One of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ strengths this season has been a high-scoring, well-balanced offense that has allowed them to outscore their defensive lapses, average goaltending and, on occasion, slow starts. But that’s never been the plan, or a pathway to success.
The Blue Jackets limped their way back to Columbus late Tuesday after winning just one game on a four-game road trip. There was a common thread to all three of the losses, especially the trip-ending 5-3 defeat to the New Jersey Devils before 15,630 in Prudential Center.
“We have to start better than we did here tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason told reporters in Newark, N.J.
The Devils led 1-0 at 6:37 of the first period, made it 2-0 at 10:49 and pushed it to 3-0 at 18:51, marking the second time this season the Blue Jackets have allowed three or more first-period goals. They pushed back hard in the second period, but it was too deep of a hole.
And that’s becoming a trend. Or at least it was on this four-game stretch, the last long road trip of the season.
The Jackets were down 2-0 only 97 seconds into the game one week ago in Tampa Bay, eventually losing 6-2. Two nights later, they were down 1-0 less than six minutes into the game on their way to a 3-0 loss against Florida, the defending Stanley Cup champs.
It wouldn’t be fair to skip over the Jackets’ big 7-3 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday, but they fell back into the slow-start trap on Tuesday against a New Jersey club they trailed by only four points in the Eastern Conference standings.
“We have to tighten up early,” Evason said. “We’re pushing. We want to be aggressive. We want to get in on the forecheck, all that good stuff. But we have to keep it out of the net first to give ourselves a chance.
“You can’t let the game get out of hand. We have to tighten up early in the game, get ourselves into the game properly, and then do what we do.”
Mathieu Olivier scored two goals and Kirill Marchenko added a goal for the Blue Jackets, who did push back in the second period, pulling to 3-2 after Olivier and Marchenko scored less than four minutes apart.
Marchenko’s goal, his career-high 25th of the season, was made possible by a stellar backhand pass through traffic by center Adam Fantilli, who threaded the puck through two Devils and put it right on Marchenko’s stick coming through the right circle.
MARCHY SCORES OFF AN UNREAL PASS FROM MO! 🤯@FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/k4EXgeg2af
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) March 12, 2025
“We liked how we pushed (in the second), but having said that, it doesn’t matter,” Evason said. “Timely, right? Bad timing that they score on those two opportunities. And we were thinking (at 4-2), if we can get that next goal …
“We were just fighting it all night. One of those games.”
As much as the Devils set the pace in the first period, they chased the play in the second. But New Jersey delivered a double whammy on both sides of the second intermission, and that pretty much ended it.
With 3:11 remaining in the second, New Jersey’s Timo Meier scored off the rush to make it 4-2. Then, only 26 seconds into the third, Luke Hughes sailed in a shot from above the left circle to make it 5-2.
“We can’t give up that one, first shift of the third,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “That’s our line. We can’t start a period like that.”
Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins did not have a strong road trip. Merzlikins was 13-5-2 in his 20 starts before the trip, but he went 0-3 with an .879 save percentage and a 4.09 goals-against average.
Elite goal scorer Mathieu Olivier 🔥@FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/FPnQs2y4Ww
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) March 12, 2025
One bright spot for the Blue Jackets was Mathieu Olivier, who signed a six-year, $18 million contract extension with the Jackets early in the trip.
He pulled the Blue Jackets to 5-3 midway through the third period when he outbattled New Jersey’s Dennis Cholowski behind the net, twisting away from a check and carrying the puck with one hand on his stick as he headed to the front of the net.
Olivier lofted a shot up and over Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom from tight range, scoring his 15th goal of the season. It was Olivier’s second two-goal game this season, and his third goal in two games.
The 15 goals are not only a career high, but three times his previous high.
“I tried to do my part,” Olivier said. “I scored two, but (New Jersey’s) fifth goal goes through my legs and I don’t get a piece of it, so you have to find a way to contribute every night and finish on the plus side. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get the win. That’s where my focus is at.”
Despite the loss, the Blue Jackets remain in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. But they’ve drifted six points back of the Devils for third place in the Metro. The New York Rangers, who lurk just two points behind Columbus, did the Jackets a favor by losing 2-1 in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
(Photo of Mathieu Olivier and Erik Haula: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
