The Columbus Blue Jackets, amidst tons of injuries, delays, and travel issues, found a way to pull out a big road win to stay hot at the end of 2025. Everything seems to be clicking at the right time for the Blue Jackets. Following the Mason Marchment trade on Dec. 20 and the trade of Yegor Chinakhov on Monday afternoon, the Blue Jackets’ roster shake-up seems to be working quite well.
The Blue Jackets had similar success and a similar game script to their win Sunday night against the New York Islanders. They started the game quick offensively, struggled mightily in the second period, and finished excellent offensively in the third period.
What big takeaways can Columbus take home with them before they host the New Jersey Devils to close out 2025 at Nationwide Arena?
Transition Offense Was a Major Boost
The Blue Jackets scored three of their four goals last night on offensive rushes into the zone. This has not been an element of the Blue Jackets’ offensive game all season long, and that could be a reason why so many times the offense has been stagnant.
They found a way last night, however, to score while on the rush, and that made all the difference for them to the tune of a 4-1 win in Ottawa.
Boone Jenner, Damon Severson, and Kirill Marchenko were the goal scorers for the Blue Jackets off the rush, and the games each of them played were vital to the win last night for Columbus.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Columbus Blue Jackets on 2025-12-29: pic.twitter.com/gM00nqjxOt
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) December 30, 2025
Jenner played one of his best games of the season, and Severson and Denton Mateychuk stayed red-hot offensively in the absence of Zach Werenski.
In other forms of causing havoc, Cole Sillinger was all over the ice last night, and Charlie Coyle was a puck magnet everywhere he went as well. Those two guys played a great all-around 200-foot game and were one of the big reasons that the defensemen for Columbus had a chance to move up in the play and cause trouble in the offensive zone.
Special Teams Success Continues
The Blue Jackets’ special teams units have been finding a ton of success lately, and one of the biggest factors in their recent three-game winning streak has been their penalty kill unit.
They have successfully defended each one of their last 14 penalty kills, which has been one of the weakest points for the Blue Jackets all season. They rank 28th of 32 on the penalty kill this season, but this most recent stretch has been a rallying point for this team.
Though it is hard to justify how much of an element the power play played without scoring, it was certainly a massive factor with tons of sustained zone time, and multiple open looks for Marchenko from the left circle that he could not sneak past Leevi Merilainen.
The Blue Jackets seem to get power-play goals in a similar fashion to Marchenko’s scoring outputs, in groups, and in big ones at that. When the power play for Columbus gets hot, it is red-hot, and when their top line scorer gets going, he is seemingly impossible to stop.
Jet Greaves Dazzles Again
Jet Greaves had every excuse in the book to have a rough showing, and it most likely would’ve been excused and chalked up to external factors by coach Dean Evason. However, Greaves was an absolute star in the crease for Columbus last night.
Greaves stopped 27 of 28 shots and made some one-on-one saves to shut down some of the top Senators scorers. In particular, one of the big saves that sticks out was on Brady Tkachuk in the first period to keep Ottawa off the scoresheet. He had the big, lumbering forward driving to the net, and before he could get the shot away, Greaves poked the puck away from Tkachuk’s possession.
Jet Greaves has allowed two goals or less in three straight starts and three goals or less in nine consecutive games.
— Ed Francis (@BlueJacketStats) December 30, 2025
He was the MVP of this game, a third straight win for the #CBJ. https://t.co/b0XPbLbsaD
If there is one guy who has needed to step up his game more following the Werenski injury, it has been Greaves. He has answered the bell, and he has been fabulous in his most recent starts.
Greaves will need to continue to play well if Columbus wants a chance to make a real push at playoff positioning, as Evason chose to ride the hot hand of Greaves even though it was a back-to-back game with road travel.
Evason clearly trusts his guy, and now it is time for Greaves to take it to the next level.
