Blue Jackets Are Vanilla, Boring & Simply Not Good Enough Right Now

The Columbus Blue Jackets will exceed 20% of their 2026-27 regular season after completing their game Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. No matter what the outcome of the game is, they will find themselves below .500.

For a team to be under .500 after spending training camp saying they thought they were a playoff team is an all too familiar song and dance. While there is still 80% of the season to play out and anything can happen, the Blue Jackets haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt yet to believe they can somehow turn this around.

The list of positives for the Blue Jackets is short while the list of disappointments is much longer. No matter which lens you decide to evaluate this team, the result is the same.

The Blue Jackets should be better than what their record says. But the reality of the situation is they’re not. In their first 16 games, they’ve shown they are nothing more than a vanilla, boring and not very good hockey team. The numbers back that up too.

While it is not too late to do something about, the Blue Jackets’ recent games haven’t inspired much in the way of confidence to prove they are about to come out of it. Tuesday night’s loss to the Florida Panthers turned out to be a perfect example of where this Blue Jackets’ team is at. It’s not in a very good place to say the least.

Offensively Bad Offense

Let’s put this into perspective for you. The Blue Jackets have scored 39 non-shootout goals in their 16 games this season. That 2.44 goals per game was third worst in the NHL as of Wednesday night with only the Blackhawks (2.17) and Flyers (2.25) being worse.

Let’s go one step further though. Let’s exclude the six the Blue Jackets scored against the Sabres on opening night and the seven they scored against the Avalanche recently. That’s 26 goals in their other 14 games, an ugly 1.86 goals per game.

What makes that stand out even more is that Kent Johnson is a point per game player while Zach Werenski (14) and Charlie Coyle (13) are producing points. This says everything we need to know about the rest of the team’s production.

Coyle’s line has been the most consistent in being able to stay together. The other three lines continue to be a major work in progress.

The Blue Jackets have said they’re generating some more chances of late. They did Tuesday against the Panthers especially in the third period. But Jacob Markstrom stopped everything thrown his way.

The Blue Jackets have not been able to finish. Head coach Rick Bowness said that the team still passes up opportunities to shoot the puck.

Couple that with many players struggling at once and this is the result: a Blue Jackets’ team that plays a vanilla and boring game knowing they have to be sound defensively. Players are putting pressure on themselves knowing they have to produce.

It all adds up to the Blue Jackets not being a very good team right now. How they move forward from this will determine how the rest of the season will go.

Mind-Blowing Stats

This stat is incredible to think about for a team that almost made the playoffs last season. In the Blue Jackets’ last 27 regular-season games, they have just three regulation wins. Three.

In their 2-8-1 finish last season, they won just once in regulation. They have two regulation wins in 16 games this season.

While the end of last season and the beginning of this season have different circumstances around them, it doesn’t change the fact that the Blue Jackets only have three regulation wins since March 26. That’s not a sign of a good team.

The Blackhawks have more regulation wins this season than the Blue Jackets (3-2). The Canucks also are a better offensive team than the Blue Jackets (2.80-2.44). When two of the worst teams in the NHL can do something better than the Blue Jackets, that’s alarming.

The Blue Jackets have improved defensively from the start of the season. Their 3.19 goals against per game has them 18th in the NHL. But couple that with only 2.44 goals per game. Ouch.

What’s the Real Issue?

This all begs an important question. What is the real issue at hand? Is it the low-event style of the Blue Jackets choking their ability to score? Is it not knowing who they are yet? Maybe it’s both? Maybe there’s something more?

Regardless of what it is exactly, there are multiple factors in play. Tuesday night’s game against the Panthers was vanilla and boring to watch from a Blue Jackets’ perspective.

Low-event hockey can limit mistakes. But when those mistakes happen (watch back Sam Bennett’s second goal Tuesday when he was given all kinds of room to shoot), they’re harder to overcome when the Blue Jackets can’t finish like they need to.

Passes are off the mark and in a player’s skates. Opposing teams can sense the Blue Jackets struggling with their confidence and attack the puck every chance they get. That makes them more predictable to defend.

The Blue Jackets’ recent 2-1 shootout win over the Dallas Stars put the boring part into perspective. Until Werenski scored late in the third period, that was a boring, low-event game. It can be effective in tight games but it makes creating offense more challenging.

This now ties back to finding the Blue Jackets identity. They have skill. They have size. But they haven’t fully tapped into either of those consistently.

Outside of a couple of scrums on Tuesday night, there wasn’t much of a physical presence from the Blue Jackets. Nor was there a lot of skill on full display. They may have generated 37 shots on goal. But there wasn’t much in the way of extended pressure or second chances.

Ivan Provorov’s goal actually showed what the Blue Jackets should be doing more of. There was a ton of traffic in front of the net. The puck went through multiple sets of legs. That’s the kind of chaos needed to score especially when a team can’t finish as they need to.

The fact is that even though it’s only the middle of November, time is starting to run out for the Blue Jackets. Last season showed them that even a massive midseason run wasn’t good enough after a terrible start. The start of this season has simply not been good enough for a team that believes they are capable of more.

The games haven’t been all that exciting in all. The Blue Jackets haven’t been all that hard to play against. Their vanilla and boring style has gotten them some tight wins. But it’s cost them their goal scoring and overall team offense. That can’t continue like this.

In all, the Blue Jackets 7-9-0 record has been deserved. They’re a team still looking for themselves. What will be interesting to see is how the team decides to overcome this challenge. Do they make sweeping changes? Or do they hope their systems over time will produce better results when better finishing arrives?

The Blue Jackets no longer have any time to waste. Starting Thursday night against the Lightning, they must show everyone what they’re capable of on paper.

Because if things continue like they are now, it simply won’t be good enough to stay in the playoff race.