Jackets Face-off Against the Vegas Golden Knights for the First Time in Franchise History

The Jackets make their way to Las Vegas, Nevada following their 2-1 victory against Dallas for the first time ever to face off against the newest team in the league: the Vegas Golden Knights.

The game against the Stars ended in a shootout. For the most part, Columbus commanded the game, and by all means had it in the bag. However, after a quick goal from Alexander Radulov, the game was forced into OT. Columbus sent out Seth Jones, Nick Foligno, and Josh Anderson against Dallas' Tyler Seguin, John Klingberg, and Alexander Radulov. Radulov was assessed a penalty for holding the puck, and Anderson for hooking, but otherwise it was an uneventful OT. The real fun began in the shootout. Columbus shot first, starting their latest addition Jussi Jokinen. It was a swing and a miss for the veteran, but Dallas didn't fair any better. Jason Spezza, who had the two game-tying goals in their Detroit win, was blocked by Joonas Korpisalo. Next up was the bread man himself, Artemi Panarin. He used his signature move; he went wide and slowed it down right before he got to the goalie, and delivered that biscuit straight to the oven! Next up was Radulov. KorpiSOLID shut that down real quick. Back on the Jackets' end, Jack was getting ready to shoot when... he slowly made his way back to the bench? Wenny took his place. Apparently, Torts said he was going to have Jack play "cleanup," a baseball term meaning to go fourth. Tortorella's plan was to have Johnson go after Wennberg, but Johnson misunderstood him and thought he held up three fingers instead of four. The guys all had a nice laugh about it, especially because Jack used to be a big baseball player in high school. Once the carfuffle was over, Wennberg took his rightful turn, but unfortunately missed his shot. Final round. Tyler Seguin juggles the puck, he shoots, he misses! Jackets win! A welcome victory after their track-record leading up to the break. This marks Korpi's first win against the Stars and his 5th win of the season. After an exciting game in Columbus, what can we expect in Sin City?

Despite everyone's expectations during the draft, Las Vegas has had an absolutely stellar inaugural season. They've been at the top of the standings since the season started fiercely holding on to their second place position. They briefly held the number one spot when they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1, but after the Tampa Bay Lightning shutout Chicago, 2-0, they settled back into second place. They have an 18-2-2record on home ice and boast a startling 66 points. The team owes their massive success to former Blue Jacket William Karlsson. The young Swede has the most goals of the team at 25 and the second most points with 40. He's also their top-line centermen. Karlsson is enjoying his time in Vegas and believes this to be an excellent career move for him; however, he does miss some of his former teammates. While Wennberg was injured, they talked fairly often and keep in touch. Karlsson, Wennberg, and several others met for dinner Monday night before their fight the next day.

What should we expect from these two feisty teams? Well, for one, we should see Sergei Bobrovsky in net tonight. He's had 10 days off after sitting out Columbus' stint with the Stars. Prior to that, he had started the last six games leading up to the mandatory five-day bye week. He went 3-3-0 with a 2.15 goals against and a .932 save percentage. Conversely, Marc-Andre Fleury, fondly known around the league as Flower, will be in net for Vegas. Fleury made 27 saves against the Hurricanes which brought his save percentage to .946. In his past 16 starts, the weird little Frenchman is 11-3-2. So the goalies are doing a stand-up job, but what about the others? Well, for one, Seth Jones and Nick Foligno are both on fire. Jones has a four-game point streak (one goal, five assists) while the captain has got four points in the past five games. Unfortunately, Columbus is still without some key players. Cam Atkinson is on the mend after he suffered from a fractured foot in December against Philadelphia. He has been skating and practicing with the team, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he could make an early return. Columbus's offense has been lacking, so Atkinson will be welcomed back with open arms. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Ryan Murray. Murray was practicing with the team prior to the break, but after their return, he has not been back on the ice. He made the trip to Vegas, but did not practice with the team. As far as Tortorella is considered, Murray isn't a part of the equation, Murray is not even in the conversation, as far as getting on the ice right now... so, yeah, it is what it is. He's not close." While their offense has been better than their defense, in a shocking turn of events, Murray is still an essential part of the Columbus line up. Hopefully this set-back is not major, and we'll be seeing him soon.

CBJ Lineup

Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Josh Anderson

Boone Jenner -- Alexander Wennberg -- Oliver Bjorkstrand

Matt Calvert -- Jussi Jokinen -- Nick Foligno

Jordan Schroeder -- Lukas Sedlak -- Markus Hannikainen

Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones

Jack Johnson -- David Savard

Scott Harrington -- Markus Nutivaara

Sergei Bobrovsky

VGK Lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith

David Perron -- Erik Haula -- James Neal

Brendan Leipsic -- Cody Eakin -- Alex Tuch

Will Carrier -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Oscar Lindberg

Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt

Shea Theodore -- Derek Engelland

Brad Hunt -- Colin Miller

Marc-Andre Fleury