Scratches: Miles Wood, Dmitri Voronkov, Erik Gudbranson (upper body injury), Egor Zamula
Injured Reserve: D Brendan Smith (knee surgery, out three to four months as of Jan. 8)
Roster Report: The Blue Jackets were off Wednesday after the back-to-back so any potential changes to the lineup will come at the team’s Thursday morning skate.
This Day in CBJ History
March 12, 2008: Rick Nash is named the fifth captain in franchise history.
March 12, 2009: The march to the playoffs continues as Kristian Huselius scores the only goal in the shootout in a 4-3 victory over Pittsburgh. Huselius, Jason Williams and Antoine Vermette score as a then-regular season record crowd of 19,167 is on hand at Nationwide Arena.
March 12, 2011: Derek MacKenzie two goals in a 3-2 win vs. Carolina, and Columbus goes 9-for-9 on the penalty kill, tying a team record for the most successful PKs in a game in which they did not allow a goal.
March 12, 2019: Boone Jenner notches his first career hat trick and scores his 100th career goal in a 7-4 victory vs. Boston at Nationwide Arena. Zach Werenski and Josh Anderson score four points apiece, with each posting a goal and three assists.
The Numbers Game
Zach Werenski is the only NHL defenseman with at least 20 goals (20) and 60 points (68) on the season, tying for second among league blueliners in goals and placing second in points. Werenski has points in 24 of his last 27 games (11-27-38) as well as 35 of the last 41 (16-41-57). He leads NHL defensemen in multipoint games (22, tied for ninth overall in NHL). … Kirill Marchenko has a six-game point streak (4-5-9) as well as points in 11 of the last 12 games (6-9-15). He is one goal from 100 in his NHL career and two assists from 100 as well. ... Charlie Coyle has 10 goals and 26 points in the past 20 games as well as a 6-15-21 line in the last 14 contests, ranking him seventh in the NHL in points in that span. He has a seven-game point streak. ... Conor Garland has scored two in each of the last two games, making him the first player in team history with four goals in his first three contests with the team. … Adam Fantilli has goals in five of the last eight games and posted a 6-9-15 line in the last 14 games. ... Mathieu Olivier has eight goals and 11 points in the last 13 games. ... Damon Severson has a goal and four assists in the last six games, while Ivan Provorov has two goals and five points in the last four. ... Denton Mateychuk notched his 10th goal of the year Monday, making him just the seventh CBJ blueliner to reach double digits in a season and the third age 21 or younger (Werenski, Adam Boqvist). … Blue Jackets defensemen have scored 49 goals this season, the most in the NHL, and Columbus is one of four teams to have two defensemen score at least 10 goals this season joining Buffalo, Washington and Montreal. … Columbus has scored the first goal in 24 of the last 33 contests and is tied for the league by scoring first in 39 of 64 games overall. ... The Blue Jackets are 5-1 in shootouts this year. ... Miles Wood and Danton Heinen are each one goal away from 100 in their NHL careers. ... Boone Jenner has 204 career assists, tied with David Vyborny for third most in team history.
Know The Foe: Florida Panthers
Head coach: Paul Maurice (Fourth season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 2.98 (19th) | Scoring defense: 3.31 (25th) | PP: 19.4 percent (T-19th) | PK: 82.2 percent (6th)
The narrative: The Panthers laid it all on the line the past few seasons and achieved glory, winning back-to-back Stanley Cups the past two years and making it to the Final in 2022-23. But right now, it appears that the bill is due, as Florida is seventh in the Atlantic Division and is 11 points out of a playoff spot with 18 games to go. All the hockey the team has played the past three years has added up, with long-term injuries to standouts Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk as evidence, and the Panthers are also now without Brad Marchand as well.
Scoring leaders: There are still some big names to contend with on the roster, led by Sam Reinhart, who is on pace for a fifth straight 30-goal season with a team-best 28 goals and 59 points thus far. Marchand has a 27-27-54 line in 52 contests but is contending with a lower body injury, while Sam Bennett has 23 goals among 49 points on the year. Carter Verhaeghe (19-27-46) and Anton Lundell (17-26-43) follow, while Tkachuk has eight goals and 19 points in 17 games and recently won a gold medal.
In net: Sergei Bobrovsky is in the last season of the seven-year deal he signed with Florida in 2019 after leaving Columbus, but it’s been a tough year for Bob, who is 23-19-1 with a 3.08 GAA and career-worst .876 save percentage. Fellow Novokuznetsk, Russia, native and former Blue Jacket Daniil Tarasov has played 20 games and is 9-10-2 with a 2.82 GAA and .901 SV%.
What's new: The math isn’t mathing for the Panthers, who just swept Detroit in a home-and-home to improve to 3-4-0 since the Olympic break, but the squad is just 4-9-0 in its last 13 games. There was some thought the team would be major sellers at the deadline in an effort to recapture the magic a year from now, but the Panthers were relatively quiet. It’s been a tough campaign on the injury front; Tkachuk and Barkov – who has not played this season – aren't the only big names to miss time, as Marchand and Eetu Luostarinen also were out for stretches and Seth Jones is currently on injured reserve.
Trending: The Blue Jackets’ 4-2 win last Thursday at Nationwide Arena snapped Florida’s nine-game winning streak in the series, which included a 7-6 victory over Columbus in the season series opener Dec. 6 in Sunrise. Columbus is just 1-9-1 in its last 11 visits.
Former CBJ: It's quite an exhaustive list, including Bobrovsky and Tarasov in net as well as Jones – who leads Florida defensemen with six goals and second with 24 points on the year – going from Columbus to South Florida over the years. Luke Kunin, who played in 12 games down the stretch for the Blue Jackets last year, has a 2-2-4 line in 45 games.
