By Joe Coopersmith

Hurricanes to Watch

«  C Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes in goals, assists and points with 36-53-89 in 78 appearances and has totaled 13-13-26 in 33 career games against the Blue Jackets.

«  C Jake Guentzel (30-47-77, 67 GP) has racked up 8-17-25 in 17 games with the Canes since being acquired in a trade from the Penguins and has registered 13-15-28 in 23 career outings against CBJ.

«  D Brady Skjei leads club blueliners with 13-34-47 in 80 contests this season and ranks 10^th-T among league defensemen in goals.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 26-28-5 in 59 all-time games against Carolina, including 13-14-2 at home.

«  The Canes have won six of the last seven meetings and 11 of the past 13 dating back to Mar. 22, 2021 (CBJ; 2-9-2).

«  The home team has won five of the last seven games in the series since Feb. 25, 2022.  Prior to that the road team had picked up points in eight-straight games from Mar. 18, 2021-Jan. 13, 2022 (7-0-1).

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in eight of the last 10 meetings dating back to Oct. 23, 2022.

«  The Blue Jackets own four of the seven shutouts in the all-time series with Elvis Merzlikins (31 saves in 6-0 win at Carolina on Mar. 22, 2021) posting the most recent CBJ shutout.

«  CBJ have also posted all four hat tricks (MR: Marchenko, Jan. 7, 2023) and lone penalty shot attempt (Atkinson goal; Feb. 8, 2021) in the series.

This Season (CBJ, 0-3-0)

«  Nov. 26, 2023 – at CAR 3, CBJ 2

«  Feb. 29, 2024 – CAR 4, at CBJ 2

«  Apr. 7, 2024 – at CAR 3, CBJ 0

«  Apr. 16, 2024 – at COLUMBUS (7 pm ET)

Player Notables vs. Hurricanes

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 7-7-14 in 20 career GP, including 2-1-3 in his past four contests against the club.

«  RW Kirill Marchenko – 4-0-4 with goals in 2 of his 5 career GP, including his first career hat trick on Jan. 7, 2023 at Nationwide Arena.

«  F Alexandre Texier – 2-3-5 in 12 career GP with 1-2-3 in his past five contests against the team.

«  D Zach Werenski – 4-5-9 in 26 career GP, including points in three of his last four home contests against Carolina (2-1-3).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• The Blue Jackets close out the 2023-24 season on Tuesday with the club having recorded points in eight of its last 12 home contests dating back to Feb. 25 (7-4-1).
• CBJ are 12-9-1 in season finales overall and 11-8-3 in home finales in franchise history.  The team has won three of its last four home finales.
• The Blue Jackets scored the first goal at Nashville on Saturday and have scored first in nine of the last 13 contests as well as 11 of the past 16.  The team has scored first 44 times in 2023-24, tied for the ninth-most in the NHL.  It’s also the fourth-most in a season in franchise history.
• Columbus has scored at least one first-period goal in nine of the last 13 games (12 total).  The club ranks ninth-T in the league with 76 first-period goals this season.
• CBJ have seen 18 of their games decided after regulation this season, tied for the 11th-most in the league.
• The Blue Jackets rank 13th-T in the NHL with 169 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• CBJ rank sixth in the league in total blocked shots (1,381) and seventh in blocks-per-60 minutes (16.84) in 2023-24.
• CBJ blueliners have combined for 11-20-31 over the past 13 games as well as 24-67-91 in the last 43 contests since Jan. 1.  They rank 11th-T among NHL defensive units in points and 12th in goals and assists with 37-143-180 in 81 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (37.9 pct.) and points percentage (29.8 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class has combined for 32-43-75 in 81 games this season to rank fourth among teams’ rookies in goals and points (tied) and seventh in assists.  The Blue Jackets are one of three teams in the league (Anaheim and Minnesota) to have two rookies with 26 or more points in 2023-24 (Dmitri Voronkov-34, Adam Fantilli-27).

