Blue Jackets playing well for past 2 weeks, head to Arizona tonight for 8:30 PM matchup with Coyotes

Mullett Arena south entrance taken from the south parking garage at Arizona State University, 2022 photo. By Kyvuh – Own work, CC0, https commons.wikimedia.org

Coyotes to Watch

«  RW Clayton Keller, who leads the team in all scoring categories with 21-29-50 in 55 games played, has recorded 3-6-9  with three multi-point efforts in his last five games entering Saturday night’s contest at Los Angeles.

«  LW Matias Maccelli enters Saturday’s contest against the Kings ranking second-T among NHL rookies in assists and sixth in points with 3-22-25 in 37 appearances in 2022-23.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 29-29-6 in 64 all-time meetings vs. Arizona, including 13-15-4 on the road.

«  The Blue Jackets are 10-3-0 against the Coyotes dating back to Nov. 14, 2015, outscoring the club 46-35 over that stretch.

«  CBJ have won six-straight games at Arizona and seven of the last eight on the road against the Coyotes dating back to the 2013-14 season.

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in six of the last seven games in the series, including each of the last four meetings.

«  CBJ own seven of the 12 shutouts in the all-time series, including the most recent one by Sergei Bobrovsky on Dec. 9, 2017 (35 saves in 1-0 W at CBJ).

«  Each team has recorded two hat tricks in the series with Bryan Berard (Jan. 5, 2006) and Matt Calvert (Feb. 25, 2011) recording the Blue Jackets ones.

This Season (CBJ, 0-1-0)

«  Oct. 25, 2022 – ARI 6, at CBJ 3

«  Feb. 19, 2023 – at Arizona (8:30 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Coyotes

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 12-18-30 in 29 career GP, including a six-game points streak (6-5-11) and goals in 3-straight games played (4-4-8).

«  C Boone Jenner – 7-4-11 in 15 career GP, including multiple points in two of his last three contests at Arizona (3-1-4).

«  LW Patrik Laine – 2-7-9 in 11 career GP, including 0-4-4 in his last four contests against the Coyotes.

«  D Andrew Peeke – 1-1-2 in 3 career GP, including a goal against Arizona earlier this season on Oct. 25, 2022.

«  C Jack Roslovic – 1-4-5 in 9 career GP, including 0-3-3 in his past three outings against the club.

«  C Cole Sillinger – 0-2-2 in 3 career GP, including an assist in the contest on Oct. 25, 2022.

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

  • Columbus won it’s second-straight game and improved to 3-1-0 in its last four contests and 5-4-2 in the past 11 games after beating the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
  • The club concludes its 11th of 17 back-to-back sets of the campaign on Sunday at Arizona.
  • Trailing 1-0 to Winnipeg on Thursday, the Blue Jackets earned their ninth comeback victory of the campaign. The club had come-from-behind to win in each of its last four victories after trailing 2-0 and 3-2 in a 5-3 win vs. San Jose (Jan. 21), 2-1 in a 3-2 OT win at Edmonton (Jan. 25), 2-0 in a 4-3 win at Toronto (Feb. 11) and 1-0 in the 3-1 win vs. Winnipeg prior to downing Dallas 4-1.
  • Thursday’s game against the Jets kicked off a stretch of six-straight games against the Western Conference for the Blue Jackets.  The stretch that runs from February 16-26, includes four consecutive contests against the Central Division.
  • CBJ have now killed off 36-of-43 opponent power play chances over the last 16 games since January 12 (83.7 pct.).
  • The Jackets have scored on 7-of-31 chances over their last 11 contests dating back to January 21 (22.6 pct.).
  • Columbus blueliners have registered 8-19-27 in the last 17 contests and 24-60-84 in 56 games this season.
  • With F Liam Foudy’s goal against Dallas, every player on the 22-man active roster has scored a goal in 2022-23.  The club has had a League-high 26 different goal scorers this season.
  • CBJ rookies have combined for 20-15-35 over the last 25 games and lead all NHL teams in goals and rank second in points with 33-33-66 in 56 contests in 2022-23.  It’s the tied for the third-most goals scored by team rookies in franchise history (2000-01) and trailing only 2017-18 (37) and 2019-20 (35). RW Kirill Marchenko (14) and C Kent Johnson (12) are the third pair of rookie teammates to score double digit goals in a single season in club history, joining C Serge Aubin (13) and RW David Vyborny (13) in 2000-01 and C Pierre-Luc Dubois (20) and LW Sonny Milano (14) in 2017-18.

