Winning Thoughts: Blue Jackets move into a playoff spot with victory over Rangers

After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets' victory. 

BLUE JACKETS 6, RANGERS 3

1. The Blue Jackets can see the summit of the mountain, but there’s still a long way to go. 

When Rick Bowness took over as head coach on Jan. 12, Columbus was tied for last place in the Eastern Conference. With Thursday night’s win over the Rangers, the Blue Jackets pulled into a playoff spot, tying the New York Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division with a game in hand.  

The Blue Jackets improved to 17-2-4 during Bowness’ tenure with the victory over the Rangers, but it was a slow and arduous journey to get back on the right side of the playoff line. The loaded Eastern Conference has not made it an easy trek, but the Blue Jackets have points in 11 straight games (7-0-4) and will wake up Friday as one of the top eight teams in the standings. 

Zach Werenski is the Blue Jackets’ resident standings checker, and by the time he met with the media after the game, he was well aware of where the CBJ stood. But there was very little celebration, as nothing is assured until the Blue Jackets finish the job. 

“We’re just going to keep pushing and keep playing our game,” Werenski said. “We’re just gonna try to take it day by day and game by game and win every game we can. At the end of the season, we’ll see wherever the chips fall, but we’ve put in a lot of hard work. We’ve come a long way from where we were.” 

Indeed, the last 14 games of the season will tell if this incredible run will return Columbus to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2020. After all, the Blue Jackets still have six games against the teams they’re battling, with two to go against Boston, two more against Montreal, and single contests vs. Detroit and the Islanders. 

Neither captain Boone Jenner nor Adam Fantilli was aware of the standings when they had their postgame chats, but they both had similar messages as Werenski. 

"That's great,” Fantilli said when told the Blue Jackets had usurped the Islanders. “Awesome. But we're not going to change anything, just keep doing the same thing. That's what got us here, so just gonna keep climbing." 

“There's no X besides our name, so we're going to keep going," Jenner said. “No matter where we’re at in the standings, it’s not until the last game is over where you’re going to stand. For us, it’s not letting off the gas and continuing to go out and continuing to build on what we have going here.” 

2. The Blue Jackets’ depth was highlighted again vs. the Rangers, with 11 players getting on the scoresheet. 

President and hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell deserves some credit, as he’s added such names as Charlie Coyle, Mason Marchment, Conor Garland, Danton Heinen and Miles Wood to a team that finished just shy of a playoff appearance a season ago. 

The result is a roster that rolls four lines deep up front, and that’s with such legitimate NHL players as Dmitri Voronkov and Miles Wood out of the lineup, plus Zach Aston-Reese and Brendan Gaunce down in the American Hockey League. 

Think of it this way – Jenner is one of the most decorated players in CBJ history, and he’s currently centering the team’s checking line. 

“I think that’s one of the best parts about our team is how deep we are,” Fantilli said. “You go all the way down the lineup, Boone is a 30-goal scorer and he’s technicaly our fourth-line center. That’s unbelievable.” 

As for that so-called fourth line, the trio of Jenner, Heinen and Isac Lundeström again turned in a huge performance against the Rangers with a pair of goals. After a fast start was deflated by a shorthanded tally by the Rangers, Lundeström got the CBJ party started with a snipe past the glove of the previously unbeatable Igor Shesterkin.

Once the Rangers tied things at two in the second period, Jenner gave the Blue Jackets the lead for good when he followed his own rebound to the net and got it past Shesterkin. 

Adding in Heinen’s tally Tuesday vs. Carolina, that line now has three goals in two games. 

“We feel good together,” Jenner said. “We feel like the last few games, we’ve been creating that energy and playing to our strengths by just getting it down low and just getting opportunities off of that, so kind of knocking on the door there. Lundy has a huge goal there in the first period when there’s not much going on for us other than those early power plays. We just get to our forecheck and he scores a huge one for us.” 

In all, as noted, 11 different players got on the scoresheet against New York, led by three assists by Werenski and a pair of goals by Fantilli. Jenner added a goal and an assist, while Lundeström and Conor Garland scored and Damon Severson tallied an NHL-best 51st goal by a CBJ defenseman this year. 

“We’re not relying on one line to carry the team,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “We’re not relying on one guy to carry the team. We have really good balance.” 

3. The Blue Jackets showed they can win without playing their best game against the Rangers. 

If you look at the blueprint of how Bowness wants his team to play, it would be the way the Blue Jackets hit the ice Tuesday against Carolina. Columbus out-Hurricaned the Hurricanes, using constant puck pressure to stifle the opposition on the way to a 5-1 win. 

Thursday’s game against the Rangers was a bit more wide-open, with a number of crazy bounces, weird plays and penalties that stilted any true flow to the proceedings. In the end, the Blue Jackets weren’t quite as sharp defensively as against the Hurricanes, but they got the job done. 

“It wasn’t our best,” Werenski said. “I definitely don’t think it was bad by any means. I feel like maybe a little sloppy – sloppier than we’ve been in recent games, but this time of year, you take the two points and you learn from it with a win. It’s way better than learning from a loss, so it was good enough to get the win and get the job done, but there are definitely some things we can tighten up moving forward here.” 

It was still a pretty strong performance, with the Blue Jackets outshooting the Rangers by a 37-25 margin. Six goals also went in the net – including three at 5-on-5, one at 4-on-4, another on the power play and the last into an empty cage – so it’s fair to say Columbus did more than enough to win. 

But they also know they can be better, which might be a scary thought for the rest of the teams in the East’s playoff race.  

“I think we played a lot quicker and gave up less on Tuesday, but it’s a big win nonetheless,” Jenner said. “A huge two points for us at this time of year. We’ll take it and keep building on it.”