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• F Justin Danforth recorded three primary assists at Nashville on Saturday for his first career three-assist/point game of his NHL career. He has set single-season career highs in goals (tied), assists and points with 10-15-25 in 70 outings in 2023-24.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau, who tallied his 500^th NHL career assist at Tampa Bay on Apr. 9, has picked up assists in four of his last seven games (0-5-5) and nine of the past 15 outings (1-13-14).  He has recorded points in 20 of his last 33 games (4-26-30) while also collecting the primary assist on 18 of his last 23 assists overall dating back to Feb. 10.  He leads the club in assists, primary assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 11-48-59, 35 primary assists, 13 multi-assist and 15 multi-point efforts in 80 contests and has collected 40 or more assists for the ninth time in his career.  He has recorded 10-43-53 with 14 multi-point outings in his last 53 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 Seth Jones for sixth-T all-time in multi-assist outings (27).
• D Erik Gudbranson, who collected an assist at Nashville on Saturday, has set single-season career highs in goals (tied, 2021-22 with Calgary), assists, points and blocked shots with 6-18-24 and 170 blocked shots (17th in NHL) in 77 appearances.
• C Boone Jenner, who has missed the past eight 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 has recorded 6-3-9 with three multi-point efforts in the last 13 games.  He leads the team in goals with 23-18-41 in 77 appearances this season and has set single-season career highs in goals, 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 has recorded 10-4-14 with three multi-goal efforts in his first 22 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 has tied his single-season career high in goals (2022-23) with 5-5-10 in 53 appearances this season.
• D Ivan Provorov has recorded 5-26-31 and 152 blocked shots on 22:09 TOI in 81 outings this season.  He ranks second on the club in blocked shots and time on ice and third in assists, while also setting a single-season career high in assists.  In his first season with the club, he played in every single game of a season six times with the Flyers.
• D Damon Severson has picked up an assist in two of the last three games (0-2-2) after registering an assist at Nashville.  He has also collected points in eight of the last 15 games (3-6-9).  He is tied for the team lead among defensemen in goals this season with 9-19-28 in 66 contests and sits one goal shy of his third career 10-goal campaign (11 in 2018-19 and 2021-22 with New Jersey).
• C Cole Sillinger has registered points in five of the past nine outings (2-4-6).  He has posted 13-18-31 in 76 games this season and has set a new single-season career high in assists (15, 2021-22) and points (tied, 2021-22).
• G Daniil Tarasov, who has missed the past five outings with an upper body injury, 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) and ranks ninth in GAA (2.51) over that span (min. 11 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier recorded a goal in his 200^th career game on Saturday and Nashville and has collected points in five of the past nine games (1-4-5).  The forward has posted 12-18-30 in 77 games to set single-season career highs in goals, assists, points and games played.
• F Dmitri Voronkov leads NHL rookies in power play goals and ranks second in shots on goal and third in goals since Jan. 15 with 11-3-14, five PPG and 92 shots on goal in 38 contests.  He leads NHL rookies in PPG and ranks fifth in goals, eighth in points and 12th-T in assists with 18-16-34 and six PPG in 74 appearances.  He has surpassed Rick Nash (17, 2002-03) for the third-most goals by a rookie in franchise history and trails only Marchenko (21, 2022-23) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (20, 2017-18).
• D Zach Werenski has collected 5-10-15 in the past 16 games and 5-15-20 in the last 23 contests.  He has also registered 8-20-28 in the last 35 contests and ranks second among NHL blueliners in goals (tied) and shots on goal and eighth-T in points since Feb. 17 (8-15-23 and 92 shots in 29 GP).  He also ranks 11th-T among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.64), as well as leads the team in TOI, and ranks second in assists and points with 9-44-53 and 24:24 TOI in 69 contests this season.  He has set single-season career highs in assists and points and has also tiedd the club record for most assists by a defenseman in a single season (James Wisniewski, 2013-14) and posted the second-most points by a blueliner in a campaign, trailing only Seth Jones’ 57 points recorded in 2017-18.  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).
• D Erik Gudbranson is four assists from 100 for his NHL career (34-96-130, 788 GP).
• C Boone Jenner is eight goals from 200 for his NHL career (192-172-364, 715 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is two points from 300 for his NHL career (88-210-298, 485 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 (32 games)
• F Kent Johnson (shoulder injury on Feb. 28); out rest of season (23 games)
• RW Yegor Chinakhov (upper body injury on Mar. 12); is day-to-day (16 games)
• D Adam Boqvist (upper body injury on Mar. 14); out indefinitely (15 games)
• G Elvis Merzlikins (lower body injury on Mar. 30); is day-to-day (7 games)
• D Jake Bean (broken hand on Apr. 4); out rest of season (5 games)
• G Daniil Tarasov (upper body injury on Apr. 4); is day-to-day (5 games)
• RW Carson Meyer (upper body injury on Apr. 9); is week-to-week (2 games)
• C Brendan Gaunce (upper body injury on Apr. 11); is week-to-week (1 game)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 318

COURTESY BLUE JACKETS COMMUNICATIONS