By Joe Coopersmith

OCT. 19, 2024 II NATIONWIDE ARENA II VS. MINNESOTA WILD

BROADCAST INFORMATION

TV:  Bally Sports Ohio Steve Mears (play-by-play), Jody Shelley (analyst), Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre (analyst), Dave Maetzold  (reporter)

Radio:  97.1 The Fan    Bob McElligott (play-by-play), Dylan Tyrer (host)

PR Twitter                         @BlueJacketsPR

Websites/Links              BlueJackets.com/PressBox; BlueJackets.com/MediaGuide

Game Notes                   Game Notes are available at Media.NHL.com

Wild to Watch

• D Brock Faber finished second in voting for the 2023-24 Calder Trophy (best first-year player) after leading league rookies in assists (tied) and TOI/GP and ranking second-T in points with 8-39-47 and 24:58 TOI in 82 games.
• LW Kirill Kaprizov, who has recorded points in three of four games this season (1-5-6), led the Wild in goals and points, while finishing eighth-T in the NHL in goals and 11^th in points with 46-50-96 in 75 outings during the 2023-24 season.

All-Time Series

• The Blue Jackets have gone 32-27-1-7 in 67 all-time games against the Wild, including 19-10-1-2 at home.
• Columbus has recorded points in three of the last four meetings (1-1-2) and five of the last seven since Mar. 11, 2022 (2-2-3) after falling one-goal short in the season opener on Oct. 10.
• Eleven of the last 14 games in the series have been decided by a single goal (seven after regulation) dating back to Mar. 2, 2017 following the 2024-25 season opener in Minnesota.
• The teams have combined for four goals or less in eight of the last 12 games played at Nationwide Arena since Feb. 7, 2012 (CBJ; 6-4-2).
• The Blue Jackets have posted seven of the 12 shutouts in the all-time series with Sergei Bobrovsky (38 saves in 1-0 win at CBJ on Mar. 2, 2017) posting the most recent one for Columbus.

This Season (CBJ, 0-1-0)

• Oct. 10, 2024 – at MIN 3, CBJ 2
• Oct. 19, 2024 – at COLUMBUS (7 p.m. ET)

Player Notables vs. Wild

• C Sean Monahan – 6-8-14 in 30 career GP (5-5-10 in 14 career GP at home), including 2-2-4 in his last six outings against the team overall.
• D Damon Severson – 0-8-8 in 18 career GP, including four assists in his last five games against the club overall.
• C Cole Sillinger – 3-2–5 in 6 career GP with all his points recorded in the last three meetings, including his second career hat trick in the teams’ most recent meeting at Nationwide Arena on Jan. 6, 2024.
• LW James van Riemsdyk – 8-3-11 in 21 career GP, including 7-2-9 in his last 10 outings against Minnesota.
• D Zach Werenski – 4-2-6 in 12 career GP, including points in two-straight (1-1-2) and four of his last six games against the Wild overall (3-1-4) after notching a goal in the season opener on Oct. 10.

BLUE JACKETS TEAM NOTES

• Columbus earned its first win at home this season with a 6-4 victory over Buffalo on Thursday.
• Tuesday’s home opener against Florida on Tuesday kicked off a stretch of seven-of-eight games played at Nationwide Arena from Oct. 15-Nov. 1, including a four-game homestand from Oct. 15-22 (Florida, Buffalo, Minnesota, Toronto).
• The Blue Jackets have scored a franchise-high 17 goals through the first four games of the season (4.25 avg.), surpassing 14 goals recorded in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 campaigns.  The club’s 4.25 GF/GP in 2024-25 ranks third in the NHL, trailing only the NY Rangers (5.00) and Calgary (4.75).
• CBJ scored two goals in each period of Thursday’s win over the Sabres.  The team has scored in 10-of-12 periods this season with six multi-goal frames.
• The club has had 11 different goal scorers record a goal this season, one shy of the NHL leaders; NY Rangers (4 GP), Boston (5 GP), Pittsburgh (5 GP), Seattle (5 GP) and New Jersey (7 GP).
• The team plays its second of 21 Saturday games (10 at home) during the 2024-25 season when it hosts the Wild.  CBJ play on seven-straight Saturdays from Oct. 12-Nov. 23 to begin the campaign.
• The Blue Jackets and Wild complete their two-game season series on Saturday.  It marks the fifth time the club has wrapped up a multiple-game season series against an opponent in the month of October and the second-fastest (Oct. 6-8, 2001 vs. Philadelphia).
• Columbus, which has scored the first goal in each of the last three games (2-1-0), scored the first goal of the game 45 times in 2023-24, tied for the ninth-most in the NHL and finishing with the fourth-most in a season in franchise history.
• CBJ have recorded a power play goal in three of the four contests this season (3-of-11) to rank 10^th in the NHL in power play pct. (27.3).

