By Joe Coopersmith

Penguins to Watch

«  C Sidney Crosby, who leads the Penguins in goals and points and ranks second in assists with 32-31-63 in 59 games this season), has notched 20-37-57 in 39 career games against CBJ.

«  D Erik Karlsson leads the team in assists and leads Pens blueliners in goals and points with 8-35-43 in 59 contests and has collected 10-17-27 in 25 career outings vs. the Blue Jackets.

«  C Evgeni Malkin ranks third on Pittsburgh in scoring with 17-29-46 in 59 games and has registered 15-28-43 in 35 career outings against Columbus.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 15-27-9 in 51 all-time meetings vs. Pittsburgh, including 4-16-5 on the road.

«  The Blue Jackets have collected points in two of the last three meetings of the series (1-1-1).

«  Pittsburgh has won 13 consecutive home games in the series dating back to Dec. 21, 2015 (CBJ; 0-8-5).

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in 10 of the past 13 games of the series.

«  The teams have combined for 70 or more shots in six-straight and seven of the last eight.

«  Nick Foligno (Apr. 4, 2015), Scott Hartnell (Dec. 22, 2016) and Gustav Nyquist (Nov. 29, 2019) own the Blue Jackets’ hat tricks in the all-time series.

This Season (CBJ, 0-1-0)

«  Nov. 14, 2023 – PIT 5, at CBJ 3

«  Mar. 5, 2024 – at Pittsburgh (7 p.m. ET)

«  Mar. 28, 2024 – at Pittsburgh (7 p.m. ET)

«  Mar. 30, 2024 – at COLUMBUS (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Penguins

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 8-6-14 in 19 career GP, including points in six of his last nine games against the club overall (4-3-7) as well as points in three of his last four at Pittsburgh (2-2-4).

«  C Jack Roslovic – 2-4-6 in 12 career GP, including 1-2-3 in his past four outings against the Penguins.

«  D Zach Werenski – 2-5-7 in 15 career GP, including points in his past two contests at PPG Paints Arena (1-1-2) as well as points in five of his past seven games against the club overall (1-4-5).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• The Blue Jackets have won two-straight games after downing the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Saturday and the reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights 6-3 on Monday.  The club improved to 5-4-0 in the last nine games dating back to Feb. 17 with the victory against Vegas.
• Columbus concludes its 10^th of 13 back-to-back sets of the season on Tuesday at Pittsburgh (7-9-3 in back-to-backs; 4-3-2 in 2^nd game).  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 40 of the last 50 games dating back to Nov. 6.
• The team has killed off all opponent power play opportunities in six of the past seven contests (17-of-18; 94.4 pct.), leading the NHL in penalty kill percentage since Feb. 21.
• Columbus has recorded 360 shots on goal over the last 11 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 scored five goals at even-strength on Monday and rank eighth in the NHL with 135 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• Columbus ranks ninth in the league with 60 first period goals.
• CBJ rank fifth in the league in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.25) and blocked shots (1,066) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners collected 1-3-4 in Monday’s victory over the Golden Knights and have combined for 12-35-47 in the last 22 contests as well as 20-80-100 over the past 45 contests.  They rank sixth-T among NHL defensive units in assists and 10th-T in points with 25-112-137 in 61 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (37.5 pct.) and ranks second in points percentage (28.5 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 29-37-66 in 61 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 notched his 16^th goal of the campaign on Monday and has collected 5-5-10 in his last 14 contests played.  He has also registered 6-6-12 with three multi-point efforts in his last 17 games and has totaled 13-11-24 over his last 32 contests.
• LW Justin Danforth, who tied his career high with his 10th goal of the season against the Golden Knights, has also set single-season career highs in assists, points and games played with 10-10-20 in 61 contests in 2023-24.
• 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 collected a point for the second-straight game (1-1-2) with an assist on Monday and has registered points in 10 of his last 14 games (2-13-15).  The winger, who leads the club in assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 9-35-44, nine multi-assist and 11 multi-point efforts in 61 contests, ranks 15th-T in the NHL in assists since Jan. 13 with 2-17-19 in 19 games.  He has also recorded 8-30-38 with 10 multi-point outings in his last 44 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 notched his fourth goal of the campaign on Monday and has set now set single-season career highs in assists and points with 4-14-18 in 57 appearances.
• C Boone Jenner has posted points in eight of his last 11 games (6-5-11), including points in three-straight (1-2-3) after picking up an assist on Monday.  The forward, 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 189-169-358 in 703 contests.  The forward, who skated in his first NHL All-Star Game in his 11^th NHL season on Feb. 3, leads the club in goals with 19-10-29 in 46 outings and sits one goal shy of his third consecutive – and fourth career – 20-goal campaign.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has registered 2-5-7 in the last 11 contests after collecting an assist on Monday.  He has recorded 17-15-32 in 59 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, who missed Monday’s game with an upper body injury, 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 notched his first career NHL hat trick with three goals, while stretching his points streak to three consecutive games (4-2-6), tying his career best (2-2-4 on Mar. 17-23, 2019; with Chicago).  The forward was acquired in a trade from Pittsburgh on Feb. 22.
• D Ivan Provorov registered an assist on Monday and ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 5-22-27 and 110 blocked shots, while averaging 22:20 TOI in 61 appearances this season.
• F Jack Roslovic has collected assists in six of the last nine games (1-8-9) and points in seven of the past 10 contests (2-8-10).
• C Cole Sillinger has set a career best with points in four-straight games (3-1-4) after recording an assist on Monday.  The stretch included a career-high three-game goal streak from Feb. 28-Mar. 2.  He has also posted 3-2-5 in the last seven contests.  With 11-13-24 in 56 games this season, he sits two assists from tying his single-season career high set in his rookie campaign in 2021-22 (16-15-31 in 79 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier stretched his points streak to two consecutive outings (1-2-3) after collecting two assists on Monday for his third multi-assist and fifth multi-point outing of the campaign.  He has picked up 1-4-5 in the past five games and has set new single-season career highs in assists with 9-12-21 in 57 games.
• LW Dmitri Voronkov leads NHL rookies in shots on goal and ranks second in goals and goals-per-game (min. 7 GP) and third-T in points since Jan. 15 with 9-1-10 and .50 goals-per-game in 18 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 stretched his assists streak to three-straight games (0-4-4) after picking up an assist on Monday.  He has collected 3-7-10 in the last 12 games and has posted points in 10 of the past 15 outings (3-9-12).  He ranks 11th among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.67) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 4-33-37 on 24:17 TOI in 49 contests this season.  The 26-year-old, who has reached the 30-assist mark for the fourth time in his career (MR: career-high 37 in 2021-22), is one assist shy from becoming the third player – and first defenseman – to record 200 career assists as a Blue Jacket.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• RW Mathieu Olivier is one game from 100 for his CBJ career (7-14-21, 99 GP).
• D Ivan Provorov is seven games from 600 for his NHL career (70-174-244, 593 GP).
• F Jack Roslovic is six assists from 100 for his CBJ career (49-94-143, 244 GP).
• D Damon Severson is seven games from 700 for his NHL career (64-218-282, 693 GP).
• C Cole Sillinger is one game from 200 for his NHL career (30-36-66, 199 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is one assist from 200 for his NHL career (83-199-282, 465 GP) and six assists from surpassing RW David Vyborny (113-204-317, 543 GP) for second-most in franchise history.

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 (12 games)
• F Kent Johnson (shoulder injury on Feb. 28); out indefinitely (3 games)
• G Elvis Merzlikins (upper body injury); day-to-day (1 game)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 196

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