By Joe Coopersmith

Hurricanes to Watch

«  C Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes in goals, assists and points with 22-39-61 in 56 appearances and has totaled 11-13-24 in 31 career games against the Blue Jackets.

«  D Brent Burns leads club blueliners in goals and points (tied) with 9-22-31 in 59 outings.

«  Rookie G Pyotr Kochetkov ranks third-T in the NHL in GAA (min. 20 GP) and fifth-T in shutouts with a 16-10-3 record, 2.35 GAA, .911 SV% and three shutouts in 31 contests.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 26-26-5 in 57 all-time games against Carolina, including 13-13-2 at home.

«  The home team has won four of the last five games in the series since Feb. 25, 2022.  Prior to that the road team had picked up points in eight-straight games from Mar. 18, 2021-Jan. 13, 2022 (7-0-1).

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in seven of the last eight meetings dating back to Oct. 23, 2022.

«  The Blue Jackets own four of the six shutouts in the all-time series with Elvis Merzlikins (31 saves in 6-0 win at Carolina on Mar. 22, 2021) posting the most recent CBJ shutout.

«  CBJ have also posted all four hat tricks (MR: Marchenko, Jan. 7, 2023) and lone penalty shot attempt (Atkinson goal; Feb. 8, 2021) in the series.

This Season (CBJ, 0-1-0)

«  Nov. 26, 2023 – at CAR 3, CBJ 2

«  Feb. 29, 2024 – at COLUMBUS (7 p.m. ET)

«  Apr. 7, 2024 – at Carolina (5 p.m. ET)

«  Apr. 16, 2024 – at COLUMBUS (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Hurricanes

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 7-7-14 in 18 career GP, including goals in two-straight games (2-1-3).

«  C Boone Jenner – 7-10-17 in 38 career GP, including points in two of his last three home contests against the club (1-1-2).

«  RW Kirill Marchenko – 4-0-4 with goals in 2 of his 3 career GP, including his first career hat trick on Jan. 7, 2023.

«  D Ivan Provorov – 5-6-11 in 26 career GP, including points in three of his last five home contests (2-1-3).

«  F Alexandre Texier – 2-3-5 in 10 career GP with assists in two of his last three outings (1-2-3).

«  D Zach Werenski – 4-4-8 in 24 career GP, including goals in two of his past three home contests (2-0-2).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• CBJ moved to 3-3-0 in the last six games dating back to Feb. 17 after falling 4-1 at the NY Rangers on Wednesday.
• Last Friday’s game against Buffalo kicked off a stretch of three-of-four and 9-of-13 at Nationwide Arena through Mar. 17.
• The Blue Jackets had snapped the Rangers’ 10-game win streak in the first game of a home-and-home set on Sunday, marking the second time in franchise history the club snapped a double-digit win streak (Minnesota, 12-0-0 in 2016-17).
• Columbus concludes its ninth of 13 back-to-back sets of the season when hosts Carolina on Thursday.  The club is 6-8-3 in back-to-back sets in 2023-24 (4-2-2 in 2^nd game).
• Wednesday’s contest began a stretch of five games in seven days for the club, including two back-to-back sets (also Mar. 4 vs. Vegas/Mar. 5 at Pittsburgh).
• The club has scored at least two goals in 37 of the last 47 games dating back to Nov. 6 after failing to score two goals against the Rangers on Wednesday.
• Columbus, which posted 41 shots on goal on Sunday, has recorded 274 shots on goal over the last eight contests. The club ranks third in the NHL in the shots-on-goal per game since returning from the NHL break on Feb. 10 (34.3), trailing only New Jersey (35.1) and Philadelphia (34.6).
• The Blue Jackets have played in 24 one-goal games this season, ranking tied for the 14th-most in the NHL.
• CBJ have had 15 of their games decided after regulation this season, tied for the eighth-most in the league.
• CBJ rank 11th in the NHL with 125 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• Columbus ranks 12th-T in the league with 56 first period goals.
• CBJ rank fifth in the league in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.24) and sixth in blocked shots (1,014) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners have combined for 11-28-39 in the last 19 contests as well as 19-73-92 over the past 42 contests.  They rank ninth-T among NHL defensive units in assists and 11th-T in points with 24-105-129 in 58 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (37.6 pct.) and ranks second in points percentage (28.8 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 29-37-66 in 58 games this season.  They lead the league among teams’ rookies in goals and rank third in points and fourth-T 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 (Dmitri Voronkov-30, Adam Fantilli-27).

