PREVIEW: Blue Jackets begin final road trip against Red Wings

For the Blue Jackets, the last few games have been a little bit like one of those finger trap toys. 

The harder the team has pushed to get out of its six-game losing streak, the worse it’s gotten. 

Sometimes, you have to work smarter, not harder, and that might be the situation the Blue Jackets find themselves heading into tonight’s crucial game at Detroit. The frustration of losing control of their own destiny in the Stanley Cup playoff race – and scoring just 10 goals in the last six games – has led to individual play creeping into the team’s game, and it’s meant the squad just hasn’t been on the same page. 

And when that's the case, you have a team that's simply pushing and working too hard to make things happen. 

“I was talking with some of the guys, and I feel like the last however many games were probably the hardest we’ve worked, which is crazy to say,” defenseman Zach Werenski said. “But that’s probably just because we were the most disconnected. I feel like you almost have to work harder when you’re not connected.  

“When it’s flowing and it’s easy and you’re breaking pucks out and you’re getting it back and you’re playing a three-quarter ice game, the game is a lot easier. So I feel like the results aren’t there, but I feel like we’re working probably harder than we have all year. It’s just not going, and it’s not for any other reason than we’re just not connected. The game is a lot easier when all five guys on the ice are on the same page and you’re just flowing.” 

So how do the Blue Jackets get that connection back? That’s the biggest thing they must find as they embark on five games over the next eight days that will decide whether postseason hockey returns to Columbus or the team deals with another offseason of what ifs.

Even with the recent swoon, the Blue Jackets remain in the mix in the Eastern Conference, just two points behind Philadelphia (third in the Metropolitan Division) and Ottawa, which holds the final wild card spot.  

The Blue Jackets just finished a stretch in which they played 19 games in 34 days, so the time to recharge and recalibrate over the past two days could be beneficial. The team was off Easter Sunday and then staged an optional practice on Monday, following the same schedule it used when it last had three days between games in mid-March, then downed Carolina, the New York Rangers and Seattle in the next five days. 

“It’s huge,” Bowness said. “You look at the last time we took this two-day break, we did the same thing. We gave them the day off, then we had an optional skate. The most important thing is do what you have to do to get ready for tomorrow night, so we gave them the optional today, and tomorrow it’ll be the same thing.  

“When we came out of that two-day break, one of our best games of the year was Carolina, 5-1. Then we beat the Rangers and we won three in a row. So we’re hoping to get the same results, but regardless, everything’s focused on Detroit, and these two days are beneficial for us.” 

In many ways, tonight feels like a must-win, as the Red Wings enter tied with the Blue Jackets with 88 points, and both squads are chasing the teams above them. Both teams have struggled to get wins of late and should be desperate, so whichever team finds its game first will be the one to have success.” 

“I’m expecting a great atmosphere, and I’m expecting a great hockey game,” said Werenski, a Detroit native. “I know the character we have in that room. At some point it’s gonna flip. It’s just gotta flip (tonight). I’m excited to see how we respond to all this and all the conversations and everything. We know it’s in there, it’s just doing it and pulling it out, and we believe in it.”

Scratches: Luca Del Bel Belluz, Kent Johnson, Mathieu Olivier (upper body injury), Dmitri Voronkov (upper body injury), Damon Severson (shoulder surgery, out for season), Egor Zamula 

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

Roster Report: The Blue Jackets used the above lineup Saturday night, but Bowness said the forward lines will all be different heading into this one as the Blue Jackets look to recapture some offense, so we’ll have to see how those shake out when the team takes the ice for morning skate today.  

This Day in CBJ History  

April 7, 2006: Rick Nash posts the first hat trick in his career, scoring three goals – including the tying tally with 33 seconds to go – in a 6-5 shootout loss at Detroit. Nash also becomes the first CBJ player in team history to notch a hat trick in a losing effort.  

April 7, 2007: The Blue Jackets sign both Jared Boll and Derek Dorsett to entry level contracts. The two would go on to combine for 1,922 penalty minutes while wearing the union blue sweater.  

