Atkinson Returns, Kukan Makes His Debut, and Columbus Hopes to Avoid Being Eaten

Another late one as Columbus is back in action in Glendale, Arizona when they take on the Coyotes. The Jackets are looking for redemption after a difficult lose to the Golden Knights. Columbus had a 2-1 lead in the second period, but then allowed three unanswered goals. The final score favored the Knights, 6-3, and Tortorella was not happy.

"We have no solution in stopping momentum coming our way," Tortorella said Wednesday, after practice at Gila River Arena. "We really have no pushback. In that second period … probably from the seven-minute mark right on through [the end of] that second period, we had no pushback. And we'd better figure out a way to at least stop the momentum for a few minutes and try to get it on our side. We certainly weren't even close to that last night." This is the final game of a two-game road trip before the All-Star break. This break just comes a week after their mandatory five-day bye week. Both teams are looking for a win as the Coyotes have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for points, and the Jackets can't find any momentum. Arizona is the last team in the league with a staggering 33 points and a 12-28-9 record. While Columbus isn't the top dog, they do have 55 points with a record of 26-19-3. Nevertheless, Arizona is still having a pretty decent month. In January, they've had eight games and won three of them. They're also riding a five-game point streak which is a season high for them. Columbus has won four matches in the same amount of time. What could change the tides in Columbus' favor? Well, it comes in the form of the reactivated forward Cam Atkinson.

After suffering from a fractured foot, Atkinson has been MIA since the end of December after taking a puck to the ankle from fellow teammate Seth Jones. He had to get corrective surgery on December 27, and was finally cleared to play this morning. Practice was optional and they didn't run lines, so who knows where Atkinson will land in the lineup, but he will be a welcome addition. Cam has been a top player for them this season and will hopefully help with their lacking offense. With Atkinson back in the lineup tonight, Tyler Motte was reassigned to the Cleveland Monsters as was the newest addition of Nathan Gerbe who was acquired through waivers. He previously played for the Hurricanes in which he scored seven points in 47 games.

Both teams are used to forcing the game into overtime, so it should be interesting to watch. In their last eight games, Arizona has forced it to either OT or a SO six times. In January alone, Columbus has had three games go into OT. At least the losing team still gets a point if it goes into overtime, so there is an upside. This is final time the two teams will meet this season. The first time was all the way back on December 9th at Nationwide where the Jackets defeated Arizona 1-0. Puck drop is at 9:00 at the Gila River Arena. See you there!

CBJ Projected Lineup

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

Boone Jenner -- Alexander Wennberg -- Oliver Bjorkstrand

Matt Calvert -- Jussi Jokinen -- Nick Foligno

Markus Hannikainen -- Lukas Sedlak -- Jordan Schroeder

Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones

Jack Johnson -- David Savard

Dean Kukan -- Markus Nutivaara

Sergei Bobrovsky

Per JacketsInsider Brian Hedger: "Assuming Atkinson plays tonight ... he’ll go back to the left side of 1-3-1 PP setup, which will put Panarin back in the middle, where he can make more plays & fire one-timers from the slot."

Arizona Projected Lineup

Brendan Perlini -- Derek Stepan -- Richard Panik

Clayton Keller -- Christian Dvorak -- Tobias Rieder

Zac Rinaldo -- Max Domi -- Christian Fischer

Nick Cousins -- Brad Richardson -- Jordan Martinook

Oliver Ekman--Larsson -- Jason Demers

Jakob Chychrun -- Niklas Hjalmarsson

Alex Goligoski -- Luke Schenn

Antti Raanta