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov has collected 4-5-9 in his last 11 contests played.  He has also registered 5-6-11 with three multi-point efforts in his last 14 games and has totaled 12-11-23 over his last 29 contests.
• C Adam Fantilli, who suffered a calf laceration on Jan. 28 and is expected to miss eight weeks, ranks fifth-T among NHL rookies in goals and seventh-T in points with 12-15-27 in 49 outings.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau collected his fourth multi-assist effort in the last seven games (1-9-10) with two assists on Sunday.  He has registered points in eight of his last 11 games (1-12-13).  The winger, who leads the club in assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 8-34-42, nine multi-assist and 11 multi-point efforts in 58 contests, ranks 11th-T in the NHL in assists since Jan. 13 with 1-16-17 in 16 games.  He has also recorded 7-29-36 with 10 multi-point outings in his last 41 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 all-time in multi-assist outings (23) and is three 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 54 games this season.
• C Boone Jenner, who is the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, skated in his 700^th career game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.  He also ranks third on the franchise’s all-time lists in goals and points with 188-167-355 in 700 contests.  The forward, who skated in his first NHL All-Star Game in his 11^th NHL season on Feb. 3, has posted points in five of his last eight games (5-3-8).  He leads the club in goals with 18-8-26 in 43 outings and sits two goals shy of his third consecutive – and fourth career – 20-goal campaign.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has collected assists in two of his last three games (1-2-3), including notching his sixth multi-point effort of the season with 1-1-2 on Sunday.  He has also registered points in five of his last eight contests (2-4-6).  He has recorded 17-14-31 in 56 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 has registered points in two of the past three games (1-1-2), ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 5-21-26 and 105 blocked shots, while averaging 22:29 TOI in 58 appearances this season.
• F Jack Roslovic has collected assists in four of the last six games (1-5-6) and points in five of the past seven contests (2-5-7), including registering his third multi-point effort of the campaign with 1-1-2 on Sunday.
• D Damon Severson has collected assists in two-straight games and three of the past four outings.
• C Cole Sillinger scored the Blue Jackets’ lone goal on Wednesday and has posted 1-1-2 in the last four contests. With 9-12-21 in 53 games this season, he sits three assists from tying his single-season career high set in his rookie campaign in 2021-22 (16-15-31 in 79 GP).
• LW Dmitri Voronkov has posted goals in two of the last three games (2-1-3) and four of the last seven games (4-1-5), including recording his third multi-point effort with 1-1-2 on Sunday.  He leads NHL rookies in goals and shots on goal and ranks second in points and goals-per-game (min. 5 GP) since Jan. 15 with 9-1-10 and .60 goals-per-game in 15 contests.  He sits one goal behind the NHL rookie leaders in goals (Chicago’s Connor Bedard and Minnesota’s Marco Rossi) and ranks fourth in points with 16-14-30 in 52 appearances.  He’s also one goal shy of tying Rick Nash (17, 2002-03) for the third-most goals by a rookie in franchise history.
• D Zach Werenski has collected 3-3-6 in the last nine games and has posted points in seven of the past 12 outings (3-5-8).  He ranks 12th-T among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.63) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 4-29-33 on 24:20 TOI in 46 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 Sean Kuraly is two games from 200 for his CBJ career (34-31-65, 198 GP).
• D Ivan Provorov is 10 games from 600 for his NHL career (70-173-243, 590 GP).
• C Cole Sillinger is four games from 200 for his NHL career (28-35-63, 196 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is five assists from 200 for his NHL career (83-195-278, 462 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; 9 games

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 189

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