The Numbers Game  

Zach Werenski has moved into fifth place in CBJ single-season annals with 78 points this year. With 21 goals and 57 assists – two short of tying the franchise record – he is tied for third among NHL defensemen in goals and second in points. He leads NHL defensemen with 25 multipoint games and has tied Artemi Panarin’s team record set in 2018-19. ... Denton Mateychuk scored his 13th goal of the season Thursday, placing him sixth all-time among CBJ defensemen in a single season. He is just the third CBJ D to reach that mark (Werenski, four times; Seth Jones, once). ... Adam Fantilli has nine goals in the last 21 games and posted a 10-15-25 line in the last 27 contests. He has set a new career high in points with 55 and has five goals in seven career games vs. Detroit. ... Kirill Marchenko is second in the NHL with six shootout goals and has scored on 10 of 16 career shootout attempts, third among all active NHLers and fourth best in league history (minimum 10 attempts). He has five points in the last four games (1-4-5). ... Mason Marchment has a 2-5-7 line in the last six games. ... Charlie Coyle has 12 goals and 31 points in the past 33 games. ... Jet Greaves is 12-4-3 in his last 20 appearances with a 2.34 GAA, as well as a .920 save percentage in his last nine games. ... Blue Jackets defensemen have scored 57 goals this season, the most in the NHL and a new franchise record. … Columbus has scored first in 46 of 77 games overall, second behind Washington for the most in the NHL. ... Jenner has 210 career goals, three behind Cam Atkinson for second in team history. ... Coyle (fourth, 406) and Provorov (seventh, 370) are both in the top 10 among active NHLers in consecutive games played. Provorov is set to play in his 242nd consecutive game with the Blue Jackets, which would pass Antoine Vermette for third in franchise history and put him one behind Jason Chimera for second. ... Miles Wood is one goal from 100 and four points from 200 in his NHL career. 

Know The Foe: Detroit Red Wings   

Head coach: Todd McLellan (Second season)      

Team stats: Goals per game: 2.90 (22nd) | Scoring defense: 3.00 (T-10th) | PP: 22.0 percent (13th) | PK: 77.3 percent (25th)       

The narrative: The Red Wings enter today’s game tied with the Blue Jackets with 88 points, two shy of the playoff line; will it be another close but no cigar finish for Detroit? The Wings missed the playoffs by five points a year ago and lost out on a tiebreaker in 2023-24, and it’s been since 2015-16 that the playoffs visited Hockeytown. That’s a far cry from the 25-year streak of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs that immediately preceded that run, and Little Caesars Arena is yet to host a postseason game.  

Scoring leaders: The usual suspects are at the top of the chart for Detroit, led by one of the league’s top pure goal scorers in Alex DeBrincat, who is two short of a career high and 10th in the NHL this year with 39 goals. He adds 42 assists for 81 points, a new career best. Lucas Raymond could reach a second straight 80-point season with a 25-48-73 line, while captain Dylan Larkin has notched his fifth straight 30-goal season with a 30-29-59 line. Moritz Seider leads the defense with 54 points (nine goals, 45 assists), while Patrick Kane has a 15-37-52 line in 62 games.  

In net: The game of musical chairs in the Detroit net that has marked the franchise since the end of the Jimmy Howard era has settled on John Gibson, who has taken over the starting job in his first year with the Red Wings and is 28-20-3 with a 2.62 GAA and .904 SV%. Cam Talbot has made just three starts since the Olympic break and is 12-9-5 on the year with a 3.09 GAA and .888 SV%, 

What's new: The Red Wings were 32-16-5 and leading the Atlantic Division the night of Jan. 24, but Detroit is just 8-13-3 since then and enters having lost six of eight. The goal scoring and power play have largely dried up over the last 24 games, with Detroit averaging just 2.42 goals per game and converting on 15.7 percent of power plays in that span. 

Trending: Both games so far this year in the series have required overtime, as Detroit posted a 4-3 OT win in the Motor City back on Nov. 22 before the Blue Jackets countered with a 6-5 shootout victory Dec. 4 in Columbus. The Blue Jackets are 3-0-1 in the last four matchups.

Former CBJ: After spending last season with the Blue Jackets, veteran forward James van Riemsdyk signed with the Red Wings and has 15 goals and 30 points in 67 games.