Blue Jackets at Coyotes preview

BLUE JACKETS (26-19-3) at COYOTES (12-28-9)
9 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-O, NHL.TV

Atkinson missed 11 games with a broken foot sustained in the first period of a 2-1 shootout win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec 23.
The Blue Jackets are 1-3-0 in their past four games and 3-6-1 in their past 10. They've scored two goals or fewer in six of their past nine games.
The Coyotes have earned a point in seven of eight January games (3-1-4) and are on a five-game point streak (2-0-3), their longest of the season.

Players to watch

Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in his past 15 games. He has points in 12 of those 15.
Coyotes forward Brendan Perlini has scored in three straight games. A goal Thursday would match the longest goal-scoring streak of his NHL career (Nov. 20-25).

They said it

"Cam has a hunger to start playing some hockey. He's been out for a while." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella on Cam Atkinson's return
"We seem to have turned a corner in terms of our play. Obviously, it wouldn't be a great feeling if we didn't play a good game, so I think all the guys are raring to go. One more game to finish. We want to end on a good note." -- Coyotes forward Brendan Perlini

Blue Jackets projected lineup

Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Josh Anderson
Nick Foligno -- Alex Wennberg -- Cam Atkinson
Matt Calvert -- Boone Jenner -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Jussi Jokinen -- Lukas Sedlak -- Jordan Schroeder
Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones
Jack Johnson -- David Savard
Dean Kukan
-- Markus Nutivaara
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched:Markus Hannikainen, Scott Harrington
Injured:Ryan Murray (back), Brandon Dubinsky (fractured orbital bone), Sonny Milano (oblique)

Coyotes projected lineup

Brendan Perlini -- Derek Stepan -- Richard Panik
Zac Rinaldo -- Max Domi -- Christian Fischer
Tobias Rieder -- Christian Dvorak -- Clayton Keller
Josh Archibald -- Brad Richardson -- Nick Cousins
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Jason Demers
Jakob Chychrun -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski -- Luke Schenn
Antti Raanta
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched:Freddie Hamilton, Kevin Connauton
Injured:Jordan Martinook (upper body)

Status report

Martinook took part in the morning skate and is a game-time decision.

Stat pack

Foligno has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past six games. Bobrovsky is 0-2-0 with nine goals allowed in his past two starts after going 3-2-0 with nine goals against in his previous five. … Dvorak has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past seven games. Raanta is 3-1-3 with a 1.92 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in his past seven starts.