PREVIEW: Streaking Blue Jackets welcome Rangers to Nationwide

The Blue Jackets aren’t lacking for confidence right now, and why would they be? 

Columbus enters tonight’s home game against the New York Rangers riding a 10-game point streak (6-0-4) and having earned points in 21 of the last 23 games (17-2-4). The Blue Jackets have jumped from last place in the Eastern Conference to just one point out of a playoff spot, and they’ve done it by playing a team game marked by team defense, forechecking and puck possession. 

The latest feather in their cap came Tuesday in a 5-1 win at Nationwide Arena over a Carolina team that’s well on its way to a fourth Metropolitan Division title in the last six seasons. 

“It was a good measuring stick for our group,” forward Mathieu Olivier said. “They’ve been the standard for a while as far as performing in the regular season and really just being a staple at the top of our division, so for us to go head-to-head with them and pull a performance like we did, that’s really good.” 

Head coach Rick Bowness said that confidence comes from a belief in what the Blue Jackets are doing. The team has fine-tuned its game over the past two months to the point the players on the bench, not the coaching staff, are often the ones correcting things when they go astray. 

"They know what we look like when we're playing well, and I hear it on the bench and I hear it in the locker room," Bowness said.

Before the game against Carolina, the biggest question was whether a CBJ team that had dominated puck possession on a three-game road trip would be able to do the same against a Hurricanes team known for that. Bowness’ pregame message, though, was that while Carolina is well-known for a style it has honed over the past eight seasons, the Blue Jackets measure up just as well, and Columbus went out and proved it. 

“We can’t forget the fact that we are a really, really good team, too,” center Charlie Coyle said. “I think sometimes that can get overlooked, maybe because we’re not in a playoff position, but the way we’ve been playing we have to have that confidence. I think Bones with that comment, just saying that, it kind of switches gears. Like, ‘Hey, why wait for them to see what we bring? We know what we bring, and let’s go do it and see what happens.’ 

“Then to get a result like that only feeds into the confidence we have in this room and the way we’ve been playing lately.”

Scratches: Dmitri Voronkov, Miles Wood, Jake Christiansen, Egor Zamula  

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

Roster Report: The Blue Jackets were off Wednesday but it would be hard to expect any changes to the lineup after Tuesday’s win. We’ll see what Bowness has to say at the team’s morning skate. 

This Day in CBJ History

March 19, 2001: David Vyborny scores his second penalty shot goal of the team’s inaugural season, beating Nashville’s Tomas Vokoun with 1:59 to go. The goal pulls the Blue Jackets within one at 2-1, but the Predators go on to complete the win at Nationwide Arena. Vyborny becomes the first rookie in NHL history to score on two penalty shots in the same season. 

March 19, 2002: Columbus acquires defenseman Jaroslav Spacek and a second-round pick in the 2003 NHL Draft from Chicago for captain and defenseman Lyle Odelein. 

March 19, 2011: Antoine Vermette scores an unassisted goal past Nicklas Backstrom with 34 seconds left in overtime to clinch a 5-4 win at Minnesota. Rick Nash scores two goals and adds two assists for a four-point night. 

March 19, 2017: The Blue Jackets score two penalty shot goals for the only time in franchise history in a 4-1 victory at New Jersey that gives Columbus 100 points on the season and clinches a playoff spot for the squad. Lukas Sedlak scores on a penalty shot in the first period and Brandon Dubinsky does the same past Cory Schneider in the second. The game is John Tortorella’s 1,000th as an NHL head coach, making him the 26th coach to reach the mark.  

March 19, 2018: Cam Atkinson’s overtime goal completes a 5-4 CBJ win at Boston that extends the Blue Jackets’ winning streak to eight games. Columbus rallies from a 3-1 second-period deficit as Boone Jenner and Thomas Vanek each post a goal and assist.  

