PREVIEW: Blue Jackets finish 2025 by hosting Devils

The Blue Jackets did the little things right and were rewarded with a victory Monday night in Ottawa.

Perhaps most encouraging, though, was the performance continued a trend.

For the third game in a row, Columbus managed the game, made the right plays at key times, and then celebrated a win at the end of the night. So while much was made of the team’s travel difficulties ahead of the 4-1 victory against the Senators, perhaps the bigger story was that the Blue Jackets delivered another 60-minute effort worthy of a victory at the NHL level.

“It’s not just tonight, it’s the last few games here,” captain Boone Jenner said. “We’re honing in on those little details that you need to master to win games in this league. I just like the effort. That’s all it is. X’s and O’s are one thing, but the battle level, the compete are what’s going to get us through, and I think you saw that tonight.”

That effort certainly was there in spades, as the Blue Jackets came in waves and never let the Senators’ high-powered offense get going. Columbus also got the job done at the important times of the game, scoring the first goal, killing three Ottawa power plays in the second as the Senators threatened to gain momentum, tallying in the opening two minutes of both the second and third periods, and then finishing the game with a staunch defensive effort in the third period.

That’s in contrast to much of November and December, as the Blue Jackets went 7-11-6 from Nov. 2-Dec. 20 not because they were consistently overwhelmed on the ice but because they committed mistakes at critical times that seemed to end up in the back of the net.

“I would agree with that,” head coach Dean Evason said. “We’d be in position or whatever, and then we’d lose a guy off a check or we’d turn a puck over, as you know. Now we’re in those situations, we’re doing the right things. We’re putting the puck in positions where if we do turn it over, it doesn’t end up in our net because it’s not in the middle of the ice, or we’re simplifying at the right times in the hockey games.”

Another encouraging sign is that the Blue Jackets won another third period, notching the only two goals of the final frame against the Senators. After boasting an NHL-worst minus-23 goal differential in the third period through the first 35 games of the season, Columbus has outscored its last three foes by a 6-0 margin.

“We’re changing that narrative little by little, game by game, just trying to do whatever we can to make sure we keep continuing to play aggressively and play the way we need to play to be successful and now let the other team dictate the game,” defenseman Damon Severson said. “We’re confident. We’re trying to do the right things we need to do to be successful, and it paid off the last few (games).”

The Blue Jackets have a chance to match a season-high four-game win streak tonight as they welcome division rival New Jersey to Nationwide Arena. Columbus is 12-6-1 all-time on New Year’s Eve and has won four straight on Dec. 31.

Scratches: F Zach Aston-Reese, D Brendan Smith (lower body injury)

Injured reserve/Non-Roster: D Erik Gudbranson (upper body injury); D Zach Werenski (lower body injury); F Isac Lundeström (lower body injury)

Roster Report: Smith suffered an injury late in Monday’s win at Ottawa, likely prompting the recall of Mayo, while Monahan did not play in Monday night's win but could return tonight. Werenski remains day-to-day and is eligible to return off injured reserve whenever he feels ready to play, while Lundeström was placed on IR Tuesday and is considered week-to-week.

This Day in CBJ History

Dec. 31, 2007: Rick Nash notches his second career hat trick in a 4-2 win vs. Edmonton in Nationwide Arena.

Dec. 31, 2008: Steve Mason earns his third consecutive shutout, stopping 27 shots in a 2-0 victory at Anaheim. He is the first goalie in team history to post three straight blankings, part of a franchise-record shutout streak of 199:19.

Dec. 31, 2016: The Blue Jackets win their 15th straight game, snapping the Wild’s 12-game winning streak with a 4-2 win at Minnesota in the first-ever game in any of the four major North American professional sports leagues to feature two teams on winning streaks of at least 12 games.

Dec. 31, 2018: Columbus ties a franchise record for goals in a period with five tallies in the third in a 6-3 win vs. Ottawa. Pierre-Luc Dubois breaks a 1-1 tie after 40 minutes with a pair of goals, Zach Werenski adds his second of the game to give the Jackets a 4-3 lead with 2:01 to go, and Cam Atkinson and Josh Anderson add empty-net goals.

