The Blue Jackets are one week into 2025 and in what has been an unfamiliar spot in recent years – in the postseason race.
Columbus hasn’t made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2019-20 season, as the team’s run of postseason appearances reached a fourth straight year. But with an aging roster and a farm system that had been depleted to help push those runs, the Blue Jackets committed to a retooling of the roster that would bring short-term pain but hopefully long-term prosperity.
CBJ fans are starting to see the fruits of that decision, with the team’s young, highly drafted talent starting to make an impact on a game-in, game-out basis and meshing well with a group of veterans that have used their experience to lead the way. The result is the team is 5-2-1 in its last eight games and just one point behind Pittsburgh – tonight’s opponent – and Montreal for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
It's a big four-point night within the division for the Blue Jackets as they chase what they hope will be playoff hockey.
“Anytime you go into the season, no matter what you have on the team or whatever happens with the team, your goal is to make the playoffs and then see what happens,” Ivan Provorov said. “Right now, our goal is to get better as a team and to make the playoffs however way that is, whether it’s a wild card or even better.”
Provorov spoke those words after Saturday night’s 6-4 win over St. Louis, which felt like two separate games entirely. Through 40 minutes, the Blue Jackets held a 2-0 lead before madness broke out, as each team scored four times in the final frame as the Blues frantically tried to catch Columbus.
It never happened, though, as the Blue Jackets led the entire way through the frame, even if there were nervous moments by the end when St. Louis pulled its goalie for an extra attacker in a 5-4 game. Mathieu Olivier slammed the door, though, with an empty-net tally and said the team kept its wits about them even as the teams traded goals.
“We never panicked,” Olivier said. “We kept doing our thing. We kept pressing on. Even if they had a push, we would always push back. That’s a big difference this year for our group.”
It was the ninth time the Blue Jackets have scored six-plus goals this season, tied for the second-most in franchise history and just two short of a record. It also improved the squad’s home record to 12-5-3, one of the best marks in the NHL.
On the other side of things, though, Columbus heads to Pittsburgh with one of the worst road records in the league at 4-12-3. Improving that has been a focus of head coach Dean Evason, who has been racking his brain to try to come up with an antidote.
"For whatever reason, we need to correct that,” Evason said. “We need to turn that scenario around. There’s no reason why we should not be as good or a better road team than a home team.”
Know The Foe: Pittsburgh Penguins
Head coach: Mike Sullivan (10th season)
Team stats: Goals per game: 3.02 (16th) | Scoring defense: 3.63 (32nd) | PP: 25.6 percent (5th) | PK: 81.7 percent (12th)
The narrative: The Pittsburgh dynasty remains closer to the end than the beginning, but the Pens have rebounded from an awful start to get back into the postseason race. After back-to-back seasons without playoff hockey, it’s fair to say the days of the Penguins being a true Stanley Cup contender are in the rearview mirror, but it’s still a team that knows how to win games – especially at home against Columbus – behind such veterans as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
Team leaders: The irony is that while the Pens' team success has dropped off since the Stanley Cup seasons of 2016 and ‘17, it’s really through no fault of Crosby or Malkin. One year after a 42-goal season that was third best of his career, the ageless Crosby – well, he is 37 – remains the Penguins’ leading scorer with 11 goals and 42 points. Rickard Rakell is having his best season in Pittsburgh with a team-best 18 goals among his 33 points, while Malkin has an 8-24-32 line at age 38. Bryan Rust has added 15 goals and Erik Karlsson leads the defense with 28 points.
After early-season struggles led to a trip to the minors, Tristan Jarry has rebounded to start a team-high 18 games and is 8-6-3 with a 3.47 GAA and .886 save percentage; he’s 7-3-2 in his last 12 games. Alex Nedeljkovic is an Ohio native who is 6-6-4 on the season with a 3.22 GAA and .888 save percentage.
What's new: A Nov. 23 loss to Utah dropped Pittsburgh to 6-10-3 on the year, but the Pens have gathered themselves and posted a 10-5-3 record since then to get back into the postseason race. The offense has led the charge, as the Penguins have averaged 3.67 goals per game in that span, though that number has dropped to 2.86 in the last seven games as they’ve gone 2-3-2. The Pens are still in the playoff race, though, currently holding the final spot in the wild card standings coming into this one.
Trending: Pittsburgh won three of four matchups a year ago and 19 of 23 since 2017-18 coming into this season, but the Blue Jackets took a 6-2 victory over the Penguins in the first meeting of the campaign Nov. 15 in Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets enter this game having lost 15 in a row in Pittsburgh, with the last win coming Nov. 27, 2015.
Former CBJ: None
