The Columbus Blue Jackets conclude their three-game road trip tonight at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.
Columbus has earned three of four points so far, beating the Panthers last Thursday night and earning a hard-fought point in a shootout loss Saturday night in Tampa. It was a good test against the top team in the league. Said John Tortorella, “I thought that was probably the fastest we played through the game.”
With Tampa threatening to pull away late, the Jackets scored two goals in the third period to force the equalizer and push things to the shootout before the Lightning won it there. The comeback speaks to Columbus’ resiliency, but regardless, Monday night is a game the Jackets want to have.
The Rangers have struggled so far, occupying the latter rung of the Metropolitan since the start of the season, and enter Monday’s contest against Columbus five points back.
Alain Vigneault’s seat has gotten warm, but his bunch has won three-straight, including at Tampa last Thursday night.
Though it sounded like Cam Atkinson might be ready to play at home Tuesday against Nashville, Columbus placed him on IR Sunday, activating defenseman Gabriel Carlsson. Matt Calvert will also miss this game with injury.
Projected Lineups
| Artemi Panarin | Nick Foligno | Josh Anderson |
| Boone Jenner | Brandon Dubinsky | Tyler Motte |
| Markus Hannikainen? | Alexander Wennberg | Oliver Bjorkstrand |
| Sonny Milano | Pierre-Luc Dubois | Zac Dalpe? |
| Zach Werenski | Seth Jones |
| Jack Johnson | David Savard |
| Ryan Murray | Markus Nutivaara |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Joonas Korpisalo |
| Chris Kreider | Mika Zibanejad | Pavel Buchnevich |
| Rick Nash | Kevin Hayes | Mats Zucarello |
| Jimmy Vesey | Paul Carey | J.T. Miller |
| Michael Grabner | Boo Nieves | Jesper Fast |
| Marc Stall | Ryan McDonagh |
| Brady Skjei | Kevin Shattenkirk |
| Nick Holden | Brendan Smith |
| Henrik Lundqvist |
| Ondrej Pavelec |