Golden Knights at Blue Jackets preview

GOLDEN KNIGHTS (42-18-5) at BLUE JACKETS (33-28-5)
7 p.m. ET; FS-O, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV

The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim went 19-20-3 in 1993-94, their first NHL season. The Golden Knights (18-11-3) are tied with the 1993-94 Florida Panthers (18-16-8).
Vegas leads the San Jose Sharks by 10 points for first place in the Pacific Division.
Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is ill, so backup Joonas Korpisalo will start.
Jeff Zatkoff
will dress after an emergency recall from Cleveland of the American Hockey League.
The Blue Jackets, 1-2-0 in the past three games, hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They are one point ahead of the Florida Panthers and two ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Players to watch

Golden Knights forward William Karlsson, who has 35 goals in 65 games, returns to Columbus for the first time since being selected in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft. He had 16 goals in 135 games for the Blue Jackets from 2014-17.
Blue Jackets forward Thomas Vanek will make his home debut. He had no points in three road games after being acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 26.

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They said it

"When we got him that's what we thought we got -- a good, solid defensive player who could probably put up some decent numbers." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant on Karlsson
"It's a great challenge and a great opportunity all wrapped in one." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella on the final 16 games

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
David Perron -- Erik Haula -- Tomas Tatar
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Cody Eakin -- Alex Tuch
Ryan Carpenter -- Tomas Nosek -- Ryan Reaves
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore -- Deryk Engelland
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Maxime Lagace
Scratched: Brad Hunt, Tomas Hyka
Injured:William Carrier (undisclosed), Malcolm Subban (hand), James Neal (lower body), Oscar Lindberg (upper body), Luca Sbisa (undisclosed)

Blue Jackets projected lineup

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

Status report

Bellemare(hand) returns after missing seven games. … Other than Bobrovsky, the Blue Jackets will dress the same lineup they used in their 4-2 win at the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.

Stat pack

Smith has 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in the past 14 games. … Atkinson has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games.