By Joe Coopersmith

Rangers to Watch

«  D Adam Fox entered play on Saturday seventh among league blueliners in points and eighth in assists with 9-37-46 in 47 appearances and has collected 0-13-13 in 11 career games against CBJ.

«  LW Artemi Panarin enters Saturday’s games fifth in the NHL in points and seventh in goals with 32-46-78 in 57 outings and has posted assists in four-straight games with three three-point efforts (1-9-10).

«  G Igor Shesterkin ranks sixth in the NHL in wins with a 24-12-1 record and 2.74 GAA and .907 SV% in 37 games in 2023-24 and has posted a 4-2-0 record with a 2.06 GAA and .928 SV% in six career games against the Blue Jackets.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 22-21-6 in 49 all-time meetings vs. New York, including 12-14-1 at home.

«  The Rangers’ 4-3 shootout win in the most recent meeting on Nov. 12 snapped a streak of nine-straight games in the series that the winning team won by multiple goals.

«  The winning team has recorded four or more goals (including SO goals) in eight of the last nine games of the series dating back to Oct. 29, 2021.

«  The teams have combined for eight goals in three of the last five games played at Nationwide Arena.

«  Columbus owns three of the five shutouts in the all-time series but the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin has picked up the last two (31 saves in 4-0 win at NYR on Oct. 29, 2021 and 20 saves in 6-0 win at CBJ on Apr. 8, 2023).

«  The Blue Jackets have recorded the two most recent hat tricks (Artemi Panarin in 5-3 win at NYR on Mar. 20, 2018 and Boone Jenner in 5-3 win at CBJ on Oct. 14, 2023) and penalty shot attempt (Brandon Saad, unsuccessful in 5-2 win at NYR on Feb. 26, 2017).

This Season (CBJ, 1-0-1)

«  Oct. 14, 2023 – at CBJ 5, NYR 3

«  Nov. 12, 2023 – at NYR 4, CBJ 3 (SO)

«  Feb. 25, 2023 – at COLUMBUS (6 p.m. ET)

«  Feb. 28, 2023 – at NY Rangers (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Rangers

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 9-10-19 in 19 career GP, including 4-4-8 with three multi-point efforts in his last six home outings.

«  C Boone Jenner – 7-8-15 in 32 career GP, including his second career hat trick in the clubs’ first meeting of the season series at Nationwide Arena on Oct. 14.

«  D Ivan Provorov – 2-8-10 in 32 career GP, including two assists in the first meeting of the season series.

«  D Zach Werenski – 3-12-15 in 20 career GP, including points in his past four outings vs. New York overall (1-5-6) and assists in three of his past four played at Nationwide Arena (0-5-5).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• CBJ kicked off a stretch of three-of-four and 9-of-13 at Nationwide Arena through Mar. 17 with a 2-1 loss to Buffalo on Friday.
• The Blue Jackets completed their annual California road trip 2-1-0 after downing San Jose 4-3 on Feb. 17, falling 5-1 at Los Angeles on Feb. 20 and earning a 7-4 victory at Anaheim on Feb. 21.  It was the eighth time the club picked up at least four points on the trip (MR: 2-0-1 from Mar. 27-31, 2018).
• The back-to-back set at Los Angeles and Anaheim closed out a stretch of nine of 10 games played on the road with the team finishing 4-4-1 away from Nationwide Arena over a month’s span from Jan. 23-Feb. 21.
• The club has scored at least two goals in 36 of the last 45 games dating back to Nov. 6.
• Columbus has recorded 202 shots on goal over the last six contests, ranking fifth in the shots-on-goal per game since returning from the NHL breaks on Feb. 10 (33.7).
• The Blue Jackets have played in 24 one-goal games this season, ranking tied for the eighth-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 eighth-T in the NHL with 122 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• Columbus ranks 10th-T in the league with 55 first period goals.
• CBJ rank fifth in the league in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.06) and seventh in blocked shots (969) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners picked up 4-5-9 on the California road trip, including 2-2-4 in Wednesday’s victory, and have now combined for 10-26-36 in the last 17 contests as well as 18-71-89 over the past 40 contests.  They rank fifth-T among NHL defensive units in assists and 11th in points with 23-103-126 in 56 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (38.0 pct.) and ranks second in points percentage (29.0 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 28-36-64 in 56 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-28).

