By Joe Coopersmith

Lightning to Watch

«  D Victor Hedman ranks third-T among NHL blueliners in assists and fifth in points with 13-62-75 in 74 games this season and has registered 4-23-27 in 37 career outings against CBJ.

«  RW Nikita Kucherov, who leads the NHL in points and is second in assists and seventh-T in goals with 43-93-136 in 76 appearances in 2023-24, has totaled 13-24-37 in 26 career contests against the Blue Jackets.

«  C Brayden Point ranks seventh-T in the league in goals with 43-42-85 in 76 games this season and has tallied 13-14-27 in 25 career appearances vs. Columbus.

All-Time Series

«  Columbus has gone 15-26-7 in all-time games against the Lightning, including 5-14-4 on the road.

«  The Lightning have won six-straight home games in the series (CBJ; 0-5-1) with the Jackets’ last road win a 3-1 win on Mar. 30, 2021.

«  The winning team has scored four or more goals in nine-straight meetings and 11 of the last 12 games of the series.

«  Tampa Bay owns six of eight shutouts in the all-time series with Mark Denis (Jan. 4, 2004) and Sergei Bobrovsky (Dec. 3, 2013) recording CBJ’s shutouts.

«  Neither team has recorded a hat trick in the all-time series.  It’s one of two all-time series that the Blue Jackets or their opponent has yet to record a hat trick (Seattle).

This Season (CBJ, 1-1-0)

«  Nov 2, 2023 – at CBJ 4, TBL 2

«  Feb. 10, 2024 – TBL 4, at CBJ 2

«  April. 9, 2024 – at Tampa (7 pm ET)

Player Notables vs. Lightning

«  LW Johnny Gaudreau – 7-12-19 in 18 career GP, including points in each of the first two games of the season series (1-2-3).

«  D Erik Gudbranson – 3-5-8 in 33 career GP, including points in four of his past six contests vs. Tampa Bay (1-3-4).

«  C Boone Jenner – 6-6-12 in 27 career GP, including multiple points in both of the first two games of the season series (3-1-4).

«  RW Kirill Marchenko – 3-1-4 with points in all 4 career GP, scoring goals in each of his first two contests at Amalie Arena (2-0-2).

«  D Damon Severson – 4-8-12 in 24 career GP, registering points in four of his last five games (1-3-4) and six of his past nine overall (2-5-7) as well as assists in his past two contests at Amalie Arena (1-2-3).

«  D Zach Werenski – 4-8-12 in 20 career GP, including 3-6-9 with points in eight of his last nine games against the club overall as well as assists in each of his last three games at Tampa Bay (1-3-4).

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• The Blue Jackets fell 3-0 at Carolina on Sunday to move to 3-2-0 in the last five games, 7-10-2 in the last 19 games and 10-14-2 in the past 26 since Feb. 17.
• The Jackets close out their road portion of the schedule with a four-game road trip through Carolina (0-3 L on Apr. 7), Tampa Bay on Tuesday, Florida on Thursday and Nashville on Saturday.
• The Blue Jackets allowed the first goal for just the second time in the last 10 games on Sunday (also Apr. 4 vs. NYI).  CBJ have scored the first goal of the game in 10 of the last 13 outings.  The team has scored first 43 times in 2023-24, the ninth-most in the NHL.  It’s also tied for the fourth-most in a season in franchise history (2000-01).
• Columbus has scored at least one first-period goal in seven of the last 10 games (10 total), including two goals in two of the last three games.  The club ranks seventh-T in the league with 75 first-period goals this season.
• CBJ have seen 18 of their games decided after regulation this season, tied for the 10th-most in the league.
• The Blue Jackets scored five goals at even strength on Saturday against the Flyers and rank 11th-T in the NHL with 164 goals scored at 5-on-5 play this season.
• CBJ rank sixth in the league in total blocked shots (1,345) and blocks-per-60 minutes (17.03) in 2023-24.
• Blue Jackets blueliners accounted for all six goals (6-2-8) in Saturday’s win over the Flyers, setting a franchise record for defensemen in most goals (6) and different players (4) to record a goal in a single game and tying the Washington Capitals (Dec. 4, 1992 vs. the NYR) for most combined goals by defensemen in a game in NHL history (4 different players).  CBJ blueliners have combined for 11-16-27 over the past 10 games as well as 24-63-87 in the last 40 contests since Jan. 1.  They rank eighth among NHL defensive units in points and 10^th-T in assists with 37-139-176 in 78 games this season.  The club also leads the league in assists percentage (37.9 pct.) and points percentage (29.9 pct.) recorded by its defense.
• CBJ’s rookie class picked up 0-4-4 in Saturday’s win and has combined for 31-42-73 in 78 games this season to rank second-T among teams’ rookies in goals, fourth in points and fifth-T 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

