Columbus is "Jonesing" for A Victory Against the Panthers with Seth Jones Back in the Line

Columbus looks for 10th straight win as they take on the Florida Panthers.

Florida sits just outside of a playoff spot while the Jackets have moved to the third spot in the Metro. Florida trails the New Jersey Devils by one point for the second wildcard position.

The Blue Jackets were able to defeat the Rangers Tuesday night with a 5-3 victory. Wennberg put Columbus on the scoreboard first over halfway through the opening period. Panarin scored next in the second period, but Kevin Hayes was able to cut the deficit for New York.

It was back and forth the rest of the game after goals from Nutivaara and Panarin, and Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. The Rangers weren't getting anywhere with five players, so they pulled King Henry for the extra attacker. Unfortunately for them, it made no difference, and Panarin was able to score on the empty net, and get Columbus' second hat trick of the season.

It was another sloppy game from the boys in blue, and they know that. They may be safe from elimination at the moment, but if they keep up their poor play, they can easily lose their playoff spot. Shots on goal favored New York 32-31, takeaways favored New York 14-9. The Rangers only had two penalties the entire game, and Columbus had four. They need to stay consistent to win tonight and maintain their hopes of post-season hockey.

Conversely, Florida had an outstanding game Tuesday night in which they destroyed the Senators 7-2. Seven different players scored for Florida in that game and they outshot Ottawa 39-35. Tonight is a huge matchup for the southern team since they're sitting just outside of a wildcard spot. They trail the Devils by a single point, but New Jersey doesn't play until tomorrow. They'll take on the Penguins so there is a small glimmer of hope for Florida.

Tonight, Columbus hopes they can win their 10th straight game; their second longest win streak in franchise history. Last season they had an outstanding 17 game win streak, but the players aren't focusing on those numbers: they're concerned about points.

"I don't even care about the streak," Columbus captain Nick Foligno said," I just want points. [Reporters] can talk about [it]. We don't even care. Once we get to 17, maybe we'll care, but we went through that [last season]. It's a pretty cool feather in the cap, but right now, all we're about is getting into the playoffs. We want it to continue, don't get me wrong, but our focus now is just getting ready for another big game on Thursday."

One way to keep adding on to those playoff points is in the form of defenseman Seth Jones. Jones will be returning to the lineup tonight after missing three games with a lower body injury. The young player was crosschecked in the back during the game against Philadelphia and took some days off to recuperate.

This is the third and final time Florida and Columbus will face-off against each other this season. Columbus was able to win their previous two matches with a 7-3 victory back in November and and a 3-2 win in January. They are 17-7-2 overall and 10-2-1 at Nationwide specifically.

200 feet of ice separates Sergei Bobrovsky and Roberto Luongo as the puck drops. Let's go Jackets!

Columbus Blue Jackets Projected Lineup*

Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Cam Atkinson

Sonny Milano -- Nick Foligno -- Oliver Bjorkstrand

Boone Jenner -- Alexander Wennberg -- Thomas Vanek

Lukas Sedlak -- Mark Letestu -- Matt Calvert

Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones

Ryan Murray -- Markus Nutivaara

David Savard -- Ian Cole

Sergei Bobrovsky

*Jack Johnson and Brandon Dubinsky will be healthy scratches. This will be Dubinsky's second consecutive game as a healthy scratch.

Florida Panthers Projected Lineup

Evgeny Dadonov - Aleksander Barkov - Nick Bjugstad

Jonathan Huberdeau - Vincent Trocheck - Denis Malgin

Jamie McGinn - Jared McCann - Frank Vatrano

Michael Haley - Derek MacKenzie - Colton Sceviour

Keith Yandle - Aaron Ekblad

Michael Matheson - Mark Pysyk

Alex Petrovic - MacKenzie Weegar

Roberto Luongo