The Numbers Game

Kirill Marchenko scored his 100th career goal Saturday at Philadelphia, becoming the ninth CBJ player to reach 100 goals with the team and the second fastest (276 games; Rick Nash, 237). He has points in 12 of the last 15 games (7-9-16), is tied for the league lead with six shootout goals and has scored on 10 of 15 career shootout attempts, the best mark in NHL history (minimum 10 attempts). He is two assists from 100 in his career and two points from 200. ... Zach Werenski is one of two NHL defensemen (Cale Makar, Colorado) with at least 20 goals (20) and 60 points (69) on the season, tying for second among league blueliners in both categories. Werenski has points in 25 of his last 30 games (11-28-39) as well as 36 of the last 44 (16-42-58). He leads NHL defensemen in multipoint games (22, tied for 13th overall in NHL). … Charlie Coyle notched his third four-point game (1-3-4) of the season Tuesday vs. Carolina, tying Artemi Panarin’s CBJ single-season record. He has 11 goals and 30 points in the past 23 games as well as a 7-18-25 line in the last 18 contests, placing him fifth in the NHL in points in that span. ... Conor Garland has four goals in the last five games. … Adam Fantilli has goals in six of the last 11 games and posted a 7-12-19 line in the last 17 games. ... Jet Greaves is 10-0-2 in his last 13 appearances with a 2.29 GAA, while Elvis Merzlikins is 7-2-2 in his last 12 with a 2.54 GAA. ... Mathieu Olivier has nine goals in the last 16 games. … Blue Jackets defensemen have scored 50 goals this season, the most in the NHL, and Columbus is one of five teams to have two defensemen score at least 10 goals this season. … Columbus has scored the first goal in 27 of the last 36 contests and leads the league by scoring first in 42 of 66 games overall. ... Columbus is 7-0-3 in its last 10 home games, the second longest home point streak in franchise history, and 10-1-4 since the start of 2026. ... The Blue Jackets are 6-1 in shootouts this year. ... Boone Jenner has 204 career assists, tied with David Vyborny for third most in team history, and 208 career goals, five behind Cam Atkinson for second in team history. 

Know The Foe: New York Rangers

Head coach: Mike Sullivan (First season)     

Team stats: Goals per game: 2.79 (25th) | Scoring defense: 3.16 (22nd) | PP: 24.3 percent (6th) | PK: 77.6 percent (25th)      

The narrative: The Rangers have been maddeningly inconsistent the past few seasons, as New York sits in last place in the Metropolitan Division and is on the way to missing the playoffs for the fifth time in the past nine seasons despite also having a pair of conference finals appearances in that span as well. After a hot start last year, New York has traded such mainstays as captain Jacob Trouba, longtime forward Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin over the past two seasons and is looking at an offseason rebuild or retool.  

Scoring leaders: Mika Zibanejad has passed Panarin (19-38-57 in 52 games at the time of his trade to Los Angeles) for the team lead in both goals and points while posting a 28-36-64 line. U.S. Olympian Vincent Trocheck follows with 14 goals and 47 points in 52 games, while fellow gold medalist and Ohio native J.T. Miller has 14 goals among 39 points. With six goals and 11 points in the last eight games, Alexis Lafrenière has a 19-26-45 line, while Adam Fox leads the defense with 35 points in 40 games.  

In net: Igor Shesterkin has again played to the form that’s made him a top-10 Vezina choice in three of the last four seasons, going 22-13-6 with a 2.50 GAA and .913 save percentage, and he'll likely get the nod tonight. Jonathan Quick played his 23rd contest of the year last night in a loss at New Jersey, and he's posted a record of 5-16-2. 

What's new: Sitting in last place in the Metropolitan Division, the Rangers nonetheless come into Columbus on a bit of a hot streak, winning five of six from March 5-14 and scoring at least six goals in three of those victories before dropping two straight. New York also has seven power-play goals in the last six games, so the Blue Jackets will have to be on their toes on the PK. Rookie Gabriel Perreault, a first-round pick in 2023, has found his offensive game, posting four multipoint efforts in the last nine games (4-7-11). 

Trending: Both previous games in the season series went to overtime, with the Rangers becoming the only team this year to beat the Blue Jackets in a shootout Nov. 15 in a 2-1 final at Nationwide Arena, while Columbus posted a 5-4 overtime win March 2 in Madison Square Garden.  

Former CBJ: Vladislav Gavrikov signed a seven-year contract this offseason and has a 14-17-31 line in 68 games, scoring five times in the last nine, while goalie Spencer Martin appeared in six contests because of injuries.