By Melville Van Buren

THE MATCHUP

Capitals to Watch

«  D John Carlson has collected assists in two-straight games and leads the club in assists and ranks second in points during the 2023-24 season with 1-8-9 in 14 appearances, has collected 6-16-22 in 33 career games against the Blue Jackets.

«  LW Alex Ovechkin, who leads the team in points with 4-7-11 in 14 contests in 2023-24, has notched 12 seasons of 45 or more goals with his 826 goals in 1,361 career games trailing only Wayne Gretzky (894 in 1,487 GP) for the most goals in a career in NHL history.

«  C Dylan Strome notched the game-winning goal on Tuesday vs. Vegas and leads Washington in goals with 7-0-7 in 14 outings this season.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 19-24-9 in 52 all-time meetings vs. the Capitals, including 9-12-5 on the road.

«  The Jackets have registered points in 10 of the last 17 meetings against Washington dating back to Feb. 26, 2018 (8-7-2).

«  The club has also picked up points in six of the last nine contests at Capital One Arena since Nov. 9, 2018 (5-3-1).

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in six of the nine games of the series following Washington’s 2-1 victory on November 4.

«  Each of the last four games in the all-time series have been decided by a single goal.

«  CBJ have converted on 3-of-10 power play chances over the last four games at Washington (30.0 pct.).

«  The team has killed off 19-of-21 Capitals power play opportunities over the past eight outings in the nation’s capital (90.5 pct.).

«  The Blue Jackets own four of the seven shutouts in the all-time series with the most recent CBJ shutout posted by Joonas Korpisalo (30 saves) in a 3-0 victory at Nationwide Arena on Dec. 16, 2019.

This Season (CBJ, 0-1-0)

«  Nov. 4, 2023 – at Washington 2, Columbus 1

«  Nov. 18, 2023 – at Washington (7:30 p.m. ET)

«  Dec. 21, 2023 – at COLUMBUS (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Capitals

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 3-15-18 in 19 career GP, including at least a point in 12 of his contests against the club and points in five of his past seven (2-5-7).

«  C Boone Jenner – 3-8-11 in 32 career GP, recording goals in two of his last three contests at Capital One Arena (2-1-3).

«  D Damon Severson – 6-11-17 in 37 career GP, registering points in four of his last five contests at Washington (2-3-5) and seven of the last nine at Capital One Arena (3-5-8).

«  D Zach Werenski – 2-5-7 in 19 career GP, including assists in two of his last four games overall against the Capitals (0-2-2).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• The Blue Jackets head out on a two-game road trip after falling to Arizona 3-2 on Thursday.
• CBJ have played eight one-goal games this season, including in five of the last seven.  Another four contests have been two goal finishes thanks to the addition of empty net goals (Oct. 12 vs. PHI, Oct. 20 vs. CGY, Nov. 2 vs. TBL and Nov. 14 vs. PIT).
• Columbus is currently in a stretch of six-of-eight games against Metropolitan Division opponents from Nov. 12-26.
• The club allowed a power play goal for the first time in 10 games (since Oct. 28) on Thursday against Arizona.  The nine-games without allowing a power play goal was tied for the second-longest stretch in franchise history (Feb. 21-Mar. 9, 2013) and trailed only the 11 games from Dec. 31, 2018-Jan. 29, 2019.  CBJ had killed off all 22 opponent power play opportunities over the nine contests.
• CBJ rank fourth in the NHL in penalty kill percentage this season at 87.8 pct. (43-of-49) and rank second in penalty kill percentage – trailing only the NY Rangers (93.8 pct.) – since Oct. 20 (93.8 pct.), killing off 35-of-38 opponent power play chances over the last 14 games.
• The Blue Jackets have scored two goals four of the past six first periods and rank seventh in the NHL with 19 first period goals this season.
• Columbus has combined for 120 blocked shots over the past six games (20.0 per game) and ranks second in the NHL in blocked shots (330) and blocked shots-per-60 minutes (19.11).
• Blue Jackets blueliners collected four of the club’s six points on Thursday with 2-2-4 and have combined to rank fifth among NHL defensive units in assists and seventh in points with 7-34-41 in 17 games this season.
• CBJ rookie class has posted 7-13-20 in 17 games this season, ranking second among teams’ rookies in goals (tied) and assists and third in points (ANA-22, CHI-21).

