Ekholm-Dubinsky 4-7

BLUE JACKETS (45-29-7) at PREDATORS (52-18-11)
8 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-TN, NHL.TV

Columbus holds the third spot in the Metropolitan Division with 97 points. The New Jersey Devils also have 97 points but Columbus holds 6-2 points advantage in the head-to-head tiebreaker.
If the Blue Jackets defeat the Predators in regulation or overtime, they will clinch third place in the division and will play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Blue Jackets will rest forwards Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson and Alex Wennberg, and defensemen Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, and Ryan Murray.
Nashville clinched the Presidents' Trophy on Thursday and will play either the St. Louis Blues or the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs.

Players to watch

Columbus forward Thomas Vanek has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his past 14 games.
Nashville forward Filip Forsberg has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games.

They said it

"The way I look at it, there have been some guys that have been nicked up here that have been playing quite a bit, and also just trying to show a little respect to the guys who have been skating for the past how many weeks and not get a sniff of a game. A number of different situations." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella
"For us, we can't look to far ahead. We have one more game left that we have to play. It's an important game. It's an important game for them. It's an important game for us to make sure that we're playing the right way going into the playoffs."-- Predators defenseman P.K. Subban

Blue Jackets projected lineup

Sonny Milano -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Josh Anderson
Alex Broadhurst -- Boone Jenner -- Thomas Vanek
Eric Robinson -- Mark Letestu -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Matt Calvert -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Markus Hannikainen
Ian Cole -- David Savard
Taylor Chorney -- Jack Johnson
Scott Harrington -- Dean Kukan
Joonas Korpisalo
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched:Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson, Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, Alexander Wennberg, Ryan Murray
Injured: Nick Foligno (lower body), Lukas Sedlak (upper body), Markus Nutivaara (upper body)

Predators projected lineup
Status report

Robinson will make his NHL debut. … Jarnkrok participated in the morning skate.

Stat pack

Vanek has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in 18 career games against Nashville. … Rinne is 20-8-2 with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage in his career against Columbus.