Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering: Is playoff push real? Two-week road stretch may determine

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A collection of notes, insights, ruminations and did-you-knows gathered throughout the week for the Columbus Blue Jackets:

For the first time in three seasons, it’s safe for Blue Jackets fans to check the NHL standings.

Nope, not down there. Higher. Higher. Yep, there they are.

Since their long-awaited win in Pittsburgh on Jan. 7, the Blue Jackets have held one of the wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference. After the point earned Saturday in a 1-0 shootout loss to the New York Rangers, the Jackets sit in the first wild-card spot. If the season ended today, the Jackets would play the Toronto Maple Leafs in a first-round series.

It does not end today, of course. But the Blue Jackets are just underway in a key stretch that could go a long way in deciding whether their fans are doing “playoff math” this March and April.

The shootout loss in Madison Square Garden was the beginning of a stretch in which the Blue Jackets will play eight of nine games away from the friendly confines of Nationwide Arena. It continues on Monday when they play another Metropolitan Division opponent, the New York Islanders, in Brooklyn.

The Blue Jackets are currently on a seven-game point streak (6-0-1), their longest point streak since the 2020-21 season when they went on a 4-0-3 run from Jan. 18-29. If they win (or get at least a point) on Monday vs. the Islanders, it’ll be their longest point streak since a 10-gamer (9-0-1) in 2019-20.

Yes, that’s the last year they qualified for the playoffs.

Asked if he can feel his club’s confidence elevating, Blue Jackets first-year coach Dean Evason took a different approach.

“Regardless of how we feel, for the most part, we’re playing the right way,” Evason said. “When you do that, you gain confidence in how you’re playing. You’re not fearing the other team, you’re not chasing games, you’re staying in games and at least giving yourself a chance to catch a break in these tight games.”

“If playing the right way allows us to be confident, then sure.”

The Blue Jackets are unquestionably better this season. Defenseman Zach Werenski is having a magical campaign, veteran center Sean Monahan has been a godsend to a young roster with a need for a top center, and the young players you’ve heard so much about the past few seasons have started to become difference-makers.

They’ve also been helped by an Eastern Conference that is up for grabs after the top four or five teams. Columbus (22-17-7) is currently in seventh, but — through Saturday’s games — there are seven teams behind the Blue Jackets within five points.

Evason has begun stressing two key points that have served his club well in recent games: He wants them to play smarter and limit prime scoring chances on his goaltender, and he wants them to remain patient and poised in tight games, even if they fall behind. Those two are not mutually exclusive, of course.

The Jackets are 2-0-1 in their last three road games, allowing only four goals. They’ve gone five straight games without allowing more than two goals. Increasingly, this is what games will start to look like if the Blue Jackets can remain in the hunt.

“Those are the games we have to play,” Evason said. “We have to learn how to win those games that aren’t pretty. They’re uglier games, but they’re effective styles of playing. I hope we have a memory bank of how we’ve played some of these games and we can start playing with that mentality.”

It says here that if the Blue Jackets emerge from this tough bump on the schedule — the span with eight road games in nine outings ends in Buffalo on Feb. 4 — it’ll be safe for fans to start doing playoff math, that tortuous process that can take over your waking moments in the spring.

The Blue Jackets play the Islanders on Monday, then play a tough back-to-back in Toronto (Wednesday) and Carolina (Thursday) before they make it back to Columbus to host Los Angeles next Saturday.

Then, after a four-day break without a game, the Jackets take off for the second leg, which starts in Vegas (Jan. 30), then heads to Utah (Jan. 31), Dallas (Feb. 2) and finally Buffalo (Feb. 4).

After the game in Buffalo, the Blue Jackets play 16 of their final 28 games at home (either Nationwide or Ohio Stadium) and don’t leave the Eastern time zone for any of the road games.

The Blue Jackets have become the darlings of the NHL this season, one of the biggest surprises in recent memory. If they can emerge from this tough stretch with their season intact, it might be safe to believe the improbable is possible.

We learned this week that the Blue Jackets will wear the cannon on their sweater during the outdoor game. But that spawned another question: Will the actual cannon — the 1857 Napoleon Field Gun that gets blasted during home games — make its way from Nationwide Arena to Ohio Stadium? Club spokesman Todd Sharrock confirmed that, yes, the cannon will make its way up High Street for the big event.

On Friday, the Blue Jackets signed defenseman Jake Christiansen to a two-year, one-way NHL contract extension with a $975,000 salary cap hit. This commitment speaks to Christiansen’s standing in the organization and how that’s evolved with a new coach (Evason) and a new GM (Don Waddell). Christiansen, who played 202 games with AHL Cleveland the last four seasons, played his way onto the roster and into the lineup with a strong training camp. He’s one of only three defensemen — Werenski and Provorov are the others — to dress in all 46 games this season.

Waddell mentioned that winger Yegor Chinakhov, out since late November with an upper-body injury, is “still probably a few weeks away” from returning to the lineup. Chinakhov has missed 25 games.

Better injury news: Forward Justin Danforth, who has missed 18 games, is traveling with the club and could return at some point on this four-game trip.

Adam Fantilli had his career-long seven-game point streak (4-4-8) snapped vs. the Rangers on Saturday. It’s the longest point streak by a Blue Jackets player under 21 since Rick Nash had an eight-game streak during the 2023-24 season. Fantilli turned 20 on Oct. 12.

Saturday’s 1-0 shootout loss to the Rangers marked the third time in franchise history the Blue Jackets have lost a game in which no goals were scored by either club. Daniil Tarasov’s 26 saves went for naught, and he became the first goaltender in NHL history to lose in his first career shutout.

The Blue Jackets have also won three games in which they’ve failed to score; most recently on April 27, 2021, in Detroit.

Interesting stat from the NHL: The Blue Jackets are one of four teams remaining this season who haven’t yet pulled a starting goaltender from a game, either for injury or ineffectiveness. The others are Calgary, New Jersey, and Winnipeg.

Here’s this week’s Sunday Gathering trivia question: Tarasov’s shutout on Saturday came in his 54th start for Columbus. Which goaltender made the fewest starts with the Blue Jackets before recording their first shutout for the franchise?

Trivia answer: Bonus points if you got this one. Mathieu Garon, in his first start (second game) for Columbus, made 36 saves in a 2-0 shutout at Phoenix on Oct. 10, 2009.