Preview: Welcome Home

Tuesday, March 6, 2018 - 7:00 EST
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
TV: Fox Sports Ohio; Radio: 97.1 WBNS FM
Opponent’s Blog: Knights on Ice

It’s homecoming time for the Columbus Blue Jackets. After salvaging two points in the final game of their three-game California road trip, they now get four straight games in the friendly confines of Nationwide Arena. The toughest of those opponents come first, with the visiting Vegas Golden Knights.

You may remember the Knights from such games as running over the Jackets 6-3 back in January. They remain the feel-good story of the NHL season, but they did recently suffer a three-game losing skid, including a home-and-home sweep to the Kings and a loss to the Senators. They bounced back, however, with a win at New Jersey on Sunday. Newly acquired Tomas Tatar scored the game-winner.

Side note: be sure to check out the first comment in that game recap, from a salty Devils fan. HE MAD.

The keys for Columbus will be continuing to ride their hot hands, namely the wing duos of Artemi Panarin/Cam Atkinson and Sonny Milano/BJORKSTRAND. They’ll have to keep pace if this game becomes a shootout.

Making things more difficult is the absence of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who is sick. Joonas Korpisalo will start in net, and Jeff Zatkoff has been recalled on an emergency basis to back him up.

Projected Lineups

Artemi Panarin	Pierre-Luc Dubois	Cam Atkinson
Sonny Milano	Nick Foligno	Oliver BJORKSTRAND
Boone Jenner	Alexander Wennberg	Thomas Vanek
Matt Calvert	Brandon Dubinsky	Mark Letestu

Zach Werenski	Seth Jones
Jack Johnson	Ryan Murray
Ian Cole	David Savard

Joonas Korpisalo

Jeff Zatkoff

Reilly Smith	William Karlsson	Jonathan Marchessault
Tomas Hyka	Erik Haula	David Perron
Tomas Tatar	Cody Eakin	Alex Tuch
Tomas Nosek	Ryan Carpenter	Ryan Reaves

Brayden McNabb	Colin Miller
Shea Theodore	Deryk Engelland
Brad Hunt	Jon Merrill

Marc-Andre Fleury

Maxim Lagace