By Joe Coopersmith

Ducks to Watch

«  D Cam Fowler leads club blueliners in assists and points with 4-23-27 in 55 appearances and has collected 10-10-20 in 25 career games against CBJ.

«  RW Troy Terry, who has picked up 3-4-7 in six career games against the Blue Jackets, leads the Ducks in assists and ranks second in points with 16-26-42 in 52 outings.

«  RW Frank Vatrano, who has registered goals in three consecutive games (4-2-6), leads Anaheim in goals and points with 26-18-44 in 55 games this season.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 30-28-8 in 66 all-time meetings vs. Anaheim, including 14-15-4 on the road.

«  The Ducks have won the last five in the series overall (CBJ; 0-3-2) following their 3-2 overtime win at Nationwide Arena on Oct. 24 in the first game of the season series.  Anaheim has also won four of the last five home games in the series (CBJ; 1-3-1).

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in eight of the last nine contests played at Honda Center.

«  CBJ have scored a power play goal in two of the last three road games of the series, converting on 3-of-9 chances (33.3 pct.).

«  Columbus has killed off all 35 Anaheim power play attempts over the last 14 games in the all-time series dating back to Feb. 11, 2016 after denying the Ducks on all four attempts in the first meeting of the season series.

«  The Blue Jackets own four of the seven shutouts in the all-time series, including the most recent one recorded by Sergei Bobrovsky on Oct. 28, 2016 (35 saves in 4-0 W at ANA).

This Season (CBJ, 0-0-1)

«  Oct. 24, 2023 – ANA 3, at CBJ 2 (OT)

«  Feb. 21, 2024 – at Anaheim (10 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Ducks

«  D Jake Bean – 2-1-3 in 4 career GP with both goals scored in the most recent meeting at Anaheim on Apr. 17, 2022.

«  D Adam Boqvist – 1-5-6 in 7 career GP, including assists in each of his last three games against the Ducks.

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 5-24-29 in 32 career GP, including in seven of his last eight outings overall (1-10-11) and 10 of the past 12 (1-13-14) as well as assists in each of his last three road contests (0-4-4) and five of his last six at Honda Center (0-6-6).

«  D Ivan Provorov – 3-3-6 in 12 career GP, including an assist in the first game of the season series on Oct. 24.

«  C Jack Roslovic – 5-4-9 in 12 career GP, including points in three of his last four games (1-2-3).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• CBJ close out their annual California road trip at Anaheim on Wednesday after earning a 4-3 victory at San Jose on Feb. 17 and a 5-1 loss at Los Angeles on Tuesday.
• The club closes out the trip with its eighth of 13 back-to-back sets of the season.  CBJ have picked up points in five of their first seven second games of a back-to-back (5-7-3, overall).
• The back-to-back set at Los Angeles and Anaheim also closes out a stretch of nine of 10 games played on the road over a month’s span from Jan. 23-Feb. 21.
• C Boone Jenner‘s game-winning goal with 12.9 seconds remaining at San Jose on Saturday was the second latest go-ahead goal in club history, trailing only the GWG scored by Patrik Laine with eight seconds remaining in a 2-1 win at Montreal on Feb. 12, 2022.
• The club failed to score at least two goals for just the eighth time in the last 43 games dating back to Nov. 6 after being held to a goal on Tuesday.
• Columbus has recorded 150 shots on goal over the last four contests (37.5 avg), including recording 40 at Ottawa on Feb. 13 and 41 at San Jose on Feb. 17.
• The Blue Jackets have played in 23 one-goal games this season, ranking tied for the 11th-most in the NHL.
• CBJ have had 15 of their games decided after regulation this season, tied for the seventh-most in the league.
• CBJ rank 13th in the NHL with 116 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season, including scoring all four of their goals on Saturday at San Jose at even-strength.
• Columbus, which scored two goals in the opening period on Saturday at San Jose, ranks 16th-T in the league with 51 first period goals.
• CBJ have combined for 738 blocked shots over the past 43 games since Nov. 6.  The team ranks fifth in the league in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.28) and sixth-T in blocked shots (947) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners have picked up 2-3-5 in the first two contests of the California road trip and have now combined for 8-23-31 in the last 15 contests as well as 16-68-84 over the past 38 contests.  They rank fifth among NHL defensive units in assists and 12th in points with 21-100-121 in 54 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (38.8 pct.) and ranks second in points percentage (29.2 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 27-36-63 in 54 games this season.  They lead the league among teams’ rookies in goals and rank third in points and fourth in assists.  The Blue Jackets are one of two teams in the league (Minnesota) to have two rookies with 25 or more points in 2023-24 (Adam Fantilli-27, Dmitri Voronkov-27).

