Henrik Lundqvist was saying he was certain Artemi Panarin’s return to Columbus for Thursday night’s match against the Blue Jackets, would become a topic of pregame conversation among his teammates.
“I’m sure it is going to be a very special game for him, so of course there will be a few words before the game,” said Lundqvist, who will serve as Alexandar Georgiev’s backup. “You want to be at your best as a team for him. It’s that way whenever you have a player go back to a place where he was for such a long time.”
Panarin, by the way, played only two years with Columbus.