By Joe Coopersmith

Flyers to Watch

«  RW Travis Konecny, who has picked up 4-3-7 in the last seven outings and leads the club in goals, assists and points with 31-34-65 in 70 games this season, has tallied 15-15-30 in 25 career contests vs. Columbus.

«  D Travis Sanheim leads the team in TOI and ranks second in assists while leading club in goals, assists and points with 10-32-42 and 23:50 TOI in 75 contests this season.

«  RW Owen Tippett ranks second on the club in goals and points (tied) with 27-22-49 in 72 appearances in 2023-24.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 26-18-6 in 50 all-time games against Philadelphia, including 15-5-4 at home.

«  CBJ are 10-7-2 in the series since Mar. 15, 2018 with the Flyers winning four of the past five (CBJ; 1-3-1).

«  The Blue Jackets are 2-1-0 in the past three contests at Nationwide Arena dating back to Nov. 10, 2022.

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in 16 of the last 19 contests in the series.

«  The Jackets have recorded points in seven of the past 11 games of the series since Jan. 20, 2022 (5-4-2).

«  The teams have combined for 69 or more shots in five of the past six games dating back to Nov. 15, 2022.

«  The Blue Jackets have posted three of the five shutouts in the all-time series, with Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky (26 saves) posting the most recent one in a 1-0 win at CBJ on Mar. 25, 2017.

«  Cam Atkinson (Mar. 15, 2018) has recorded the lone hat trick in the series while with the Blue Jackets.

This Season (CBJ, 1-2-0)

«  Oct. 12, 2023 – at CBJ 2, PHI 4

«  Nov. 19, 2023 – at PHI 5, CBJ 4

«  Jan. 4, 2024 – CBJ 3, at PHI 2 (SO)

«  Apr. 6, 2024 – at COLUMBUS (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Flyers

«  C Johnny Gaudreau – 6-16-22 in 20 career GP, recording 3-5-8 in his last six home contests.

«  RW Kirill Marchenko – 1-2-3 in 5 career GP, including 0-2-2 in his lone career home appearance in the 2023-24 season opener on October 12.

«  D Zach Werenski – 3-8-11 in 20 career GP, including 1-1-2 in his past two contests at Nationwide Arena.

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• The Blue Jackets had their two-game win streak snapped on Thursday with a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders.  The club moved to 6-7-2 in its last 17 games and 9-13-2 in the past 24 since Feb. 17.
• Columbus, which finishes its four-game homestand (2-1-0) on Saturday against the Flyers, is 5-3-1 in its past nine home contests since the beginning of March.
• The Jackets play their penultimate home contest of the season on Saturday before kicking off a four-game road trip through Carolina (Apr. 7), Tampa Bay (Apr. 9), Florida (Apr. 11) and Nashville (Apr. 13).  The games against the Flyers and Hurricanes are the 13^th and final back-to-back set of the season for the club.
• The Blue Jackets failed to score the first goal of the game for the first time in the last eight contests after the Islanders scored a power play goal in the first period go make it 1-0.  CBJ have scored the first goal of the game in nine of the last 11 outings.  The team has scored first 42 times in 2023-24, tied for the ninth-most in the NHL.  It’s also tied for the fifth-most in a season in franchise history (2018-19) and one behind the 2000-01 campaign.
• Columbus has scored at least one first-period goal in six of the last eight games (8 total) after notching two first period goals on Thursday and ranks tenth-T in the league with 73 first-period goals this season.
• Columbus has recorded 808 shots on goal over the last 26 contests and ranks 13th in the NHL in shots-on-goal per game since returning from the NHL break on Feb. 10 (31.1).
• CBJ have seen 18 of their games decided after regulation this season, tied for the ninth-most in the league.
• The Blue Jackets rank 14th in the NHL with 159 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• CBJ rank sixth in the league in total blocked shots (1,314) and blocks-per-60 minutes (17.07) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners have combined for 5-14-19 over the past eight games as well as 18-61-79 in the last 38 contests since Jan. 1.  They rank eighth among NHL defensive units in assists and 11th in points with 31-137-168 in 76 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (38.5 pct.) and points percentage (29.4 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 31-38-69 in 76 games this season to lead the league among teams’ rookies in goals and rank fourth in points and sixth-T 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-33, Adam Fantilli-27).