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov has collected 3-4-7 in his last seven contests played, including registering two assists at San Jose on Saturday for his second multi-assist and seventh multi-point effort of the campaign.  He has also picked up 4-5-9 with three multi-point efforts in his last 10 games and has totaled 12-9-21 over his last 25 contests.
• C Adam Fantilli, who suffered a calf laceration on Jan. 28 and is expected to miss eight weeks, ranks fourth-T among NHL rookies in goals and points with 12-15-27 in 49 outings.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau had his season-high six-game assists/points streak (0-8-8) snapped at Los Angeles on Tuesday.  It was tied for the second-longest assists streak in CBJ history (8, R.J. Umberger from Nov. 10-26, 2010) and two from tying his career long (8, Feb. 15-29, 2016 with CGY).  The winger, who leads the club in assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 7-30-37, seven multi-assist and nine multi-point efforts, ranks 15th-T in the NHL in assists since Jan. 13 with 0-12-12 in 12 games.  He has also recorded 3-19-21 in the last 24 games and 6-25-31 with eight multi-point outings in his last 37 contests after collecting 1-5-6 in the first 17 games of the season.  In his second season with the club, he already ranks 10^th all-time in multi-assist outings (21).
• D Erik Gudbranson registered two assists against the Sharks for his third multi-assist/point effort of the season as well as sixth career multi-assist and 10th career multi-point outing.  He has set single-season career highs in assists and points (tied, 20221-22) with 3-14-17 in 50 games this season.
• C Boone Jenner, who skated in his first NHL All-Star Game in his 11^th NHL season on Feb. 3, has registered points in four consecutive outings (4-1-5), including goals in three-straight games (4-0-4) from Feb. 10-17.  It was one game shy from tying his career long (2x, MR: 4-1-5 from Mar. 12-19, 2018).  He leads the club in goals with 17-6-23 in 39 outings and sits three goals shy of his third consecutive – and fourth career – 20-goal campaign.
• RW Kirill Marchenko had collected points in three-straight games (1-2-3) prior to Tuesday’s contest at Los Angeles.  He has recorded 16-12-28 in 52 contests this season and has already set single-season career highs in assists and points after posting 21-4-25 in 59 contests during his 2022-23 rookie campaign.
• D Ivan Provorov ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 4-20-24 and 99 blocked shots, while averaging 22:35 TOI in 54 appearances this season.
• F Jack Roslovic registered an assist on CBJ’s lone goal on Tuesday to stretch his points streak to three-straight outings (1-2-3).
• LW Dmitri Voronkov, who has posted goals in two of his last three games, leads NHL rookies in goals and goals-per-game and ranks 10th in the entire league in goals-per-game since Jan. 15 with 7-0-7 and .64 goals-per-game in 11 contests.  He also ranks third among league rookies in goals and fourth-T in points and is already tied for the seventh-most goals by a CBJ rookie in a season in franchise history with 14-13-27 in 48 appearances in 2023-24.
• D Zach Werenski, who had his four-game points streak (1-3-4) snapped on Tuesday, has now registered points in six of his past eight games (1-5-6).  He ranks 10th among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.69) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 2-29-31 on 24:18 TOI in 42 contests this season.  The 26-year-old is one assist shy of registering his fourth career 30-assist campaign (MR: career-high 37 in 2021-22) and five assists shy from becoming the third player – and first defenseman – to record 200 career assists as a Blue Jacket.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• D Adam Boqvist is two games from 200 for his NHL career (23-60-83, 198 GP).
• C Boone Jenner is four games from 700 for his NHL career (187-165-352, 696 GP).
• C Sean Kuraly is six games from 200 for his CBJ career (32-31-63, 194 GP).
• C Cole Sillinger is eight games from 200 for his NHL career (27-34-61, 192 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is five assists from 200 for his NHL career (81-195-276, 458 GP).

OhioHEALTH INJURY REPORT

• F Patrik Laine (clavicle fracture-Dec. 14; NHL Player Assistance Program-Jan. 28); 17 games (for injury)
• C Adam Fantilli (calf laceration on Jan. 28); expected to miss 8 weeks; 5 games

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 185

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