By Joe Coopersmith

Red Wings to Watch

«  D Shayne Gostisbehere leads club blueliners in goals, assists and points with 10-35-45 in 67 appearances and has picked up points in the past five games (1-4-5).

«  RW Patrick Kane has racked up 25-53-78 in 60 career games against the Blue Jackets and has totaled 14-21-35 in 37 contests in his first season with the Red Wings, including points in the past four games (1-3-4).

«  LW Lucas Raymound, who has notched goals in four consecutive outings (5-1-6), leads the Red Wings in assists (tied) and points with 22-35-57 in 68 games this season.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 46-51-14 in 111 all-time meetings vs. Detroit, including 20-28-6 on the road.

«  The Blue Jackets are 27-12-3 against the Red Wings since the start of the 2012-13 season but Detroit has won four of the last five meetings of the series.

«  CBJ have won two of the last three games at Little Caesars Arena and are 13-5-2 in the past 20 at Detroit dating back to Feb. 21, 2013.

«  The winning team has recorded four or more goals in 10-straight meetings since May 7, 2021 with six of them scoring five-plus goals in a win.

«  The teams have combined for seven-plus goals in seven of the last 10 games of the all-time series.

«  The Blue Jackets have killed off all 14 Red Wings power play chances over the last six games at Little Caesars Arena.

«  Columbus owns eight of the 22 shutouts in the all-time series with CBJ’s most recent instance a 1-0 shootout victory on Apr. 27, 2021 (Merzlikins-41 saves, Greiss-33 saves).

«  The Blue Jackets have notched five of the eight hat tricks in the all-time series, including a hat trick in each of the last two season series after Jack Roslovic recorded the feat on Apr. 9, 2022 (5-4 OTW at Detroit) and Patrik Laine recorded three goals on Jan. 14, 2023 (4-3 W at Detroit).

This Season (CBJ, 0-2-0)

«  Oct. 16, 2023 – DET 4, at CBJ 0

«  Nov. 11, 2023 – at DET 5, CBJ 4

«  Mar. 19, 2024 – at Detroit (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Red Wings

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 5-17-22 in 18 career GP, including points in six of his last eight games overall (1-7-8) while also posting points in seven of his eight career road contests (3-10-13) and assists in six of the eight road outings.

«  C Boone Jenner – 11-13-24 in 32 career GP, including points in 12 of his last 16 games against the Wings (7-7-14) and six of his last nine at Detroit (3-4-7).

«  G Elvis Merzlikins – 5-2-1, 2.24 GAA, .924 SV% and 2 SO in 8 career GP, including wins in each of his last four games against the Red Wings since Apr. 27, 2021 (2.42 GAA, .925 SV%).

«  D Damon Severson – 1-9-10 in 24 career GP, including assists in each of his last two games played at Little Caesars Arena (0-2-2).

«  F Alexandre Texier – 5-2-7 in 12 career GP, including goals in two of his past three contests against the club (2-0-2).

«  D Zach Werenski – 2-10-12 in 21 career GP, recording points in each of his last three games against the Red Wings (1-4-5) and assists in his past two at Detroit (0-4-4).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• Columbus moved to 4-4-1 in its last nine games and 7-8-1 in the past 16 since Feb. 17 after splitting a home-home back-to-back set against San Jose on Saturday (4-2 W) and Winnipeg on Sunday (1-6 L).
• After playing four games in six days in each of the past two weeks, the Blue Jackets play just three times this week, including their 12^th of 13 back-to-back sets at Colorado on Friday and Vegas on Saturday.
• The club, which closed out a stretch of nine-of-13 games played at Nationwide Arena from Feb. 23-Mar. 17, plays nine of its final 14 games of the season on the road.  It includes a season-high (tied) five-game road trip to Detroit (Mar. 19), Colorado (Mar. 22), Vegas (Mar. 23), Arizona (Mar. 26) and Pittsburgh (Mar. 28).
• CBJ killed off Winnipeg’s lone power play chances on Sunday and have allowed just one power play goal over the last five contests (12-of-13; 92.3 pct.).  The team ranks fourth in the league in penalty kill percentage since Feb. 21 (86.5 pct.), having killed off 32 of the past 37 opponent power play opportunities over the past 14 games.
• Columbus, which has posted 129 shots on goal over the past four games (32.3 avg.), has recorded 591 shots on goal over the last 18 contests and ranks eighth in the NHL in shots-on-goal per game since returning from the NHL break on Feb. 10 (32.9).
• CBJ have had 16 of their games decided after regulation this season, tied for the seventh-most in the league.
• The Blue Jackets rank 10th in the NHL with 146 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• Columbus also ranks ninth-T in the league with 65 first period goals after scoring once in the first period against San Jose.
• CBJ rank sixth in the league in blocked shots (1,174) and seventh in blocks-per-60 minutes (17.04) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners have combined for 13-46-59 in the last 30 contests since Jan. 1 as well as 21-91-112 over the past 53 games.  They rank seventh-T among NHL defensive units in assists and 12th in points with 26-122-148 in 68 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (38.1 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 68 games this season to lead the league among teams’ rookies in goals and rank fourth 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 407-of-443 shots faced (.919 SV%) over the last 13 games since Feb. 23, allowing three goals or less in nine of those outings.