Dec. 31, 2019: The Blue Jackets ruin Sergei Bobrovsky’s return to Nationwide Arena, as Werenski notches his first career hat trick and Elvis Merzlikins earns his first career win in net in a 4-1 victory over Florida.

Dec. 31, 2022: Gus Nyquist becomes the first Blue Jackets player to score two shorthanded goals in a game, leading the Blue Jackets to a 4-1 win over Chicago in Nationwide Arena.

The Numbers Game

Mason Marchment (three goals, two assists) is the third player to begin his CBJ career with a four-game point streak, joining Zach Werenski in 2016 and Antoine Vermette in 2009. ... Kirill Marchenko has a three-game goal streak, one short of a career high, and four total tallies in that span. ... Blue Jackets defensemen have scored 31 goals this season, the most in the NHL. … Damon Severson (1-5-6) and Denton Mateychuk (1-4-5) each have four-game point streaks. ... Goaltender Jet Greaves has a 2.20 GAA and .923 save percentage in nine December appearances. ... Adam Fantilli has scored 36 goals in 2025, fourth most ever by a CBJ player in a calendar year behind just Rick Nash (43 in 2009, and 39 in 2006) and Cam Atkinson (42 in 2018). ... The Blue Jackets have killed 18 of 19 penalties (94.7 percent) over the last six games. ... Miles Wood is one goal away from 100 in his NHL career, while Jenner is one point away from becoming the fourth player in team history with 400 points after Nash (547), Werenski (424) and Atkinson (402). ... Werenski is second among NHL defensemen in goals (14) and points (40), shots on goal (132) and average ice time (26:48) and is first in multipoint games (14). He has points in 16 of his last 19 games (10-19-29) and a 5-11-16 line in December to sit one shy of tying his own CBJ record for points in a month by a defenseman (17 in January 2025). ... He is also three assists shy of becoming the first CBJ player to notch 300 career helpers.

Know The Foe: New Jersey Devils

Head coach: Sheldon Keefe (Second season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 2.64 (27th) | Scoring defense: 3.03 (15th) | PP: 20.6 percent (11th) | PK: 75.7 percent (T-28th)

The narrative: New Jersey made the playoffs just once from 2013-22, then was the surprise squad of the 2023 season, setting a franchise record with 112 points. The Devils missed the playoffs in 2024 but placed third in the Metro and returned to the postseason a season ago, where an injury to star forward Jack Hughes helped lead to their first-round demise. If healthy, this is a team talented enough to compete with the upper echelon of the NHL, but injuries have been a key piece of the team’s story the past two seasons.

Scoring leaders: Hughes has returned after being out for more than a month with a hand injury, and one of the NHL’s most dangerous forwards has a 11-10-21 line in 21 games. Jesper Bratt remains one of the most underrated players in the NHL, as he’s followed last year’s 88-point season with a team-best line of 8-23-31. Captain Nico Hischier (10-20-30), Dawson Mercer (10-14-24) and Timo Meier (11-12-23) follow, while Luke Hughes leads the defense with 19 points including three goals.

In net: Jake Allen re-signed with the Devils in the offseason and has impressed so far this year, as the 35-year-old is 10-8-1 in 19 starts with a 2.54 GAA and .910 save percentage. The arrival of Jacob Markström helped solidify things in the New Jersey net a year ago, but the veteran is 9-9-1 with a 3.32 GAA and .884 SV% this season.

What's new: Jack Hughes returned to action Dec. 21 but it’s been a brutal month of December for the Devils, who are 4-9-1 and averaging just 1.86 goals per game. They’ve lost all four games since Hughes’ return, and injuries continue to be an issue with forward Evgenii Dadonov and defensemen Simon Nemec and Johnathan Kovacevic on the shelf. The setbacks have left the Devils three points back of a playoff spot heading into tonight's action.

Trending: Columbus went on the road and rallied to a 5-3 win at New Jersey on Dec. 1 in a game that featured four separate fights, while the Devils won in Nationwide Arena by a 3-2 score in the CBJ home opener Oct. 13. New Jersey has had the upper hand in recent years, as the Blue Jackets are just 3-8-1 over the past three-plus seasons after going 24-7-1 over the first eight years of Metropolitan Division play.

Former CBJ: None