"We're not looking at the series, we're looking at tonight," Bowness said. "The Columbus Blue Jackets are ahead of us in the standings and if we want to make the playoffs, then we have to catch them. That starts with tonight's game."
The two teams split games in February, but both have been struggling lately. Dallas is 1-6-3 in its past 10 games, while Columbus is 2-5-2 in its past nine.
"They're the same team, they play the same way, nothing has changed," Bowness said. "Listen, that team plays hard. The forecheck pressure is going to be the same, going to the net hard is going to be the same, the way they defend is going to be the same."
And right now, both Columbus and Dallas know how the standings look.
"You can see three teams kind of breaking out and running away a little bit," said Klingberg. "So we're in the middle part there where we're fighting to get into the playoffs. We've got to catch Chicago and Columbus, so we're starting with Columbus tonight."