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov, who has missed the last 11 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 eighth-T among NHL rookies in goals, 12^th in points and 13th-T in assists with 12-15-27 in 49 outings despite missing the last 27 games due to the injury.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau, who missed the past game due to illness, has picked up assists in his last two games and seven of the past 10 outings (1-10-11).  He has also registered points in 18 of his last 28 games (4-23-27) and has recorded the primary assist on 16 of his last 20 assists overall dating back to Feb. 10.  He leads the club in assists, primary assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 11-45-56, 12 multi-assist and 14 multi-point efforts in 75 contests and has collected 40 or more assists for the ninth time in his career.  He has also recorded 10-40-50 with 13 multi-point outings in his last 58 contests after collecting 1-5-6 in the first 17 games of the season.  In his second season with the club, he is already tied with Artemi Panarin for seventh-T all-time in multi-assist outings (26).
• D Erik Gudbranson tallied his fourth multi-assist and multi-point game of the season on Monday (0-2-2).  He has set single-season career highs in assists, points and blocked shots with 5-17-22 and 160 blocked shots in 72 appearances and sits one goal shy of tying his single-season career high set with Calgary in 2021-22.
• C Boone Jenner, who has missed the past three games, has recorded 3-3-6 in his last eight contests and has posted 9-8-17 in the last 23 outings dating back to Feb. 10.  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 192-172-363 in 715 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 22-13-35 in 58 outings and became the fourth player to record four 20-goal seasons on Mar. 14 vs. Ottawa, including in each of his past three campaigns.
• RW Kirill Marchenko notched his second multi-point effort and eighth multi-point game of the season with 1-1-2 on Thursday.  The forward, who has recorded 4-3-7 in the last eight games, ranks second on the team in goals with 21-18-39 in 72 appearances this season and has set single-season career highs in goals (tied), assists and points after posting 21-4-25 in 59 games during his 2022-23 rookie campaign.  He’s the second player in Blue Jackets history to record back-to-back 20-goal seasons to begin his NHL career (Pierre-Luc Dubois).
• LW Alex Nylander notched his third multi-goal game of the season with two goals on Monday and has recorded 10-3-13 in his first 18 games with the Blue Jackets.  He became 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.
• RW Mathieu Olivier tied his career-best with a goal in a second-straight game (Mar. 23-25, 2021) after notching his first career shorthanded goal on Mar. 30 against Pittsburgh.  He has tied his single-season career high in goals (2022-23) with 5-5-10 in 48 appearances this season.
• D Ivan Provorov has recorded 5-26-31 and 139 blocked shots, while averaging 2:09 TOI in 76 outings this season.  He ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists and has set a single-season career high in assists.
• D Damon Severson, who has picked up points in five of the last 10 games (1-4-5), is tied for the team lead among defensemen in goals this season with 7-17-24 in 61 contests.
• C Cole Sillinger has posted points in four consecutive outings (2-3-5), tying his career high set earlier this season (3-1-4; Feb. 28-Mar. 4, 2024).  He has posted 13-17-30 in 71 games this season and has set a new single-season career high in assists (15, 2021-22).
• G Daniil Tarasov has compiled a 2.46 GAA and .935 SV% (290-of-310) in nine games (eight starts) since Mar. 7.  He has finished with a .900 or better save percentage in 11 of his 13 last appearances dating back to Feb.21 and leads the NHL in SV% (.933), ranks seventh in saves (417-of-447) and 10^th-T in GAA (2.51) over that span (min. 10 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier has collected assists in three of the past four games (0-3-3) and has picked up 3-7-10 in the last 17 games.  He has posted 11-17-28 in 72 games to set single-season career highs in goals (tied, 2021-22), assists, points and games played.
• F Dmitri Voronkov, who has collected points in two-straight contests (1-1-2) after notching a goal on Thursday, leads NHL rookies in power play goals and shots on goal and ranks third in goals since Jan. 15 with 11-2-13, five PPG and 81 shots on goal in 33 contests.  He leads NHL rookies in PPG and ranks fourth in goals and seventh-T in points with 18-15-33 and six PPG in 70 appearances.  He surpassed Rick Nash (17, 2002-03) for the third-most goals by a rookie in franchise history on Thursday and trails only Kirill Marchenko (21, 2022-23) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (20, 2017-18).
• D Zach Werenski has recorded points in seven of the past 11 games (3-8-11) and 11 of the last 18 contests (3-13-16) after collecting an assist on Thursday.  He has also registered 6-18-24 in the last 30 contests and ranks third-T among NHL blueliners in goals since Feb. 17 (6-13-19 in 24 GP).  He ranks 11th among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.66), as well as leads the team in TOI, and ranks second in assists and points with 7-42-49 and 24:28 TOI in 64 contests this season.  He has set single-season career highs in assists and points with his 42 helpers the second-most by a defenseman in a single season in franchise history (James Wisniewski; 44 in 2023-14), while his 49 points only Seth Jones (57, 2017-18) and Wisniewski (51, 2013-14).  The 26-year-old has reached the 40-point plateau for the fifth time in his career and 30-assist mark for the fourth time.

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• D Jake Bean is three games from 200 for his NHL career (13-43-56, 197 GP).
• LW Johnny Gaudreau is three assists from 500 for his NHL career (242-497-739, 757 GP).
• C Boone Jenner is eight goals from 200 for his NHL career (192-172-364, 715 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier is five games from 200 for his NHL career (33-44-77, 195 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is six points from 300 for his NHL career (86-208-294, 480 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 (27 games)
• F Kent Johnson (shoulder injury on Feb. 28); out rest of season (18 games)
• RW Yegor Chinakhov (upper body injury on Mar. 12); is day-to-day (11 games)
• C Sean Kuraly (lower body injury on Mar. 12); is week-to-week (11 games)
• D Adam Boqvist (upper body injury on Mar. 14); out indefinitely (10 games)
• G Elvis Merzlikins (lower body injury on Apr. 1); is day-to-day (2 games)
• LW Johnny Gaudreau (illness on Apr. 4) is day-to-day (1 game)
• D Jake Bean (broken hand on Apr. 4); out rest of season

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 278

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