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov, who has missed the last three games 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 seventh-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 19 games due to the injury.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau registered his fourth three-point outing and 13^th multi-point effort of the season with 1-2-3 on Mar. 16 vs. San Jose.  He has registered points in 13 of his last 21 games (4-17-21) and has recorded the primary assist on 13 of his last 14 assists overall dating back to Feb. 10.  The winger leads the club in assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 11-39-50, 11 multi-assist and 13 multi-point efforts in 68 contests.  He has also recorded 10-34-44 with 12 multi-point outings in his last 51 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 (25) and is one 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 141 blocked shots in 64 appearances.
• C Boone Jenner has scored goals in two of the last three games (2-1-3) and has posted 8-6-14 in the last 18 contests.  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 191-170-361 in 710 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 21-11-32 in 52 outings and became the fourth player to record four 20-goal seasons on March 14 vs. Ottawa, including in each of his past three campaigns.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has registered 2-5-7 in the last 16 contests.  He has recorded 17-15-32 in 64 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 notched his second career three-point outing, with both coming in a seven-game span, after tallying 2-1-3 against San Jose on Saturday.  He has recorded 8-3-11 in his first 12 games with the club after being held off the scoresheet on Sunday, becoming the first player in franchise history and the first player in the NHL since Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson (10 G in 11 GP in 2018-19) to record at least eight goals in his first 11 games with a team.
• D Ivan Provorov has tied his single-season career high in assists with 24 (also 2016-17 and 2018-19 with Philadelphia).  He ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists with 5-24-29 and 124 blocked shots, while averaging 22:13 TOI in 68 appearances this season.
• C Cole Sillinger has posted 3-4-7 in the last 15 contests.  With 11-14-25 in 63 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 stopped 39-of-41 shots faced in a win over San Jose on Mar. 16 and set a new career best with a shutout streak of 101:44 before allowing a second period goal.  The streak started in the third period of the Nashville game on Mar. 9.  He has allowed two goals in each of his last three starts, compiling a 1.55 GAA and .957 SV% (134-of-140) since Mar. 7.  He has also stopped 261-of-277 shots faced (.942 SV%), while allowing three goals or less in each of his last seven starts to rank second in the NHL in save percentage and sixth in goals-against average (2.08) since Feb. 21 (min. 6 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier, who posted a career-high five-game points streak (2-4-6) from Mar. 2-9, has posted 10-14-24 in 64 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-T in goals and fifth-T in points since Jan. 15 with 10-1-11, four PPG and 66 shots on goal in 25 contests.  He is tied for third among NHL rookies in goals (Chicago’s Connor Bedard; 21) and ranks sixth-T in points with 17-14-31 in 62 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 six of his last 10 games (0-7-7), including registering an assist vs. San Jose on Mar. 16 to reach the 40-point plateau for the fifth time in his career.  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 3-10-13 in the last 19 games and has posted points in 13 of the past 22 outings (3-12-15).  He ranks 12th among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.64) as well as leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists and points with 4-36-40 on 24:22 TOI in 56 contests this season.  The 26-year-old has reached the 30-assist mark for the fourth time in his career with his 36 helpers tied for the second-most in his career (2016-17), trailing only the 37 recorded in 2021-22.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• LW Johnny Gaudreau is nine assists from 500 for his NHL career (242-491-733, 750 GP).
• C Boone Jenner is nine goals from 200 for his NHL career (191-170-361, 710 GP).
• D Zach Werenski (83-202-285, 472 GP) is three 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 (19 games)
• F Kent Johnson (shoulder injury on Feb. 28); out rest of season (10 games)
• LW Justin Danforth (concussion on Mar. 7); out indefinitely (5 games)
• RW Yegor Chinakhov (upper body injury on Mar. 12); is day-to-day (3 games)
• C Sean Kuraly (lower body injury on Mar. 12); is week-to-week (3 games)
• D Adam Boqvist (upper body injury on Mar. 14); out indefinitely (2 games)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 225

COURTESY BLUE JACKETS COMMUNICATIONS