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

  • Adam Boqvist notched a goal at Dallas and has collected points in three-straight outings (2-2-4).  He has picked up 2-6-8 with two multi-point efforts in his last eight appearances and 2-11-13 in his past 16 contests.  With 2-12-14 in 24 games, he’s two assists shy of tying his single-season career high (35 GP with Chicago in 2020-21).
  • LW Johnny Gaudreau missed his first game of the season with the team in Dallas with a lower body injury, snapping the third-longest Iron Man streak in the NHL at 349 games.  He has collected points three-straight contests played (1-2-3) and nine of his last 11 games (3-8-11).  He leads the team in assists and points and ranks second-T in goals with 15-37-52 in 55 contests this season.  He set the franchise record for fewest games played to record 50 career points (53 GP), surpassing the mark set by Ray Whitney (56 GP).
  • Boone Jenner picked up his team-leading 16th goal of the season against Winnipeg.  He has recorded points in three of his last four games (2-2-4) and 5-3-8 in his last 11 outings to boost his season totals to 16-14-30 in 45 contests. 
  • Kent Johnson scored his third game-winning goal of the season against the Jets – the most by a Blue Jackets player this season and tied for the fourth-most by a rookie in a single season in franchise history.  He now has registered 2-1-3 in his last four outings and 4-4-8 in his past 11 contests.  He ranks fourth-T among League rookies in points and fifth-T in goals with 12-15-27 in 53 games.
  • Joonas Korpisalo has turned aside 65-of-67 shots (.970 SV%) in victories over Winnipeg and Dallas this week and has posted a 6-5-2 record with a 2.78 GAA and .923 SV% in 15 games dating back to December 9.
  • Sean Kuraly, who skated in his 400th career NHL game on Thursday and collected two assists on Saturday, leads the team and ranks 15th among NHL forwards in hits with 139 in 54 contests this season.
  • LW Patrik Laine notched his 10th multi-point game of the season on Thursday with 1-1-2 and now has 6-12-18 in his last 17 contests (overall, 15-19-34 in 41 GP).
  • RW Kirill Marchenko ranks second among NHL rookie goal scorers in 2022-23 with 14-1-15 in 33 games but leads League rookies in goals and ranks fourth-T in points since making his NHL debut on December 6.
  • RW Mathieu Olivier, who notched his first career multi-point effort with 1-2-3 against Dallas, has set single-season career highs with 4-8-12 in 51 games.
  • Andrew Peeke ranks 12th-T in the NHL in blocked shots this season (118) and has registered a block shot in 48 of his 51 contests this season.
  • Jack Roslovic has collected assists in two-straight games and three of the last four games while picking up 3-21-24 in 35 games since December 1.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

  • GM Jarmo Kekalainen is nine games from 800 for his NHL GM career.
  • Gavin Bayreuther is four games from 100 for his NHL career (5-16-21, 96 GP).
  • Erik Gudbranson is four games from 700 for his NHL career (28-76-104, 696 GP).
  • LW Patrik Laine is nine goals from 200 for his NHL career (191-170-261, 448 GP).
  • RW Mathieu Olivier is one game from 100 for his NHL career (7-12-19, 99 GP).

OhioHEALTH INJURY REPORT

  • Jake Bean (shoulder) is on Injured Reserve (Nov. 17); out 4-to-6 months (41 games)
  • RW Yegor Chinakhov (ankle) is on Injured Reserve (Dec. 20); 4 weeks (25 games)
  • C/RW Justin Danforth (torn labrum) is on Injured Reserve (Oct. 25); 6 months (50 games)
  • LW Johnny Gaudreau (lower body) is day-to-day (1 game)
  • RW Carson Meyer (oblique strain) is on Injured Reserve (Jan. 10); 6-to-8 weeks (16 games)
  • LW Gustav Nyquist (shoulder) is on Injured Reserve (Jan. 25); expected to miss rest of reg. season (8 games)
  • LW Jakub Voracek (upper body) is on Injured Reserve (Nov. 4); out indefinitely (45 games)
  • Zach Werenski (shoulder separation/torn labrum) is on Injured Reserve (Nov. 10); expected to miss rest or reg. season (43 games)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 383

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