Blue Jackets at Golden Knights
In the midst of a stretch in which they are playing 10 of 12 on the road, the Vegas Golden Knights look to pad the league's best home record when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. Vegas wrapped up a 2-1-1 road trip with a 5-1 thumping at Carolina on Sunday that gave the expansion team the league's best record at the end of the weekend.
With 36 games to play, the Golden Knights are only two wins shy of tying the NHL record for wins (33) by an expansion club, set by Florida and Anaheim during the 1993-94 season. Vegas has been a machine at home with a league-best 18-2-2 record and has not lost in regulation at T-Mobile Arena since Nov. 28. "I’ve heard the crowds are great, so it will be fun to be a part of,” Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. "More or less, you’ve got 22 guys that ... were left (unprotected in the expansion draft) and they’ve got something to prove.” The Blue Jackets will hope that rest trumps rust -- they have played once in 10 days and have been idle since Thursday, when they squeezed out a 2-1 shootout victory over Dallas coming out of their bye week.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Columbus), AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain (Vegas)
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (26-18-3): Artemi Panarin scored the lone goal in the shootout in Columbus' win over Dallas, the team's league-high sixth win in the format and Panarin's fifth conversion in nine attempts this season. Cam Atkinson, expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken bone in his foot on Dec. 27, participated in a lengthy practice Monday. Atkinson said he still needs to be medically cleared, but noted he could return sooner than the initial timetable for recovery.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (31-11-4): William Karlsson scored six times in 81 games with Columbus last season, but he has found stardom in Vegas, ranking among the league leaders with 25 goals, including 10 in the past 13 games. "If you asked anyone, I don't know if anyone would say he would score (25) goals, but you know what, he became hot and he stayed hot - and that's just how it is," Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg said. Netminder Marc-Andre Fleury has yielded two goals or fewer in eight of his last nine starts.
OVERTIME
1. Golden Knights F James Neal has scored in three straight overall and has 10 goals and 19 points in 20 games versus Columbus.
2. The Blue Jackets acquired G Jeff Zatkoff from the Los Angeles Kings for future considerations.
3. Vegas scored twice on the power play at Carolina after failing on 19 man-advantage chances in its previous seven games.