The Blue Jackets' defense is the bigger question. Ivan Provorov went on injured reserve on October 1, which leaves a blue line led by Zach Werenski with Denton Mateychuk, Emil Andrae, Erik Gudbranson and Jake Christiansen behind him. That's a lot of minutes for a young, thin group. Utah's power play just put 2 past Chicago, so how Columbus handles the penalty kill could decide this game.
Utah has its own hole on the back end. Maveric Lamoureux is on injured reserve, so the Mammoth are also playing without a regular defenseman. They also make the trip from Salt Lake City to Columbus with only 1 day in between, and that's a real body-clock spot for a team that's at home for its opener and on the road for game 2.
In goal, Columbus starts the season without Elvis Merzlikins after his offseason shoulder surgery, so the crease belongs to Cam Talbot and Jet Greaves. Neither team has named a starter for Saturday. Vejmelka's night against Chicago asked very little of him, and Columbus's revamped forward group will test him far more than a team that managed 9 shots in 40 minutes.
Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET on Saturday, October 3. Utah's power play against a Columbus defense missing Provorov is the matchup to watch. Knies against a Mammoth team that just showed what its 5-on-5 game can do is the other. It's an early-season game between 2 clubs that expect to play in the spring, and both are 1 game into finding out whether that's true.