Nathan Horton (shoulder) is on track to make his Columbus debut sometime in early January. "I don't know when it's going to happen," coach Todd Richards said. "But I'll tell you this: He's prepared. He watches our games, even though he's not playing. He has a pretty good idea of what we want to do. There's a level of professionalism there. You can tell he's been somewhere (with a winning culture)." Horton will need some time to get back up to game speed once he makes his long-awaited return to action. When he does play it might be alongside Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno or R.J. Umberger.