Game Day #65: Blue Jackets Return Home; Face Pacific-Division Leading Golden Knights To Begin Key Homestand

After a 1-3-0 road trip, the Columbus Blue Jackets are back at Nationwide Arena on Thursday night to face the Vegas Golden Knights as they begin a critical four-game homestand.

Despite picking up just two of the eight possible points while on the road, the Blue Jackets remain in a wild card spot — but it's tightened dramatically: Four teams are within two points of Columbus' 70 points. 

Being back at home may prove to be the turnaround the Blue Jackets need. They are 20-6-4 on home ice this season and are 8-1-1 over their last ten. 

One cause for concern: the Blue Jackets have struggled to keep the puck out of the net in recent games, giving up three or more goals in each of their last five contests. They've gone up against some elite offenses in that time (namely Tampa Bay and Florida), but tonight's no different: the Golden Knights are one of just five teams who are ahead of the Blue Jackets in goals per game.

Elvis Merzlikins has gotten the start in four of those five games, and he'll be in net Thursday against the Knights. That said, many of the goals over the last week and change have been a result of sloppy defense or poor decision-making, and less on the netminder himself.

Here's what else to know when Vegas makes their only trip of the season to the state of Ohio:

• RE: KNIGHTS
  After winning four straight, the Golden Knights have lost back-to-back games. Could part of that be fatigue? Vegas is in the midst of playing six games in 11 nights. ... The Knights second-ranked power play has been particularly hot as of late, scoring in five of their last six games and a total of seven goals. ... Adin Hill will start for Vegas tonight. He's been part of a tandem with Ilya Samsonov this season and this will be his 39th start of the season. He's 23-11-4 so far, with a 2.60 goals against average and .904 save percentage. Still, only 47% of his starts have ranked as a "quality start", 6% below the league average.
   
• CHRISTIAN FISCHER'S DEBUT
  Christian Fischer will come into the lineup for Yegor Chinakhov, making his team debut. Fischer, 28, was waived by the Red Wings last week. He had one goal and six assists for seven points in 45 games with the team this season, while averaging 11:09 per game. When confirming the change, head coach Dean Evason said that "he plays like we play,", adding that he plays hard and finishes his checks. 
   
• POWER PLAY SHIFT
  Boone Jenner is replacing Dmitri Voronkov on the power play, and Evason was blunt with his answer as to why: "It's not having success," said Evason. "We want to tweak it a little bit so we've changed some stuff here for tonight, but it's not like we're reinventing the wheel. We're just putting some different personnel in different spots, that's all." The Blue Jackets are 0-for-10 over their last four games on the power play and just 2-for-16 since returning from the 4 Nations break.
   
• LINEUPS CHANGES & PROJECTIONS
  With Fischer coming into the lineup, the bottom six will look a little different than the previous two games. James van Riemsdyk goes up to the third line with Justin Danforth and Luke Kunin, while Fischer will play alongside Zach Aston-Reese and Sean Kuraly on the de facto fourth line. No changes on the defensive pairings are expected. Here are the complete lineup projections: