Thursday, March 5, 2025 – 7:00 PM EST
Amerant Bank Arena – Sunrise, Florida
TV: FDSNOH; Radio: 97.1 FM
Opponent’s Site: Litter Box Cats
Columbus Blue Jackets (30-23-8, 68 points, 4th Metro, 7th East)
at
Florida Panthers (38-21-3, 79 points, 2nd Atlantic, 3rd East)
After a rude awakening in Tampa on Tuesday, the Blue Jackets travel across the state to face the defending champion Florida Panthers, who themselves have won 9 of their last 11. Good luck!
Player to Watch
Seth Jones
In the first big move of the final week before the trade deadline, the Panthers acquired former Blue Jacket defenseman Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks (in the middle of the Stadium Series game, rude) along with a 4th round pick in 2026 for goalie Spencer Knight and a first round pick in either 2026 or 2027.
Jones had gone public recently with his dissatisfaction with the situation in Chicago. Remember that he left Columbus because he wanted to play for a contender rather than a rebuilding team. Whoops! Anyway, this gives him the chance for a fresh start on a very good team, and with a familiar GM (Bill Zito, who was in the front office here when Jones was acquired). Jones’s numbers understandably suffered as he played #1 minutes for an awful Blackhawks team.
In Florida, Jones can play a more sheltered second pair role. Chicago retains $2.5M of Jones’s AAV, on a contract which somehow has FIVE more years remaining. A $7M cap hit for a player like Jones is a good value pickup for Zito, especially with the cap going up.
Jackets Notes
Yesterday, the Blue Jackets signed an extension with forward Mathieu Olivier. Beginning next season, he will have an AAV of $3M over six years. Originally acquired for his ability to hit and fight, Olivier has rounded out his game with increased scoring; he currently has 12 goals on the season.
The Other Bench
The Panthers are without star Matthew Tkachuk for the remainder of the regular season, thanks to an injury suffered in the 4 Nations Face-off … Zito wasn’t finished after the Jones trade. Yesterday, he acquired veteran netminder Vitek Vanecek from the San Jose Sharks to replace the depth lost by trading away Knight … The Panthers also signed Jesse Puljujarvi to a two-way deal, and he can be called up after clearing waivers. How the mighty have fallen.
Season Series
10/15/2024 FLA 4 @ CBJ 3
03/06/2025 CBJ @ FLA
03/20/2025 FLA @ CBJ
Stats
| Florida | Columbus | |
| 3.26 (7) | GPG | 3.33 (5) |
| 2.77 (9) | GAPG | 3.30 (25) |
| 23.0 (13) | PP% | 21.3 (19) |
| 80.3 (13) | PK% | 75.2 (26) |
| 55.2 (2) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 47.6 (28) |
| 54.6 (2) | 5v5 Unblocked Shot Attempt % | 47.9 (24) |
| 8.5 (19) | 5v5 Shooting % | 10.4 (3) |
| 91.5 (14) | 5v5 Save % | 90.9 (19) |
| Sam Reinhart, 31 | G Leader | Kirill Marchenko, 24 |
| Aleksander Barkov, 40 | A Leader | Zach Werenski, 46 |
| Sam Reinhart, 64 | P Leader | Zach Werenski, 66 |
| A.J. Greer, 89 | PIM Leader | Mathieu Olivier, 113 |
| 20-10-2 | Home/Road | 10-17-4 |
| 8-2-0 | Last 10 | 5-4-1 |
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
| Dmitri Voronkov | Adam Fantilli | Kirill Marchenko |
| Yegor Chinakhov | Boone Jenner | Kent Johnson |
| Zach Aston-Reese | Justin Danforth | Mathieu Olivier |
| James van Riemsdyk | Sean Kuraly | Joseph LaBate |
| Zach Werenski | Dante Fabbro |
| Denton Mateychuk | Ivan Provorov |
| Jake Christiansen | Damon Severson |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| Daniil Tarasov |
Florida Panthers
| Carter Verhaeghe | Aleksander Barkov | Sam Reinhart |
| Mackie Samoskevich | Sam Bennett | Evan Rodrigues |
| Eetu Luostarinen | Anton Lundell | Jesper Boqvist |
| A.J. Greer | Tomas Nosek | Jonah Gadjovich |
| Gustav Forsling | Aaron Ekblad |
| Niko Mikkola | Seth Jones |
| Nate Schmidt | Dmitry Kulikov |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Chris Driedger |