Gameday Guide: March 16 at Ottawa

Head coach Brad Larsen said he feared the worst. So did the man it happened to, Blue Jackets forward Jakub Voracek.
When Voracek cut up the ice and collided knee-on-knee with Marcus Foligno late in Friday's game vs. Minnesota, the CBJ veteran hit the ice in tremendous pain. To those watching, it looked like he would be out for an extended period of time, but Voracek quickly returned to the Jackets' bench to watch the team tie and then win the game.

He couldn't return that night and was also out Sunday vs. Vegas, but barring any setbacks today, Voracek will be in the lineup when the Blue Jackets take on Ottawa in Canada's capital tonight.
So how is Voracek -- the team's leader with 40 assists in 57 games -- able to withstand such a tough-looking collision and be back in the lineup so quickly? Is it all the Czech pilsners, perhaps, that have left him with a flexible enough body to play more than 1,000 NHL games?
"Probably that helps," Voracek said with a laugh. "The text messages I got, they were all surprised I'm day to day. Obviously I'm lucky to still be in the season and able to play. I don't know. I'm lucky maybe that my legs are strong. That helps as well with a knee injury. I was lucky I guess."
There probably is something more to it than lucky, though. The NHL veteran has played at least 80 games seven times in his career and played the full 48 during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. He's never missed more than nine games in any campaign, so whatever Voracek is doing, it's clearly working.
"As far as how his body withstands it, I don't know," head coach Brad Larsen said. "There are some guys that are freaks of nature that way, and he's one of them. He's a throwback. I think just the way he approaches it, this isn't the first time this year he's been sore or hurt, this is just the first time we're talking about.
"These are the things people don't see behind the scenes a lot. The jersey is on, they think you're healthy, and most times that's not the case. He grins and bears a lot of stuff and plays through it and plays hard."
Voracek will likely be joined back in the lineup by center/wing Justin Danforth, who left the team's game Thursday against the New York Islanders when he blocked a shot and immediately went down in pain in the first period. He did not return and has missed the past two contests.
Start on time: Ottawa has lost seven of nine, so a good start and a few goals might be tough to overcome for the home team.
Hot on the power play: The Jackets have six power-play goals in the last seven games, the kind of thing that is often the difference between wins and losses.
A new hero each night: One trademark of the CBJ streak has been getting contributions from up and down the lineup.
Rookie Cole Sillinger's hat trick Sunday night in a 6-4 win vs. Vegas was the first of his career, the second of the season for the Blue Jackets and was just the seventh for an 18-year-old in the NHL since 1998-99. He is also the second youngest CBJ player to notch one (Nikita Filatov, 2009). … Patrik Laine has a 17-11-28 line in the last 20 contests, plus 10 multipoint games in that span. His seven game-winning goals are tied for fourth in the NHL. … Coming off his second career four-point game (1-3-4) against Vegas, Oliver Bjorkstrand has nine goals in the last 16 games. … Zach Werenski has points in 10 of the last 12 games (4-8-12). … Gustav Nyquist has four shorthanded goals on the season, tied for first in the NHL with Florida's Aleksandar Barkov and Anaheim's Isac Lundestrom. … Goalie Elvis Merzlikins is the seventh goalie in franchise history to win 20 games in a season and is 7-3-2 in his last 12 decisions. … Max Domi is one goal from 100 in his career. ... Voracek is tied for fifth in the NHL with 30 primary assists. ... The Blue Jackets have trailed in 20 of their 30 wins this year, the most in the NHL and tied for the most in franchise history. Columbus also has eight wins when trailing after two periods, the most in the NHL and the second most in franchise history. ... The Blue Jackets improved to 10-3 in overtime/shootouts, the NHL's second-best win percentage in extra time at .769, just behind Dallas (.786). … The game matches the top two players in the NHL in average ice time, Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot (26:42) and Werenski (26:24). … Ottawa won the first game in the series this year by a 2-1 score in Nationwide Arena on Jan. 23. The teams will meet again April 22 in Columbus. … The Blue Jackets had been 6-0-1 in the previous seven games of the series.
(Subject to change)
Gustav Nyquist - Jack Roslovic - Patrik Laine
Max Domi - Cole Sillinger - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Jakub Voracek - Sean Kuraly - Yegor Chinakhov
Eric Robinson - Justin Danforth - Emil Bemstrom
Zach Werenski - Andrew Peeke
Vladislav Gavrikov - Jake Bean
Gabriel Carlsson - Dean Kukan
Elvis Merzlikins (confirmed starter)
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratches: Brendan Gaunce, Gavin Bayreuther
Injured Reserve:Boone Jenner (back, week to week); Adam Boqvist (upper body, day to day); Daniil Tarasov (hip surgery; out for season); Alexandre Texier (indefinite leave of absence)
Roster Report: The returns of Voracek mean Gaunce and Trey Fix-Wolansky, who was sent down to Cleveland, will be out of the lineup, while Carlsson goes in for Bayreuther.
March 16, 2001: Tyler Wright scores all three CBJ goals in the team's third hat trick of all time, pushing the Blue Jackets to a 3-0 win at Atlanta. It is the first natural hat trick in CBJ history, while Ron Tugnutt stops 34 shots in the shutout victory.
March 16, 2013: Sergei Bobrovsky stops 39 shots and both tries in the shootout, while Artem Anisimov scores the winning goal as the Blue Jackets take a 1-0 victory in Nationwide Arena vs. Phoenix to run their point streak to eight games in a row (6-0-2).