PREVIEW: Blue Jackets welcome Chicago before Olympic break

It might be too simple to say that a month or two ago, the Blue Jackets wouldn’t have been able to win a game like the one they captured in New Jersey on Tuesday night.

Columbus had some tight-checking, close victories in the early months of the season, but those types of wins were often hard to come by. But the 3-0 victory over the Devils showed a few things about how far the Blue Jackets have come during their season-best six-game winning streak and while winning 10 of the last 11 games.

Even when they didn’t create much in the early going, the Blue Jackets kept their patience and didn’t break down defensively at any point against the Devils. The details were strong the entire night, the team stuck to the game plan, and eventually Columbus was able to earn two crucial points against a Metropolitan Division foe.

Call it confidence, which the team certainly has right now. Attribute some of it to tweaks made by new head coach Rick Bowness, who has preached defensive attention to detail in 10 games since taking over. But the most important trait to the Jackets’ game Tuesday night might just be the way the team stayed together and never wavered.

“I think we’re just really sticking to the details and really making sure we don’t let anything creep into our game right now,” Mathieu Olivier said. “There’s always positives in our games, but I think (Bowness is) on top of what we need to do better every night, and right now, we’re processing it and applying it to the games.

“I think we also expect more out of each other, just the way we talk on the bench now, the way we’re reacting to plays that maybe we shouldn’t make – guys are holding each other accountable. There’s a really good thing going on right now.”

For his part, Bowness was pleased with the way the Blue Jackets were able to navigate through two scoreless, defense-first periods before getting the game-winning goal from Dante Fabbro and a pair of insurance tallies from Olivier in the third. It was a playoff-style game as far as how little time and space there was to create, and the Blue Jackets were the team who stayed with their game the longest.

“Listen, that was a great win,” Bowness said. “We stuck with it. For two periods, man, there wasn’t very much room out there. We weren’t giving them much, they weren’t giving us much. It was a hard-checking, hard-fought game. We stuck with it, we got the first one and then we really played well after that. We built on that.”

Columbus has used its hot streak to get back into the thick of the playoff race, sitting four points behind the Islanders for third in the Metro and five behind Boston for the last wild-card spot. They have one more opportunity to add points in the standings tonight when they host Chicago in the last game before the three-week Olympic break.

Tuesday’s game, then, is the perfect contest to build on because it showed the type of team the Blue Jackets can be when they’re committed for an entire 60 minutes.

“I think that shows growth with our team,” Fabbro said. “It shows maturity. It shows great leadership with our leadership core here. So yeah, it’s obviously a very good thing to have. Every game is going to be tight coming down the stretch here. Everyone is shooting for playoffs right now, so we have to obviously enjoy this one, but we have a big game tomorrow before the break so just try to end this one on the right note.”

Scratches: Danton Heinen, Jake Christiansen, Egor Zamula

Injured Reserve: D Brendan Smith (knee surgery, out three to four months as of Jan. 8)

Roster Report: Marchenko could return after missing last night's game with illness, while Greaves seems likely to get the net in the second of the back-to-back. The Blue Jackets won’t have a morning skate, so nothing will be confirmed until pregame media in the afternoon.

This Day in CBJ History

Feb. 4, 2011: Steve Mason stops 34 shots while Antoine Vermette, Jared Boll and Andrew Murray score as the Blue Jackets take a 3-0 victory in Detroit. It is just the franchise’s seventh win in 31 tries in Joe Louis Arena.

Feb. 4, 2020: Elvis Merzlikins earns his fourth shutout in nine team games for the Blue Jackets as they post a 1-0 overtime victory vs. Florida at Nationwide Arena. Merzlikins makes 32 saves while Zach Werenski scores an unassisted goal in overtime on the Blue Jackets’ 45th shot on goal of the night.

The Numbers Game

Zach Werenski was first NHL defenseman to reach 60 points on the season, making him the fifth active blueliner to record that number in 50 or fewer games in a season. Werenski has points in 19 of the last 21 games (10-21-31) as well as 30 of the last 35 (15-35-50). He is tied for first among NHL defensemen in goals (19) and is first in points (61), second in average ice time (26:27) and is first in multipoint games (20, tied for seventh in NHL). With one more goal, he’ll notch his third 20-goal season and become the fourth active NHL defenseman with three-plus 20-goal seasons. … Charlie Coyle has nine goals and 15 points in the past 11 games, placing him tied for second in the NHL in tallies in that span. He has a 5-5-10 line in the last five contests and six games with at least three points this season. ... Mathieu Olivier notched his second two-goal game of the year Tuesday and the fourth of his career. ... With nine goals since joining the team, Mason Marchment has set a new franchise record for a player in his first 13 games with the Blue Jackets. ... Cole Sillinger has a 1-4-5 line in the last five games. ... Goaltender Jet Greaves has won five straight starts. ... Blue Jackets defensemen have scored 42 goals this season, the most in the NHL. … Columbus has scored the first goal in 18 of the last 24 contests and 33 of 55 games overall. ... The Blue Jackets are 5-1 in shootouts this year.

Know The Foe: Chicago Blackhawks

Head coach: Jeff Blashill (First season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 2.70 (26th) | Scoring defense: 3.14 (19th) | PP: 19.5 percent (19th) | PK: 85.6 percent (1st)

The narrative: The Blackhawks were the team of the early 2010s with Stanley Cups in 2010, ‘13 and ‘15, but a massive rebuild followed – led by the selection of Connor Bedard as the No. 1 overall pick in 2023 – once the roster aged. The Blackhawks haven’t made the postseason since 2020 or won a playoff series since the last Cup, but the massive capital of draft picks over the past few years has started to arrive. Bedard leads the way, but the young stockpile of players to make an NHL impact includes such names as Frank Nazar, Artyom Levshunov and Oliver Moore.

Scoring leaders: Bedard missed 13 games with a shoulder injury but was among the NHL's leading scorers in the early going, and he's still well over a point per game with 23 goals and 30 assists among his 53 points in year three. Tyler Bertuzzi leads the Blackhawks with 25 goals, while Andre Burakovsky (10-20-30) is the only other skater with more than 25 points. Levshunov, 20, was the No. 2 overall pick in 2024 and leads the defense with two goals and 21 points.

In net: One of the biggest reasons the Blackhawks have improved this season is the rise of goaltender Spencer Knight. Acquired last year in the Seth Jones deal, Knight is tied for fifth in the league with 38 starts and is 16-15-7 with a 2.61 GAA and .909 save percentage.

What's new: Chicago is eight points out of a playoff spot, but the Blackhawks are on pace for their best season since the shortened 2021 campaign. After a solid start to the campaign, the Blackhawks found January to be tough sledding, losing five straight games to end the month on a 3-7-2 spell. They did rebound to post a victory in their last game, downing San Jose by a 6-3 score Tuesday.

Trending: The Blue Jackets have won six straight in the series – out scoring Chicago 32-13 – and defeated the Blackhawks by a 5-3 score in Chicago on Friday.

Former CBJ: Nick Foligno is wearing the captain’s “C” in Chicago just as he did in Columbus, and the longtime CBJ fan favorite has a 2-8-10 line in 32 games after missing a long stretch with injury.