The Columbus Blue Jackets enter action on Tuesday night holding down one of the Eastern Conference’s wildcard playoff spots. Thanks to their performance this season and their upcoming schedule, they have their sights set on something more.
The Blue Jackets will play the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night in Prudential Center. It’s just the latest biggest game of the season for a Blue Jackets’ team that has been in playoff mode for the last couple of months.
Besides staying in a wildcard position, the Blue Jackets now have a chance to do what many thought was unthinkable at the beginning of the season.
Top-3 Metro in Sight?
The Blue Jackets and Devils are separated by just four points in the standings entering Tuesday night’s game. But wait, there’s more. The Blue Jackets have played two less games than the Devils.
Should the Blue Jackets win Tuesday night in regulation, they’ll climb to within two points of the Devils while maintaining those two games in hand. In that scenario, the Blue Jackets would control their own destiny for a top-3 position in the Metropolitan Division.
The gap to second-place Carolina is 10 points with a game in hand if you wanted to look ahead. While second place is a tougher ask, third place is not only clearly in sight, but also very doable.
Tuesday will mark the second of three meetings on the season between the Blue Jackets and Devils. The Blue Jackets won the first meeting back on Dec 19. In the 4-2 win, Elvis Merzlikins stole the show making 40 saves including stopping all 13 shots from Jack Hughes.
The only Hughes’ brother expected to play on Tuesday will be defenseman Luke Hughes. Jack is out for the rest of the season after having shoulder surgery. His loss is massive for a Devils’ team that suddenly must look in their rear-view mirror at an oncoming Blue Jackets’ team striving for more than a wildcard spot.
Blue Jackets Handled Rangers
The Blue Jackets took advantage of a Rangers’ team on the second night of back-to-back and in the midst of nine games in 16 days across multiple time zones. Their 7-3 win at Madison Square Garden put them back in the first wildcard spot as of Sunday night and in position to reel the Devils in even closer.
How have the Blue Jackets been able to enjoy all this success? It’s been a team effort. They have five different 20-goal scorers. It’s just the second time in franchise history they’ve been able to say that. Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli, Dmitri Voronkov and Zach Werenski each have at least 20 goals.
The defense as a whole has improved from the start of the season. The addition of Dante Fabbro has solidified the top pair. The emergence of Denton Mateychuk has steadied the top four.
Most importantly, the goaltending has seen better results. Daniil Tarasov got the win Sunday and is back in the rotation for spot starts after missing big chunks of time earlier in the season. Elvis Merzlikins as the clear-cut number-one has played like it the last couple of months. His save percentage is now slightly over league average after a bad start to the season.
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These things allowed the Blue Jackets the opportunity to go into Madison Square Garden and earn a huge win. They hope to do the same Tuesday night against a Devils’ team less than 100%.
Once the Blue Jackets get through Tuesday night, they’ll have plenty of home cooking waiting with 11 of their final 18 games at Nationwide Arena. They have one of the best home records in the NHL at 20-6-4 for a .733 points percentage.
Starting to Feel Real
The Blue Jackets all along wanted to play meaningful games in March. They’ve accomplished that goal. But now it’s all about winning those meaningful games while maintaining a playoff spot.
As the games start to count down and the wins continue to pile up, the possibility of playoffs is starting to feel more real by the day. As long as they stay within their systems and not try to do too much, they’ll have every opportunity to win on any given night.
It is truly a one game at a time approach for the Blue Jackets. That’s been their message all along under head coach Dean Evason. That’s not going to change now.
With two games against the Devils and three against the Ottawa Senators upcoming, those games could determine the fate of the Blue Jackets in 2024-25. If things go the right way, we will no longer be talking about wildcard possibilities.
We will be talking about top-3 in the Metropolitan Division. With destiny in their own hands, it’s exactly where the Blue Jackets want to be at this time.