Canadiens at Blue Jackets preview

CANADIENS (41-28-8) at BLUE JACKETS (42-30-4)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-O, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV

The Canadiens are 4-0-1 in their past five games, two points ahead of the Blue Jackets and one behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the first wild card. The Hurricanes play the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-CR, NBCSWA, NHL.TV).
Columbus has a game in hand on Montreal with six games remaining.

Players to watch

Canadiens goalie Carey Price is 5-2-1 with a 1.62 goals-against average, .947 save percentage and one shutout in his past eight starts.
Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has consecutive shutouts for the second time this season. With a shutout streak of 159:25, he needs 40:03 to break the team record of 199:28 set by Steve Mason from Dec. 23, 2008 to Jan. 2, 2009.

They said it

"It's huge for us and it's huge for them. It is a big game but we're going to try approach it the same way we've approached every other one so far. It's served us well." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"This is as close to a seventh-game type situation without being in one." -- Blue Jackets center Matt Duchene

Canadiens projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen -- Max Domi -- Andrew Shaw
Jonathan Drouin -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Joel Armia
Nicolas Deslauriers -- Nate Thompson -- Jordan Weal
Victor Mete -- Shea Weber
Brett Kulak -- Jeff Petry
Jordie Benn -- Christian Folin
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratched:Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca, Mike Reilly, Charlie Lindgren, Dale Weise
Injured:Paul Byron (upper body)

Blue Jackets projected lineup

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

Status report

Byron was injured against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. Deslauriers takes his place after he was scratched the past 15 games.

Stat pack

Gallagher has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past three games. … Shaw, who will play his 500th NHL game, has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past five games. …Domi will play his 300th NHL game. … Bjorkstrand has scored in two straight games and three of his past four. … Anderson has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past seven games.