Cleanup In "Isle" 3!

Live from New York, it’s Monday Night!

Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but whatever. It’s Monday night hockey!

After a kickass victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Jackets are taking on the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

After an early penalty in the opening period, Boone made up for his misstep and put Columbus on the board first.

The rest of the period was rather uneventful. Well, as uneventful as a Penguin’s game can be, the cheating bastards.

Sorry, sorry. This is a family friendly blog. I won’t swear anymore, promise.

Anyway, Cam scored early on in the second period and everything was going great. Until Pittsburgh got a goal of their own.

About four minutes after Cammy, centerman Zach Aston-Reese got the Pens their first and only goal of the night.

Oliver Bjorkstrand and Cam scored two more unanswered goals before the game was out.

More awesome news! In the game against Pittsburgh, Josh Anderson now has 100 career points!

All in all, it was a far cry from the embarrassing loss against the Penguins last time.

Another positive, the victory over Pittsburgh lifted Columbus above the Canadiens and into the a wildcard position!

"We have to start getting into a playoff mind-set right now," defenseman Seth Jones said. "Every game you have to get closer and clsoer to your top individual game, and that is obviously going to make the team better. Whatever your role is, do it to the best of your ability, do the little details better than the other team.

"We play some pretty good teams coming up here. We're just going to control what we can control, which is our work ethic, how we prepare, and our mind-set going into every game.”

Watch as Torts meets with the media ahead of tonight's game:

Columbus can’t get cocky though. They’re still two points behind the Hurricanes and are tied with Montreal with 79 points.

And the battle against the Isles is only game three in a seven game stretch of playoff teams. They still have two games against the Boston Bruins who are second in the Atlantic Division and a game against the Carolina Hurricanes. They’ll finish off the stretch with a game against the Calgary Flames who are first in the Pacific.

So tonight’s battle is definitely nothing to sniff at. The Islanders are second in the Metro and trail the Caps by a measly four points. Between the last two games against the Islanders, Columbus got two goals. Two! That’s it! They lost both games.

There is a glimmer of hope though. New York’s starting goalie, Robin Lehner, has been MIA with an upper-body injury. Additionally, defenseman Johnny Boychuk will also miss tonight’s game after taking a big hit from Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek.

Voracek was subsequently suspended for two games after the hit.

Check out my cousin meeting her favorite player here!

Can the boys in blue maintain their playoff position? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Here is the projected CBJ lineup.

Artemi Panarin - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Cam Atkinson

Ryan Dzingel - Matt Duchene - Oliver Bjorkstrand

Eric Robinson* - Nick Foligno - Josh Anderson

Brandon Dubinsky - Alexander Wennberg - Lukas Sedlak

Zach Werenski - Seth Jones

Markus Nutivaara - David Savard

Scott Harrington - Adam McQuaid

Sergei Bobrovsky (confirmed starter)

Joonas Korpisalo

*Note that Boone is expected to miss tonight’s game with an illness, so Robinson will take his place.