Blue Jackets at Rangers preview

BLUE JACKETS (45-31-4) at RANGERS (31-36-13)
7 p.m. ET; TVAS, MSG+, FS-O, NHL.TV

The Blue Jackets are tied with the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference but have a game in hand and hold the regulation/overtime win (ROW) tiebreaker (44-41).
Columbus, coming off a 6-2 loss against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday that ended a five-game winning streak, also will play at the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Montreal will play its final regular-season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Goalie Alexandar Georgiev will start for the Rangers, who are playing their final home game of the season.

Players to watch

Columbus forward Artemi Panarin has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past six games.
Rangers forward Ryan Strome is two away from his first 20-goal season in the NHL.

They said it

"We shouldn't be feeling the weight, and I don't think we do. We've played really well. We lost a game. We won five prior to that. We just have to bounce back, enjoy the moment and take it as an opportunity." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella
"We need to bring an intensity to our game, a playoff mindset to our game. It's one of our last two games. I've said this ad nauseam, how this season ends you're going to carry through the summer, so let's take advantage." -- Rangers coach David Quinn

Blue Jackets projected lineup

Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Cam Atkinson
Ryan Dzingel -- Matt Duchene -- Josh Anderson
Alexandre Texier
-- Boone Jenner -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Riley Nash -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Nick Foligno
Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones
Markus Nutivaara -- David Savard
Dean Kukan -- Scott Harrington
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched:Alex Wennberg, Markus Hannikainen, Lukas Sedlak, Eric Robinson, Adam Clendening, Andrew Peeke, Keith Kinkaid, Elvis Merzlikins
Injured:Adam McQuaid (upper body)

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Brendan Lemieux -- Brett Howden -- Ryan Strome
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Lias Andersson -- Jimmy Vesey
Brendan Smith -- Boo Nieves -- Vinni Lettieri
Brady Skjei -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Ryan Lindgren
-- Neal Pionk
Alexandar Georgiev
Henrik Lundqvist
Scratched: Connor Brickley, John Gilmour, Fredrik Claesson
Injured:Jesper Fast (upper body), Libor Hajek (separated shoulder), Filip Chytil (undisclosed)

Status report

Texier is expected to make his NHL debut. The Blue Jackets recalled the 19-year-old forward, the No. 45 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, from Cleveland of the American Hockey League on Thursday. He had seven points (five goals, two assists) in seven games with Cleveland after he had 41 points (14 goals, 27 assists) in 55 games with KalPa of Liiga, Finland's top professional league. … The Rangers recalled Lindgren from Hartford of the AHL on Thursday. He played three games with the Rangers from Jan. 15-19.

Stat pack

Atkinson needs one goal to set the Blue Jackets record for most goals in a season. He has 41, tied with Rick Nash, who set the record in the 2003-04 season.