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Blue Jackets Faltering at Worst Possible Time

The Columbus Blue Jackets are losing ground in the playoff race.

Jon Alfano

Mar 15, 2025; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) reacts to allowing his third goal of the game during the third period against the New York Rangers at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
Mar 15, 2025; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) reacts to allowing his third goal of the game during the third period against the New York Rangers at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images / Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
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The Columbus Blue Jackets have been the NHL's feel-good story this season, rallying to compete for a surprise playoff spot after the tragic death of star forward Johnny Gaudreau in the offseason.

Unfortunately, the magic may be running low.

After moving into the first Eastern Conference wild card spot on March 9, the Blue Jackets have lost their past five games by a combined score of 16-4 and have been shut out three times, including in Thursday's 1-0 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers. As a result, they're now three points back of the second wild card spot with two more teams ahead of them.

MoneyPuck.com now has the Blue Jackets at an 8.3 percent chance to make the playoffs, a sharp decline from where those odds were less than two weeks ago.

When looking at what's gone wrong over the past few games, everything comes back to Columbus' scoring struggles. It's not like they've been drastically outshot during this stretch - they actually outshot the New Jersey Devils 46-20 in a 2-1 loss on Monday. However, they're just not having any luck converting on their opportunities.

“We're getting chances. They weren't going,” captain Boone Jenner said after Thursday's loss to Florida. “It’s on us to get those breaks going our way. Elvis [Merzlikins] was outstanding all night. We're honing in on some details that we need to hone in on at this time of the season.”

That said, the defense hasn't been great either. The Blue Jackets allowed five goals in a loss to the Devils on March 11, then four goals each in back-to-back shutout losses against the Vegas Golden Knights and New York Rangers in their next two games. They have been defending better in the past two games, but again, they're still not scoring enough to win.

With less than a month left in the regular season, the Blue Jackets have to turn things around fast if they want to finish their storybook season. That starts on Friday night with a road game against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

Amidst this losing streak, the Blue Jackets are preaching the message that they may be down, but they're not out.

“Are we trending in the right direction? A hundred percent,” coach Dean Evason said Thursday. “We're not happy in the dressing room. There's no, ‘Oh, good. We played great against the Stanley Cup champions.’ No way. We're [mad]. But did we do the right things to get a point? Did we catch a bad break trying to do the right thing? Yeah, so we're real positive after we're [mad].”

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Jon Alfano
JON ALFANO

Jon is a lead writer for Baltimore Ravens On SI and contributes to other sites around the network as well. The Tampa native previously worked with sites such as ClutchPoints and GiveMeSport and earned his journalism degree at the University of Central Florida.

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