By Joe Coopersmith

Golden Knights to Watch

«  C William Karlsson, a former Jacket, ranks second on the Knights in goals and ranks fourth in points with 21-21-42 in 49 outings.

«  Former Blue Jacket RW Jonathan Marchessault, who has recorded assists in five-straight games (4-5-9), leads the Golden Knights in goals and points (tied) with 32-21-53 in 61 contests.

«  D Alex Pietrangelo leads club blueliners in goals (tied), assists and points with 4-25-29 in 56 outings and has collected 4-16-20 in 33 career games against the Blue Jackets.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 5-4-1 in 10 all-time meetings vs. Vegas, including 3-1-1 at home.

«  Vegas has won three of the last four games in the series (CBJ; 1-2-1).

«  The home team has also won three of the past four meetings since Nov. 20, 2021.

«  CBJ have killed off all Vegas power play chances in four of the five meetings at Nationwide Arena (13-of-14; 92.3 pct.).

«  Three of the last four games at Nationwide Arena have been decided by a goal.

«  The Blue Jackets own both of the shutouts in the series with Sergei Bobrovsky turning aside 28 shots in a 1-0 win at Columbus on Dec. 17, 2018 and Elvis Merzlikins stopping 27 shots in a 3-0 win at Vegas on Jan. 11, 2020.

«  Each team has registered a hat trick in the all-time series with Cole Sillinger notching his first career hat trick in a 6-4 CBJ win at Nationwide Arena on Mar. 13, 2022.

This Season (CBJ, 0-0-0)

«  Mar. 4, 2024 – at Columbus (7 p.m. ET)

«  Mar. 23, 2024 – at Vegas (10:30 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Golden Knights

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 5-7-12 in 16 career GP, including 2-2-4 in his last 5 games against the club.

«  RW Kirill Marchenko – 1-1-2 in 1 career GP, recording the multi-point game in the last meeting against the team on Mar. 19, 2023 at Vegas.

«  D Damon Severson – 0-5-5 in 10 career GP, including 0-3-3 in his last three home outings against Vegas.

«  D Zach Werenski – 1-4-5 in 8 career GP, including assists in each of his last two games against the Golden Knights (0-3-3).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• The Blue Jackets improved to 4-4-0 in the last eight games dating back to Feb. 17 after earning a 5-2 victory at Chicago on Saturday.
• Columbus plays its 10^th of 13 back-to-back sets of the season on Monday vs. Vegas and Tuesday at Pittsburgh.  The set closes out a stretch of five games in seven days from Feb. 28-Mar. 5.
• The game against Buffalo on Feb. 23 kicked off a stretch of 9-of-13 games played at Nationwide Arena through Mar. 17.
• CBJ have scored at least two goals in 39 of the last 49 games dating back to Nov. 6.
• Columbus has scored a power play goal in three of the last five games (3-of-12; 25.0 pct.).
• The team has killed off all opponent power play opportunities in five of the past six contests (16-of-17; 94.1 pct.) ranking tied for first in the NHL (Rangers) in penalty kill percentage since Feb. 21.
• Columbus has recorded 327 shots on goal over the last 10 contests and ranks fifth in the NHL in shots-on-goal per game since returning from the NHL break on Feb. 10 (32.7).
• The Blue Jackets have played in 24 one-goal games this season, ranking tied for the 15th-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 ninth-T in the NHL with 130 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• Columbus ranks 11th-T in the league with 58 first period goals.
• CBJ rank fifth in the league in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.27) and sixth in blocked shots (1,050) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners have combined for 11-32-43 in the last 21 contests as well as 19-77-96 over the past 44 contests after picking up three assists at Chicago.  They rank seventh-T among NHL defensive units in assists and 11th in points with 24-109-133 in 50 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (37.7 pct.) and ranks second in points percentage (28.6 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 29-37-66 in 60 games this season.  They lead the league among teams’ rookies in goals and rank third in points and fifth in assists.  The Blue Jackets are one of two teams in the league (Minnesota) to have two rookies with 26 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 13 contests played.  He has also registered 5-6-11 with three multi-point efforts in his last 16 games and has totaled 12-11-23 over his last 31 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 ninth-T in points with 12-15-27 in 49 outings.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau notched a goal on Saturday and has registered points in nine of his last 13 games (2-12-14).  The winger, who leads the club in assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 9-34-43, nine multi-assist and 11 multi-point efforts in 60 contests, ranks 16th-T in the NHL in assists since Jan. 13 with 2-16-18 in 18 games.  He has also recorded 8-29-37 with 10 multi-point outings in his last 43 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.
• 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 Feb. 28.  He also ranks third on the franchise’s all-time lists in goals and points with 189-168-357 in 702 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 seven of his last 10 games (6-4-10).  He leads the club in goals with 19-9-28 in 45 outings and sits one goal shy of his third consecutive – and fourth career – 20-goal campaign.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has registered 2-4-6 in the last 10 contests.  He has recorded 17-14-31 in 58 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.
• G Elvis Merzlikins has stopped 90-of-96 shots faced (.938 SV%) while allowing two goals in each of his last three contests against the Rangers (twice) and Blackhawks (2-1-0; 2.02 GAA).
• LW Alex Nylander has collected assists in two-straight games (1-2-3), including notching his first points as a Blue Jacket and ninth career multi-point effort with 1-1-2 on Feb. 29 vs. Carolina.
• D Ivan Provorov second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 5-21-26 and 109 blocked shots, while averaging 22:23 TOI in 60 appearances this season.
• F Jack Roslovic picked up his fourth multi-point outing of the campaign and third in the last six games with two assists at Chicago on Saturday.  He has collected assists in six of the last eight games (1-8-9) and points in seven of the past nine contests (2-8-10).
• D Damon Severson leads club blueliners in goals with 6-13-19 in 45 outings in 2023-24.
• C Cole Sillinger has set a new career best with goals in three-straight games after notching his 11^th goal of the season at Chicago on Saturday.  He has also posted 3-1-4 in the last six contests. With 11-12-23 in 55 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 4-1-5 in the last nine games.  He leads NHL rookies in shots on goal and ranks second in goals and goals-per-game (min. 5 GP) and third-T in points since Jan. 15 with 9-1-10 and .53 goals-per-game in 17 contests.  He sits one goal behind the NHL rookie leaders in goals (Chicago’s Connor Bedard and Minnesota’s Marco Rossi) and ranks fifth in points with 16-14-30 in 54 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 collected his fifth multi-assist and seventh multi-point game of the campaign with two assists at Chicago.  He reached the 30-assist mark for the fourth time in his career (MR: career-high 37 in 2021-22) with an assist on Feb. 29 vs. Carolina.  He has collected 3-6-9 in the last 11 games and has posted points in nine of the past 14 outings (3-8-11).  He ranks 10th-T among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.67) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 4-32-36 on 24:19 TOI in 48 contests this season.  The 26-year-old is two assists shy from becoming the third player – and first defenseman – to record 200 career assists as a Blue Jacket.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• D Ivan Provorov is eight games from 600 for his NHL career (70-173-243, 592 GP).
• C Cole Sillinger is two games from 200 for his NHL career (30-35-65, 198 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is two assists from 200 for his NHL career (83-198-281, 464 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; 11 games
• F Kent Johnson (upper body injury on Feb. 28); out indefinitely (2 games)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 193

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