Game Day #38: Eleven Forwards, Seven Defensemen Again As Blue Jackets End 2024 Calendar Year Against Hurricanes

With a win Tuesday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets can enter the 2025 portion of the 2024-25 season with a .500 record.

The 15-16-6 Blue Jackets face the Carolina Hurricanes in a New Year's Eve battle, with the puck dropping an hour later (8 p.m.) than the regular night game.

Sticking around .500 — and a playoff spot — was not something that many expected at the start of the season.

One reason they've in the position they're in: Kirill Marchenko. The 24-year-old leads the team in goals (14) and points (40), and is on pace for what would be a franchise record 89 points. 

"We've seen the competitive level really high (from Marchenko)," said head coach Dean Evason. "He's competing, he's winning his puck battles, he's winning races to pucks, he's been sound defensively, and just playing the game the right way."

"We need him to play in all three zones — and he's done that," said Evason.

As Marchenko goes, so go the Blue Jackets: they've lost one time in regulation in the 13 games Marchenko has scored in, with an 8-1-4 overall record.

Marchenko has one multi-goal game this season: a November 23rd shootout win over the Hurricanes, in which the Russian scored the game-tying goal with 1:06 left. 

Here's what else to know when the Blue Jackets and Hurricanes drop the puck in the final hours of 2024:

• RE: CANES
  Jack Roslovic leads the team in goals (16) for Carolina. He's just six away from his career high of 22, with more than half the season still to go. ... Pyotr Kochetkov gets the start for Carolina. He's been outstanding this season, posting a 2.51 goals against average and .900 save percentage in 22 games. ... The Canes have scored four goals in each of their two games against the Blue Jackets this season; a 4-1 win at home on December 15th and a 5-4 shootout loss in Columbus on November 23rd. 
   
• HOT & COLD ELVIS
  Elvis Merzlikins gets the start for Columbus, with mixed results over the last two weeks: in three of his last six starts, he's 3-0-0 with 88 saves on 93 shots (.946). In the other three, he's 0-2-1 with 69 saves on 83 shots (.831). 
   
• COSTLY TURNOVERS
  In Saturday's loss to the Boston Bruins, turnovers were the story of the game. Damon Severson was benched for nearly the entire second period after an egregious turnover led directly to a Bruins goal. That was one of three sloppy miscues on defense that led to a Boston goal and was the difference in the game. "We did this to ourselves," said Evason after the game. The Blue Jackets have got to be better at taking care of the puck, particularly against a stingy, opportunistic Carolina club.
   
• LINEUPS & PROJECTIONS
  No lineup changes, so for the fourth straight game the Blue Jackets are going to run with an extra defenseman at the expense of the fourth line. Here are the complete projections: