Red Wings and Blue Jackets meet in a home and home series this weekend starting tonight in Columbus

The Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings headed into a home-and-home series in late November tied atop the Central Division. Detroit swept Columbus and continued building its division lead.

The Blue Jackets and the Red Wings both had 28 points going into their first matchup of the season Nov. 26. Columbus had won five in a row but lost 2-1, then fell 4-2 in Detroit two nights later. Those defeats began what has turned into a 6-14-3 stretch that has sent the Blue Jackets to the bottom of the division, 16 points behind the Red Wings.

The Red Wings (27-11-5), ending a five-game trip and a stretch of nine of 11 on the road, have beaten the Blue Jackets in five straight. The last meeting ended a string of four straight one-goal victories in the series.


Detroit had its three-game winning streak snapped Monday in a 5-4 loss to Colorado. Jimmy Howard was pulled after giving up four goals on 10 shots in the first 14:15 of the game.

Howard has allowed at least three goals in six of his past eight games but is 5-1-1 in that span, and he’s likely to keep getting most of the starts in net.