• RW Yegor Chinakhov, who has missed the last 13 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 10th-T among NHL rookies in goals, 14th in points and 15th-T in assists with 12-15-27 in 49 outings despite missing the last 29 games due to the injury.
• LW Johnny Gaudreau collected two assists on Saturday and has picked up assists in three of his last four games (0-4-4) and eight of the past 12 outings (1-12-13).  He has also registered points in 19 of his last 30 games (4-25-29) and has recorded the primary assist on 17 of his last 22 assists overall dating back to Feb. 10.  He leads the club in assists, primary assists, points, multi-assists and multi-point outings with 11-47-58, 34 primary assists, 13 multi-assist and 15 multi-point efforts in 77 contests and has collected 40 or more assists for the ninth time in his career.  He has also recorded 10-42-52 with 14 multi-point outings in his last 60 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).
• G Jet Greaves has posted a 1-1-0 record with a .953 SV% (61-of-64) and 1.82 GAA in two appearances last week.
• D Erik Gudbranson, who notched a goal on Saturday, has totaled 1-2-3 in his last four contests.  He has set single-season career highs in goals (tied, 2021-22 with Calgary), assists, points and blocked shots with 6-17-23 and 167 blocked shots (16th in NHL) in 74 appearances.
• C Boone Jenner, who has missed the past five 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, who has recorded 4-3-7 in the last 10 games, ranks second on the team in goals with 21-18-39 in 74 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 has recorded 10-4-14 with three multi-goal efforts in his first 20 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 50 appearances this season.
• D Ivan Provorov has recorded 5-26-31 and 146 blocked shots, while averaging 22:10 TOI in 78 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.
• D Damon Severson notched his second two-goal game of the season (also Nov. 16 vs. ARI) on Saturday against Philadelphia and has picked up points in six of the last 12 games (3-4-7).  He is tied for the team lead among defensemen in goals this season with 9-17-26 in 63 contests.
• C Cole Sillinger had his career-high (tied, Mar. 28-Mar. 4, 2024) four-game points streak (2-3-5) snapped on Saturday.  He has posted 13-17-30 in 73 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) and ranks eighth-T in GAA (2.51) and ninth in saves (417-of-447) over that span (min. 10 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier has collected assists in four of the past six games (0-4-4), including tying his career high with assists in three-straight from Apr. 1-6 (0-3-3).  The forward, who has also registered 3-8-11 in the last 19 games, has posted 11-18-29 in 74 games to set single-season career highs in goals (tied, 2021-22), assists, points and games played.
• F Dmitri Voronkov, who had collected points in three-straight contests (1-2-3) prior to Sunday’s game at Carolina, leads NHL rookies in power play goals and shots on goal and ranks third in goals since Jan. 15 with 11-3-14, five PPG and 86 shots on goal in 35 contests.  He leads NHL rookies in PPG and ranks fourth-T in goals, seventh-T in points and 12th-T in assists with 18-16-34 and six PPG in 72 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 notched his third game of three or more points of the season with 2-1-3 on Saturday.  He has collected points in eight of the past 13 games (5-9-14) and 12 of the last 20 contests (5-14-19).  He has also registered 8-19-27 in the last 32 contests and ranks second among NHL blueliners in goals and seventh-T in points since Feb. 17 (8-14-22 in 26 GP).  He also ranks 11th among NHL blueliners in assists-per-game (.65), as well as leads the team in TOI, and ranks second in assists and points with 9-43-52 and 24:26 TOI in 66 contests this season.  He has set single-season career highs in assists and points and has posted the second-most assists (James Wisniewski; 44 in 2023-14) and points (Seth Jones; 57 in 2017-18) by a defenseman in a season in club history.  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 one assist from 500 for his NHL career (242-499-741, 759 GP).
• C Boone Jenner is eight goals from 200 for his NHL career (192-172-364, 715 GP).
• F Alexandre Texier is three games from 200 for his NHL career (33-44-77, 197 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is three points from 300 for his NHL career (88-209-297, 482 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 (29 games)
• F Kent Johnson (shoulder injury on Feb. 28); out rest of season (20 games)
• RW Yegor Chinakhov (upper body injury on Mar. 12); is day-to-day (13 games)
• D Adam Boqvist (upper body injury on Mar. 14); out indefinitely (12 games)
• G Elvis Merzlikins (lower body injury on Apr. 1); is day-to-day (4 games)
• D Jake Bean (broken hand on Apr. 4); out rest of season (2 games)
• G Daniil Tarasov (upper body injury on Apr. 4); is day-to-day (2 games)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 293

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