CAPTAIN BOONE JENNER

• C Boone Jenner is slated to play in his 675^th career game on Saturday at Washington and with that will pass LW Rick Nash (674) for the most games played as a Blue Jacket in franchise history.
• Jenner leads the club in goals and ranks second-T in points with 7-2-9 in 17 outings this season.
• Has served in a leadership role with CBJ since 2015, first as an alternate captain (2015-21) prior to being named as the team’s captain before the 2021-22 season.
• Selected in the second round, 37^th overall, at the 2011 NHL Draft, the Dorchester, Ontario native has posted 177-161-338 in 674 career games over 11 seasons since making his League debut in 2013-14.

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• RW Justin Danforth has collected points in two of his last three games (1-1-2) and three of the past six (1-2-3).
• C Adam Fantilli, who has posted 2-1-3 in the last five games, set the single-game franchise record for rookies and tied the single-game franchise record among all players (14^th time) with 10 shots on goal on Thursday.  The 2023 third overall pick ranks fourth-T among League rookies in goals, fifth-T in points and sixth-T in assists with 4-5-9 in 17 contests this season.
• D Erik Gudbranson had his three-game assists streak (0-4-4) snapped on Thursday.  He has posted 1-6-7 in his past eight games, including two multi-assist efforts in four contests from Nov. 2-12 (0-5-5).  He had collected three multi-assist outings in his first 722 career games.  He leads the team and ranks sixth-T in the NHL in blocked shots this season (43).
• C Sean Kuraly had his three-game points streak (2-1-3) snapped on Thursday.  It was one game shy of tying his career high recorded from Dec. 5-11, 2021 (2-2-4).  The alternate captain has recorded 3-1-4 in the past six outings.
• RW Kirill Marchenko has recorded points in six of the past eight games (4-2-6), including a career high five-game points streak from Nov. 2-11 (3-2-5).  He ranks second-T on the team in points with 4-5-9 in 15 appearances this season and has already set a new career high in assists after posting 21-4-24 in 59 contests during his 2022-23 rookie campaign.
• D Ivan Provorov collected his team-leading 10^th assist of the season on Thursday and ranks 11th-T among NHL blueliners in that category with 0-10-10 in 17 outings.
• D Damon Severson notched his third career multi-goal game with both CBJ goals on Thursday against the Coyotes.  He has played 21-plus minutes in each of the past 11 contests, averaging 22:25 of ice time since Oct. 26.
• F Alexandre Texier has tied his career high points streak (Nov. 6-15, 2021) with points in four-straight games (2-2-4) after picking up an assist on Thursday against the Coyotes.  He has recorded points in five of the past six outings (3-3-6).
• LW Dmitri Voronkov has collected assists in four of the last five games (0-4-4).  He has posted points in eight of his first 11 NHL games (2-6-8) and ranks fifth among NHL rookies in assists and seventh-T in points.
• D Zach Werenski has tied his career high with his third career four-game assists streak after picking up an assist on Thursday.  He passed Seth Jones (173) for the most assists by a defenseman in franchise history with his 174^th career assist on Tuesday vs. Pittsburgh.
• CBJ have three rookies on the team with 19-year-olds C Adam Fantilli (2023 third overall pick) and D David Jiricek (2022 sixth round pick) as well as 23-year-old F Dmitri Voronkov (2019 fourth round pick, 114^th overall).

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• RW Yegor Chinakhov is two games from 100 for his NHL career (12-16-28, 98 GP).
• LW Johnny Gaudreau is one game from 700 for his NHL career (232-457-689, 699 GP).
• C Boone Jenner (177-161-338, 674 GP) is one game from surpassing LW Rick Nash (289-258-547, 674 GP) for the most career games played in CBJ history.
• D Andrew Peeke is one game away from his 200^th NHL game (9-26-35, 199 GP).

OhioHEALTH INJURY REPORT

• G Daniil Tarasov (knee) is on the Injured/Non Roster List on Oct. 9 (Week-to-Week); 17 games
• F Jack Roslovic (fractured ankle) is on Injured Reserve on Nov. 13 (4-to-6 Weeks); 2 games

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 38

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