CBJ\u00a0Playoff Chase Tracker<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThe Blue Jackets enter the day tied with the New York Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division, but only one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for second.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the flip side of that, two teams \u2014 the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators \u2014 are just one point behind the Blue Jackets, and both of those teams currently sit outside of the playoff picture.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn other words: it’s close.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tHere are five things to know before the early, 5:00 p.m. puck-drop:\n<\/p>\n
\t\tSan Jose comes to Columbus on a six-game losing streak, allowing 29 goals (4.83 per game) during that stretch. … The Sharks are tied for the fifth-fewest points in the league \u2014but are also just six points behind the second wild card spot, with two games in hand over the current owners of that spot, the Nashville Predators. The western conference, folks. … Celebrini’s 96 points this season (35 goals, 61 assists) are more than twice that of anyone else on the Sharks. Will Smith is second, with 47 points.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tThe Blue Jackets are 5-0-3 at home since the Olympic break, and 9-0-3 in their last 12 at Nationwide Arena. That’s tied for the longest home point streak in franchise history. They also went 9-0-3 between Feb. 11 and Mar. 31, 2013. Overall, the team has at least a point in 16 of their last 17 contests in front of the 5th Line.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tNo goalie announcement has been made official as of late Saturday morning, but Elvis Merzlikins was the first goalie off the ice Friday \u2014 usually a sign of who gets the starting net in the next game. Merzlikins has allowed two goals in each of his last three starts, with the Blue Jackets picking up five of the possible six points in that span.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tZach Werenski was held without a point Thursday, meaning he now needs 10 points to tie \u2014 and 11 to break \u2014 Artemi Panarin’s\u00a0club record of 87 points in a single season, set during the 2018-19 campaign. Werenski has 21 goals and 56 assists for 77 points with ten games left in the season. A point-a-game pace would tie Panarin’s mark.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tThe injury Thursday to Damon Severson is one that will keep him out for a while, according to head coach Rick Bowness. He’s officially listed as week-to-week. Look for Egor Zamula to come into his place, with Denton Mateychuk bumped up to the second pairing and Dante Fabbro to the first. Here are the complete projections:<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tLW <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tC <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tRW <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t17<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tMason Marchment<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t19<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tAdam Fantilli<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t86<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tKirill Marchenko<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t43<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tDanton Heinen<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t23<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tSean Monahan<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t83<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tConor Garland<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t4<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tCole Sillinger<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t3<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tCharlie Coyle<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t24<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tMathieu Olivier<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t11<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tMiles Wood<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t38<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tBoone Jenner<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t21<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tIsac Lundestr\u00f6m<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tLD <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tRD <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t8<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tZach Werenski<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t15<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tDante Fabbro<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t9<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tIvan Provorov<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t5<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tDenton Mateychuk<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t6<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tEgor Zamula<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t44<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tErik Gudbranson<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tStarting Goalie<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tBack-Up<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t90<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tElvis Merzlikins<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t73<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tJet Greaves<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SJ \u00a0 CBJ 15-19-2 ROAD \/ HOME 20-8-7 3.00 GOALS FOR 3.14 3.57 GOALS AGAINST 3.03 19.8% POWER…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-527916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116308098689380081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}