By Joe Coopersmith

Sharks to Watch

«  LW William Eklund ranks second on the Sharks in assists and third in points with 10-20-30 in 63 appearances and has registered points in five of his last seven games played (2-3-5).

«  C Mikael Granlund, who collected two assists on Thursday’s game at Pittsburgh, leads San Jose in assists and points with 9-33-42 in 52 contests this season.

«  LW Fabian Zetterlund recorded a goal on Thursday and leads the club in goals and ranks second in points with 17-14-31 in 65 contests in 2023-24.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 27-34-5 in 66 all-time meetings vs. San Jose, including 17-13-3 at home.

«  The Blue Jackets have won three-straight in the series and have recorded points in 14 of the last 22 meetings since Feb. 6, 2015 (11-8-3).

«  CBJ have won the last two games and three of the past four played at Nationwide Arena.

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in seven of the last 10 meetings overall, including the past three-straight.

«  CBJ have scored a power play goal in three of the last four meetings of the series (3-of-11; 27.3 pct.).

«  The Blue Jackets own six of the 12 shutouts in the all-time series with Sergei Bobrovsky earning the most recent one for the club with 26 saves in a 4-0 win at Nationwide Arena on Feb. 23, 2019.

This Season (CBJ, 1-0-0)

«  Feb. 17, 2024 – CBJ 4, at SJS 3

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

Player Notables vs. Sharks

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 12-20-32 in 33 career GP, including multiple points in each of his last five contests (4-9-13) and points in each of his past six outings (5-9-14) as well as 1-1-2 in each of his last two home contests and points in seven of his last nine home outings against the Sharks (8-4-12).

«  C Boone Jenner – 9-4-13 in 17 career GP, including goals in each of his last three appearances against the club (4-0-4) after notching the game-winning goal in the first meeting of the season series on Feb. 17 as well as points in seven of nine career home games against San Jose (4-3-7).

«  D Ivan Provorov – 2-3-5 in 12 career GP, including assists in his last two games against San Jose.

«  D Zach Werenski – 4-1-5 in 10 career GP, including points in two of his last three home outings against the team (2-1-3).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• Columbus moved to 3-3-1 in its last seven games and 6-7-1 in the past 14 since Feb. 17 after earning a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to Ottawa on Thursday.
• Tuesday’s game at Montreal kicked off a stretch of four games in six days through Mar. 17.  It’s the second-straight week of four games over a six-day period for the club (2-2-0 last week).
• The club is in a stretch of 9-of-13 games played at Nationwide Arena from Feb. 23-Mar. 17, including a three-game homestand over four days from Mar. 14-17.  CBJ will then hit the road for a five-game road trip from Mar. 19-28.
• CBJ play their 11th of 13 back-to-back sets this season when they hosts San Jose on Saturday and Winnipeg on Sunday. It’s the only home-home back-to-back set of the campaign for the club.  The Blue Jackets are 7-10-3 in back-to-backs this season (3-6-1 in 1st game; 4-4-2 in 2nd game).
• The Blue Jackets rank 12th-T in the NHL in goals-per-game during the month of March, averaging 3.00 goals over the past seven contests (21 goals total).
• CBJ killed off all three Senators power play chances on Thursday, including an attempt in overtime.  The team ranks ninth-T in the league in penalty kill percentage since Feb. 21 (84.7 pct.), having killed off 28 of the past 33 opponent power play opportunities over the past 12 games.
• Columbus, which has posted 78 shots on goal over the past two games, has recorded 540 shots on goal over the last 16 contests and ranks second in the NHL in shots-on-goal per game since returning from the NHL break on Feb. 10 (33.8), trailing only Colorado (34.3).
• CBJ have had 16 of their games decided after regulation this season following Thursday’s shootout loss to the Senators.  It’s tied for the seventh-most in the league.
• The Blue Jackets rank ninth-T in the NHL with 142 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• Columbus also ranks 10th-T in the league with 64 first period goals.
• CBJ rank seventh in the league in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.10) and blocked shots (1,144) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners collected two assists on Thursday and have combined for 13-43-56 in the last 28 contests since Jan. 1 as well as 21-88-109 over the past 51 contests.  They rank seventh-T among NHL defensive units in assists and 11th in points with 26-119-145 in 66 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (37.9 pct.) and ranks second in points percentage (28.7 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 30-37-67 in 66 games this season to lead the league among teams’ rookies in goals and rank third-T 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-31, Adam Fantilli-27).
• Blue Jackets netminders have combined to stop 347-of-375 shots faced (.925 SV%) over the last 11 games since Feb. 23.

