be there for guys on nights that mean a lot to teammates, just like you'd want them to be for yourself. For Scott, I want to play well and get him a win against his old team. It should be enough motivation for the guys to get going tonight."
It's been two months since these two teams played each other, a 3-2 OT victory for the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. At this time of the season, for teams in similar positions as these two are, the intensity becomes almost playoff-like.
"Nothing changes from what I said a week, two weeks, three weeks ago," said bench boss Todd Richards. "For me, it doesn't matter who we're playing, it's two points. We have to go out and get two points and win as many games as we possibly can.
"We can't get caught up in the ceremony to honor him. Once that ends, we've got a job to do. We have to be ready for the start of the game."
The Flyers are in a real fight to try and make the playoffs. The Blue Jackets, while not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet, are in essence playing for pride at this point. These factors alone should make for an exciting Friday night game of hockey.
Blue Jackets Projected Lines/Pairs
Hartnell / Johansen / Foligno
Calvert / Dubinsky / Atkinson
Wennberg / Anisiomov / Skille
Tropp / Letestu / Boll
Johnson / Savard
Tyutin / Goloubef
Wisniewski / Connauton
McElhinney in net with Forsberg as backup
Leopold is the healthy scratch
