Canucks road trip continues in Columbus

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COLUMBUS, OHIO (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver’s six-game road swing resumes this evening with a stop in Columbus to face the Blue Jackets. The Canucks have lost four straight and are now seven points back of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.

Sven Baertschi will not play this afternoon after suffering a concussion on a questionable hit from Nashville’s Cody McLeod on Tuesday. Reid Boucher draws in to the line-up for just the second time since being claimed on waivers on January 4th.

“I am very excited. It has been a while since I played my last game. I am really looking forward to it. I have had very positive talks with the coaching staff and have been trying to work hard in practice. You have to be ready when you get the chance.

Baertschi’s absence has led to some line shuffling by Coach Willie Desjardins. Markus Granlund has moved up to the top line to play with the Sedin’s. Loui Eriksson has been bumped down to play on a line with Brandon Sutter and Jayson Megna.

It’s the second meeting of the season between the two teams. Columbus defeated Vancouver in overtime in December in John Tortorella’s 500th career victory. Cam Atkinson says it was a hard fought game and he expects more of the same from the Canucks this evening.

“I remember that game pretty vividly. We had a couple mental breakdowns in the third. We were up and they tied it up with a minute left in the game. At the end of the day we found a way to get the job done, but you obviously have to play a full 60 minutes against this team because they take advantage of your missed opportunities.”

Ryan Miller gets the start in net while the Blue Jackets will counter with Sergei Bobrovsky between the pipes.

The puck drops at 4 p.m. and you can watch the game on Sportsnet.

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