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov, who left Tuesday’s game with an upper body injury, has collected 5-5-10 in his last 18 contests played.  He has also registered 6-6-12 with three multi-point efforts in his last 21 games and has totaled 13-11-24 over his last 36 contests.
• C Adam Fantilli, who suffered a calf laceration on Jan. 28 and is expected to miss eight weeks, ranks sixth-T among NHL rookies in goals, ninth-T in assists and 10th-T in points with 12-15-27 in 49 outings despite missing the last 17 games due to the injury.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau collected the primary assist on both Blue Jackets goals on Thursday and has registered points in 12 of his last 19 games (3-15-18).  The winger, who leads the club in assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 10-37-47, 10 multi-assist and 12 multi-point efforts in 66 contests.  He has also recorded 9-32-41 with 11 multi-point outings in his last 49 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 (24) and is two games shy of tying Artemi Panarin for seventh.
• D Erik Gudbranson has set single-season career highs in assists, points and blocked shots with 4-15-19 and 139 blocked shots in 62 appearances.
• C Boone Jenner, who has posted 7-5-12 in the last 16 games, scored 15 seconds into the game on Thursday for the sixth fastest goal to open a game in franchise history (third fastest at Nationwide Arena).  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 190-169-359 in 708 contests.  The CBJ captain, who skated in his first NHL All-Star Game in his 11^th NHL season on Feb. 3, leads the club in goals with 20-10-30 in 51 outings and became the fourth player to record four 20-goal seasons on Thursday, including in each of his past three campaigns.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has registered 2-5-7 in the last 14 contests.  He has recorded 17-15-32 in 62 appearances this season and has already set single-season career highs in assists and points after posting 21-4-25 in 59 games during his 2022-23 rookie campaign.
• LW Alex Nylander, who has recorded 6-2-8 in his first 10 games with the Blue Jackets, has registered points in five of his last eight games (6-2-8), including his first career hat trick on Mar. 4 vs. Vegas.  He became the second player in Blue Jackets history to record five goals in his first seven games with the club on Mar. 7, joining Antoine Vermette (2009).
• D Ivan Provorov ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 5-23-28 and 120 blocked shots, while averaging 22:13 TOI in 66 appearances this season.
• C Cole Sillinger has recorded points in five of the last nine outings (3-2-5) and has also posted 3-4-7 in the last 13 contests.  With 11-14-25 in 61 games this season, he is one assist from tying his single-season career high set in his rookie campaign in 2021-22 (16-15-31 in 79 GP).
• G Daniil Tarasov turned aside all 19 shots faced in relief at Montreal on Tuesday three days after tying his single-game career high for saves after stopping 47-of-49 shots faced (.959 SV%) against Nashville on Mar. 9.  He has stopped 222-of-236 shots faced (.941 SV%), while allowing three goals or less in each of his last six starts to rank second in the NHL in save percentage and seventh in goals-against average (2.09) since Feb. 21 (min. 5 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier had his career-high five game points streak (2-4-6) snapped on Tuesday at Montreal.  He has posted 10-14-24 in 62 games and has set single-season career highs in assists, points and games played.  The 24-year-old also sits one goal shy of tying his career high set in 2021-22.
• F Dmitri Voronkov leads NHL rookies in power play goals and shots on goal and ranks second in goals and fourth-T in points since Jan. 15 with 10-1-11 and four PPG in 23 contests.  He is tied for second among NHL rookies in goals (Chicago’s Connor Bedard; 20) and ranks fifth-T in points with 17-14-31 in 60 appearances.  He’s also tied with Rick Nash (17, 2002-03) for the third-most goals by a rookie in franchise history, trailing only Kirill Marchenko (21, 2022-23) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (20, 2017-18).
• D Zach Werenski has collected assists in five of his last eight games (0-6-6) after recording an assist on Thursday.  He became the third player – and first defenseman – to record 200 career assists as a Blue Jacket, joining Rick Nash (258) and David Vyborny (204) with an assist at Pittsburgh on Mar. 5.  He has registered 3-9-12 in the last 17 games and has posted points in 12 of the past 20 outings (3-11-14).  He ranks 11th-T among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.65) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 4-35-39 on 24:21 TOI in 54 contests this season.  The 26-year-old has reached the 30-assist mark for the fourth time in his career with his 35 helpers the third-most in his career, trailing only 36 in 2016-17 and 37 in 2021-22.  He is also one point shy from recording his fifth career 40-point season.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• LW Johnny Gaudreau is 11 assists from 500 for his NHL career (241-489-730, 748 GP).
• D Ivan Provorov is two games from 600 for his NHL career (70-175-245, 598 GP).
• D Damon Severson is two games from 700 for his NHL career (64-218-282, 698 GP).
• D Zach Werenski (83-201-284, 470 GP) is four 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 (17 games)
• F Kent Johnson (shoulder injury on Feb. 28); out indefinitely (8 games)
• LW Justin Danforth (concussion); (3 games)
• RW Kirill Marchenko (illness); is day-to-day (2 games)
• RW Yegor Chinakhov (upper body injury on Mar. 12); is day-to-day (1 game)
• C Sean Kuraly (lower body injury on Mar. 12); is week-to-week (1 game)
• D Adam Boqvist (upper body injury on Mar. 14)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 214

COURTESY BLUE JACKETS COMMUNICATIONS