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov has collected 4-4-8 in his last nine contests played.  He has also picked up 5-5-10 with three multi-point efforts in his last 12 games and has totaled 12-10-22 over his last 27 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 fifth-T in points with 12-15-27 in 49 outings.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau collected his team-leading third three-point outing with 1-2-3 at Anaheim on Wednesday.  He has registered points in seven of his last nine games (1-10-11), including a season-high six-game assists/points streak (0-8-8) from Jan. 27-Feb. 17.  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 8-32-40, eight multi-assist and 10 multi-point efforts in 56 contests, ranks 11th-T in the NHL in assists since Jan. 13 with 1-14-15 in 14 games.  He has also recorded 4-21-24 in the last 26 games and 7-27-34 with nine multi-point outings in his last 39 contests after collecting 1-5-6 in the first 17 games of the season.  In his second season with the club, he already ranks eighth-T all-time in multi-assist outings (22) and is four games shy of tying Artemi Panarin for seventh.
• D Erik Gudbranson has set single-season career highs in assists and points (tied, 20221-22) with 3-14-17 in 52 games this season.
• C Boone Jenner, who skated in his first NHL All-Star Game in his 11^th NHL season on Feb. 3, had his season-high five-game points streak (5-3-8) snapped on Friday.  It was one game shy of tying his career long, accomplished twice (MR: 4-3-7 from Jan. 8-21, 2022).  He leads the club in goals with 18-8-26 in 41 outings and sits two goals shy of his third consecutive – and fourth career – 20-goal campaign.
• C Sean Kuraly notched his fifth career multi-goal game and second multi-point of the season with two goals at Anaheim on Wednesday.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has registered points in four of his last six games (1-3-4) after picking up an assist on Friday.  He has recorded 16-13-29 in 54 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, who collected an assist on Friday, ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 4-21-25 and 103 blocked shots, while averaging 22:32 TOI in 56 appearances this season.
• F Jack Roslovic had his three-game assists streak (0-4-4) and four-game points streak (1-4-5) snapped on Friday.  The assists streak was one game shy of tying his career long (1-5-6, Jan. 31-Feb. 7, 2021).
• F Alexandre Texier collected his second multi-assist and fourth multi-point outing of the campaign with two assists at Anaheim last Wednesday.  With 8-10-18 in 54 games this season, he is one assist (11, 2020-21) and two points (20, 2021-22) from tying his single-season career highs.
• LW Dmitri Voronkov, who has posted goals in three of his last five games after notching the club’s lone goal on Friday, leads NHL rookies in goals and goals-per-game since Jan. 15 with 8-0-8 and .62 goals-per-game in 13 contests.  He also ranks third among league rookies in goals and fourth in points and has already posted the seventh-most goals by a CBJ rookie in a season in franchise history with 15-13-28 in 50 appearances in 2023-24.
• D Zach Werenski, set a new franchise record for blueliners with his fifth career multi-goal game (Seth Jones, 4) after recording two goals at Anaheim on Wednesday.  He has collected points in five of the last seven games (3-3-6) and seven of the past 10 (3-5-8).  He ranks 10th among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.66) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 4-29-33 on 24:18 TOI in 44 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

• C Boone Jenner is three games from 700 for his NHL career (188-167-355, 697 GP).
• C Sean Kuraly is four games from 200 for his CBJ career (34-31-65, 196 GP).
• D Ivan Provorov is 12 games from 600 for his NHL career (69-173-242, 588 GP).
• C Cole Sillinger is six games from 200 for his NHL career (27-35-62, 194 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is five assists from 200 for his NHL career (83-195-278, 460 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; 7 games

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 187

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