PREVIEW: Blue Jackets welcome Caps for Friday night hockey

If one is chance, two is coincidence and three is a pattern, the Blue Jackets hope to establish a pattern tonight when they host the Capitals.

In sports, that could be better known as a winning streak, and Columbus has the opportunity to make it three triumphs in a row when their Metropolitan Division rival comes to town. But more importantly, the Blue Jackets just want to keep playing the way they have the past two games in the victories over Tampa Bay and Dallas.

That style? Fast, aggressive and competitive, all attributes that served the Jackets well in the victories, which were also conspicuously absent when the team never got to its game last Thursday vs. Colorado.

“After Colorado, we saw our mistakes and the next day we worked on it,” goaltender Elvis Merzlikins said after the win over Dallas. “Next game, I think we did a better job and tonight again – we were skating, we were fast, we were blocking the shots and we did everything right.”

Head coach Dean Evason has spoken about how the Blue Jackets felt that last Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Avs was missing the competitive level needed for the team to win. The most encouraging thing for him was that while the coaches pushed a few buttons in the team’s ensuing practice to get back on the right track, the players were the ones driving the bus and knew what had to be done.

Since then, the Blue Jackets have earned a pair of wins against teams that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs a season ago thanks to two solid performances.

“It’s just the reinforcement,” Evason said after beating Dallas. “We backed up the other night when we played hard, we competed and played the right way. Again, to get rewarded, that is great for the group.”

And maybe the biggest key to the team’s success is its attention to detail when it comes to keeping the puck out of the net. Columbus was 25th in the NHL a season ago in team defense, but the Blue Jackets have allowed just six goals this year at 5-on-5, the best mark in the league. In the last two wins for the Jackets, Tampa Bay and Dallas combined for just 47 shots on goal and three tallies.

“Structurally, we have seen some buy-in, some attention to detail,” Evason said. “As you guys know and watch, we work on all aspects of our game, but the defensive area, we’ve worked on a lot here early through camp and early in the year here.”

Scratches: Miles Wood (upper body), Jake Christiansen

Injured reserve/Non-Roster: None

Roster Report: Gudbranson is set to return to the lineup in place of Christiansen after missing four games with an upper-body injury, while Wood skated with the team Thursday as he works his way back to action. The CBJ goalie rotation will continue with Greaves getting the start.

This Day in CBJ History

Oct. 24, 2012: John Davidson is named president of hockey operations and alternate governor of the Blue Jackets.

Oct. 24, 2019: Cam Atkinson scores in overtime as the Blue Jackets post a 4-3 win over Carolina at Nationwide Arena.

The Numbers Game

Kirill Marchenko has a five-game point streak (5-2-7) and is the third player in CBJ history with five goals in the first six games, joining Rick Nash in 2008 and Ryan Johansen in 2014. His tally Saturday vs. Tampa Bay moved him into 10th place alone in Blue Jackets franchise history with 80 goals. ... The Blue Jackets have won 52.8 percent of faceoffs this season, good for seventh in the NHL. ... Dmitri Voronkov has points in five of six games so far while posting a 3-3-6 line. ... CBJ goalie Jet Greaves has posted a .928 save percentage on the season while Elvis Merzlikins is at .927. The team’s overall goalie save percentage of .927 is third in the NHL. ... With a goal and assist at Dallas, Boone Jenner moved into second place in CBJ history with 82 career multipoint games. ... The Blue Jackets have outscored opponents 13-6 at 5-on-5 thus far. ... Charlie Coyle is one assist shy of 300 in his NHL career, while Zach Aston-Reese is one point shy of 100 and Dante Fabbro is two points shy of 100. Sean Monahan is four points from 600 in his career.

Know The Foe: Washington Capitals

Head coach: Spencer Carbery (Third season)

Team stats: Goals per game: 3.00 (T-16th) | Scoring defense: 1.86 (T-1st) | PP: 18.2 percent (23rd) | PK: 70.6 percent (24th)

The narrative: You could have been forgiven if you thought the Caps’ run among the NHL elite was over. The retirements of Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie marked the end of an era in DC, and Washington didn’t win a playoff series in the six seasons after capturing the 2018 Stanley Cup. Then came last year’s renaissance in which the legendary Alex Ovechkin set the NHL’s all-time goals record, the Capitals coasted to the Metropolitan Division title and Washington won its opening series vs. Montreal. The Caps fell to Carolina in the second round and didn’t reach their ultimate goal, but another solid start to the season has them thinking big yet again.

Scoring leaders: Ovechkin stole most of the headlines with 44 goals, including the record breaker, a year ago, but the career-best campaigns of Dylan Strome (29-53-82) and Aliaksei Protas (30-36-66) were just as important to the team success. This season, Tom Wilson leads the way with four goals and 10 points in the first six games, with Strome (2-7-9) and Protas (4-4-8) right behind. Jacob Chychrun is tied for the NHL lead among defensemen with three goals in the early going, while Ovechkin has a goal and five points.

In net: Just like Columbus, Washington has utilized a strong goalie tandem for the second year in a row. Logan Thompson leads the way with a 4-1-0 record, 1.60 GAA and .927 save percentage, while Charlie Lindgren has a 2.04 GAA, .932 save percentage and the team’s lone shutout to his record in two appearances.

What's new: Ovechkin’s run at making history is far from over, as at 898 career goals scored, he needs just two to become the first NHL player to reach 900. The Caps made some changes over the offseason, saying goodbye to forwards Andrew Mangiapane, Lars Eller and Taylor Raddysh while bringing in Justin Sourdif up front. The biggest addition, though, has been rookie forward Ryan Leonard, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2023 draft who has three goals thus far.

Trending: Columbus went 2-1-1 a season ago against Washington, including a pair of wins on back-to-back days in April – a 7-0 victory in Nationwide Arena on April 12 followed by a 4-1 triumph a day later in DC. That marked a bit of a sea change, as the Blue Jackets were just 2-7-2 against the Caps the previous three seasons.

Former CBJ: After a 66-point campaign a year ago, Pierre-Luc Dubois has played just three games without a point this season and missed the last four with a lower-body injury. Sonny Milano had an injury-plagued 2024-25 campaign and has played in four contests this season without a point.