The Columbus Blue Jackets are on a roll as they hit the road for eight of their next nine games. As they go into Saturday night’s game against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden, they are riding a six-game winning streak.
One of the big reasons for the Blue Jackets’ winning streak is defenseman Zach Werenski. He comes into play Saturday leading the NHL in goals by a defenseman with 15 and points by a defenseman with 51.
What’s been even more impressive about Werenski is his current 18-game home points streak he has. It’s been almost 33 years since any defenseman has accomplished the feat.
While Werenski may not want to talk about the streak as he and his teammates focus on their next game, that’s what we’re here to do. There is a chance he could enter the Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium riding a 23-game home points streak.
It's a vibe😎@safelite | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/ExI0MKkClY
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 17, 2025
Werenski in Elite Company
Werenski became just the sixth defenseman in NHL history to record a home points streak of at least 18 games. The list includes several greats of the game including one that accomplished the feat on two separate occasions.
- Bobby Orr (25 games and 21 games)
- Paul Coffey (23 games)
- Phil Housley (22 games)
- John Van Boxmeer (19 games)
- Brian Leetch (18 games)
To think of all the great offensive defensemen that have played in the last 30 years to have never done something like this puts what Werenski is doing into perspective. It goes beyond the numbers he’s putting up too.
Not only is Werenski a frontrunner for the Norris Trophy, he’s starting to generate some buzz around the Hart Trophy as well. It’s hard to imagine where the Blue Jackets would be without him.
Some Numbers
During his current 18-game home points streak, Werenski has a line of 12-23-35. He’s averaged just under 2.00 points per game during the streak.
Since Nov 21, Werenski leads all NHL defensemen in goals, assists and points overall with 11-26-37 in 27 games. Those 37 points ranks fifth in the NHL for all players during that span. It shows that while the home-points streak is as incredible as it looks, he’s playing just as well away from home too.
The Blue Jackets have gone 12-3-3 at Nationwide Arena during Werenski’s streak. His scoring has had a direct impact on the outcome of games. Let’s go over a few examples of that.
On Nov 15 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Werenski scored a power-play goal and had the primary assist on what turned out to be the game-winning goal by Mathieu Olivier in a 6-2 win.
On Nov 21 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, after spotting them an early 3-0 lead, the Blue Jackets came all the way back to win 7-6 in overtime. Werenski had a career-high five points including the game-winning goal in overtime. His line of 2-3-5 included four primary points.
On Nov 27 against the Montreal Canadiens, although the Blue Jackets lost 4-3 in overtime, Werenski was up to his usual tricks. He recorded 1-1-2 which included a primary helper on the opening goal and the game-tying goal in the third period to force overtime.
Just two days later, the Blue Jackets defeated the Calgary Flames 5-2 in the team’s first meeting since the passing of the Gaudreau brothers. It was another 1-1-2 game for Werenski which included what became the game-winning goal.
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On Dec 23 again against the Canadiens, Werenski recorded three assists. Two of which were in the third period that helped flip the score from 4-3 Canadiens to 5-4 Blue Jackets.
On Dec 27 against the Boston Bruins, Werenski added four more assists which included a primary helper on Sean Monahan’s game-winning goal.
On Dec 31 against the Carolina Hurricanes, it looked for a minute there was a chance that Werenski’s streak would end. But in the third period, he recorded an assist on Dmitri Voronkov’s game-tying goal. The Blue Jackets eventually won in the shootout.
On Jan 9 against the Seattle Kraken, Werenski added 1-1-2 which included what turned out to be the game-winning goal in the second period.
On Jan 14 against the Philadelphia Flyers, Werenski scored both goals in regulation including the game-tying goal off a great pass by Kirill Marchenko with just 4:37 left in the third.
Then Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks, Werenski’s pass to Adam Fantilli setup the 1-0 goal making it an 18-game home points streak. His chance to extend it to 19 will come Saturday Jan 25 when the Blue Jackets host the Los Angeles Kings.
Some Advanced Numbers
Here are a couple of other notable stats for Werenski. The points streak will get all of the attention. But how that streak has helped the Blue Jackets in a positive way is what really stands out. Stats via Nat Stat Trick.
- Overall including road games, Werenski has a GF% of 58.6% at 5v5 adjusted for score and venue. In other words, his team scores 58.6% of goals when he’s on the ice. The higher the percentage away from 50%, the better.
- Werenski leads all defensemen in 5-on-5 points this season with 28. Quinn Hughes has 22 and Cale Makar has 21 for reference. Those 28 points are tied for 13th of all skaters along with his teammate Sean Monahan.
- Werenski leads all defensemen in 5-on-5 goals with 9 and primary points (goals and first assists combined) with 21. Makar and Quinn Hughes have 16 each.
- Werenski has taken 40 more shots on goal than the next closest defensemen. Werenski has 178 shots while both Makar and Noah Dobson have 138 going into Saturday.
Werenski told the media postgame on Thursday that he really doesn’t want to talk about the streak. The Blue Jackets are in the middle of a playoff race in which every point matters. He even admitted that he wasn’t excited to score a goal the other night against the Flyers. To him, it meant more for the team than him individually scoring an important goal.
Werenski sits just seven games short of the all-time home point streak record set by the great Bobby Orr. With the next four away from Nationwide Arena, the streak will stand no matter how the team fares. But come next Saturday night against the Kings, he will continue his pursuit of NHL history.