Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin will miss Thursday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena because of an illness, according to coach Mike Sullivan.

He is the fourth member of the team struck by an illness in recent weeks, joining forward Zach Aston-Reese as well as defensemen Jack Johnson and Chad Ruhwedel. To this point, Johnson is the only other player to miss a game because of illness. He was scratched Dec. 4.

Aston-Reese and Ruhwedel only have been absent for practices.

Malkin is second on the team in scoring with 27 points (eight goals, 19 assists) in 20 games. With the team already missing forward Sidney Crosby because of a core muscle injury, the Penguins will face their Metropolitan Division rival Blue Jackets without their top two centers.

In the 14 games Crosby has been absent, Malkin has recorded 21 points (six goals, 14 assists).

With Malkin sidelined, Jake Guentzel moved from the left wing to center on the top line with Alex Galchenyuk and Bryan Rust on his wings.

Earlier in the day, the Penguins recalled forward Joseph Blandisi from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton under emergency conditions. Blandisi has appeared in 11 NHL games this season and has three points (one goal, two assists).

Notes:

• Sullivan announced goaltender Tristan Jarry will start. He has appeared in 12 games this season and has a 7-5-0 record along with a 1.92 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and two shutouts.

Sullivan dismissed any notion that Jarry has become the No. 1 goaltender over incumbent Matt Murray.

“As I’ve said all along, we’ve got to two things in mind,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to win the game in front of us in the short term. We’re trying to keep the big picture in mind. We think Tristan has played extremely well as of late. That’s part of the reason we made the decision that we made. But certainly, we believe in both guys.”

• In addition to Malkin ($9.5 million salary cap hit) and Crosby ($8.7 million), the Penguins will play without forwards Patric Hornqvist ($5.3 million), Nick Bjugstad ($4.1 million) and defenseman Brian Dumoulin ($4.1 million). That equates to a combined salary cap hit of $31.7 million.

• Don’t expect the Blue Jackets to feel sympathy for the Penguins. They enter this game minus the talents of forwards Brandon Dubinsky ($5.85 million), Emil Bemstrom ($925,000) and Kole Sherwood ($694,444) as well as defensemen Zach Werenski ($5 million) and Markus Nutivaara ($2.7 million). That quintet represents a salary cap hit of more than $15,169,444.

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