BLUE JACKETS PLAYER NOTES

• The Blue Jackets’ average age of their opening-day roster was 27.3, the seventh-youngest team in the NHL.  Columbus was tied for the third-youngest team to begin the 2023-24 campaign at 25.9.
• RW Yegor Chinakhov (2-4-6), F Kent Johnson (2-3-5) and D Damon Severson (1-3-4) have collected points in each of the club’s four games this season.  They are the second set of teammates to accomplish the feat in a campaign (2014-15; Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno and Ryan Johansen).
• RW Yegor Chinakhov has registered points in all four contests in 2024-25, marking the second-longest points streak of his career (6-4-10 in six-straight games from Dec. 8-21, 2023).
• F Kent Johnson collected an assist on Thursday and has recorded points in all four games (2-3-5), matching his career-long points streak in the process (3-1-4; Oct. 20-25, 2022).  He set career highs during his rookie season in 2022-23, finishing with 16-24-40 in 79 outings.
• After being held without a point in the season opener, RW Kirill Marchenko has registered multi-point efforts in two of his last three games and assists in three consecutive (2-4-6) after picking up 1-1-2 on Thursday.  He has recorded 46 goals in his career and trails only Boone Jenner (48) for the most goals with the club since 2022-23.  With another 20-goal campaign in 2024-25 can become the first player in club history to hit the 20-goal mark in each of his first three NHL seasons.
• C Sean Monahan (2-2-4, 4 GP) has recorded goals in two of the last three contests.  He has notched double-digit goals in nine of his 11 campaigns and has recorded 20-plus goals eight times.
• D Damon Severson has registered points in all four games this season.  It’s the second time in his career he’s posted points in the first four games of a campaign (0-4-4 in 4 GP from Oct. 6-16, 2018 with New Jersey).
• D Zach Werenski has registered points in three of four games in 2024-25 (2-2-4) after picking up his 31^st career multi-assist effort with two assists on Thursday.  He now trails only Rick Nash (39) and David Vyborny (31) for the most multi-assists in club history.  He is the Blue Jackets’ all-time leader in goals, assists and points by a defenseman with 92-214-306 in 489 games and sits 11 points shy of tying David Vyborny (317) for fifth on the all-time points list.  He ranks seventh among NHL blueliners in goals since making his NHL debut in 2016-17 (NSH’s Roman Josi, 129).

BLUE JACKETS MILESTONES

• D Erik Gudbranson is one assist from 100 and eight games from 800 for his NHL career (34-99-133, 792 GP).
• F Boone Jenner is eight goals away from 200 for his CBJ/NHL career goal (192-172-364, 715 GP).
• D Jack Johnson is 10 games from 1,200 for his NHL career (77-259-336, 1,190 GP).
• C Sean Kuraly is 16 games from 500 for his NHL career (58-78-136, 484 GP).
• RW Kevin Labanc is 19 games from 500 for his NHL career (82-144-226, 481 GP).
• G Elvis Merzlikins is seven games from 200 for his CBJ/NHL career (68-81-30, 193 GP).
• C Sean Monahan is four assists from 300 for his NHL career (246-296-542, 768 GP).
• D Damon Severson is five points from 300 for his NHL career (68-227-295, 718 GP).
• D Zach Werenski is eight goals from 100 and 10 games from 500 for his CBJ/NHL career (92-214-306, 490 GP).

OhioHEALTH INJURY REPORT

• F Boone Jenner (upper body) is on Injured Reserve on Oct. 7; (4 Games)
• LW Dmitri Voronkov (upper body) is on Injured Reserve on Oct. 4; (4 Games)
• C Gavin Brindley (broken finger) is on Injured Reserve on Oct. 3; (4 Games)
• D Erik Gudbranson (upper body) is on Injured Reserve on Oct. 16; (1 Game)
• G Elvis Merzlikins (upper body); (1 Game)

TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 17

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