Columbus is safely in the playoffs, but that doesn't mean they don't have anything to play for when they travel to Carolina on Thursday night. The Blue Jackets are five points out from the top of the Metropolitan division, but its been pretty hard to catch a Washington squad that's won their last six games. For the Hurricanes, they're in desperation mode as they are four points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern conference. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM Eastern time and the contest can be seen on NHL.tv, FSN Ohio, and FSN Carolinas.
Blue Jackets (49-19-7, 105 points, 2nd Metropolitan)
The wins just keep on coming for Columbus, who are now victors of six of their last eight games. Most recently, they took down Philadelphia and Buffalo before heading out for a quick two-game journey against Carolina and Chicago. They have another meeting with Washington looming, so while there are tough matchups ahead, they can prove that they deserve to win the division.
Right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand (11 pts) is questionable for this game with an upper-body injury. He's missed the last three games and most recently scored a goal against the NY Islanders back on March 18th. Left wing Scott Hartnell (34 pts) scored two goals in his last meeting with the Hurricanes.
Hurricanes (34-27-14, 82 points, 6th Metropolitan)
Carolina has also found their winning ways to stick around the Eastern Conference playoff race. They split a weird back-to-back series against Detroit recently, that coming off of winning the last three games in their four-game road trip. The offense has been on fire recently, scoring three or more goals in their last eight games.
Left wing Jeff Skinner (55 pts) has been responsible for eight of those goals in that stretch, including multiple goals scored against Florida and Nashville. Backup goaltender Eddie Lack (7-5-3) continues to sit out after suffering a neck injury earlier this week.
Columbus has won three of the last four meetings against Carolina.
The Blue Jackets opened as -120 favorites away from home, but many sportsbooks have lowered the number and some even favor the Hurricanes. Columbus is 4-0 in their last four games when playing on just one day of rest.
