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Columbus Blue Jackets need to start stacking up regulation wins. (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Blue Jackets Need to Start Stacking Regulation Wins Together

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Mark Scheig | Last updated Dec 6, 2025 11:05 AM ET

The Columbus Blue Jackets find themselves in a truly odd position in the NHL standings as they embark on an important weekend back-to-back on the East Coast. They take on the Florida Panthers Saturday afternoon and then fly up to Washington D.C. to take on the Capitals Sunday night.

Why is it an odd position in the standings for the Blue Jackets? That’s because every single team in the Metropolitan Division is on pace for at least 90 points two months into the season.

For perspective, recall it took 91 points for the Montreal Canadiens to grab the second wildcard spot last year. The team with the current lowest points percentage in the Metro, the New York Rangers, is on pace for about 91 points.

From a pure points perspective, the Blue Jackets enter play on Saturday last in the Metro with 31 points. At a .574 points percentage, they’re on a 94-point pace. The issue is the six teams above them are all .589 or better with four of them at .635 or better.

My word. What a start for the division. Head coach Dean Evason said postgame Thursday he’s never seen anything like this in a season parity wise.

But while the Blue Jackets only trail first place in the Metro by six, there is another factor in play that they are far behind on. While we’re only about a third of the way through the season, there is time to start fixing this aspect. But if they don’t fix this soon, it will make a potential path to the playoffs much harder.

What are we talking about? The Blue Jackets enter play on Saturday dead last in the Eastern Conference in regulation wins with just seven in 27 games. That’s a problem.

Regulation Wins Elusive

In the regulation win department, it was a brutally cold month for the Blue Jackets in November. In 15 games last month, they managed to win just twice in the first 60 minutes.

What were those two occurrences? On Nov 1, they held on to beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2. Then in their rematch against the Edmonton Oilers at home, the Blue Jackets held on for a 5-4 win. That’s it.

The Blue Jackets didn’t win a single game in regulation on the road in the month of November. While their road record is much better at this point in the season compared to last 7-6-2, they’ve also coughed up important points thanks to that stretch where they couldn’t hold a third-period lead.

The Blue Jackets did get a regulation win Monday in New Jersey. However, they needed another shootout to get the win on Thursday against the Red Wings. Overtime has been a major theme in this recent part of their schedule.

In their first 27 games, the Blue Jackets have gone past 60 minutes 11 times. They’re 2-4 in the 3-on-3 part and 4-1 in the shootout. They’ve earned 17 of a possible 22 points in games beyond regulation. That’s kept them in the race. Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko have had a major hand in that going 8/9 in the shootout between them.

Then there’s the other side of the argument. The Blue Jackets have allowed their opponents to gain at least a point also. And with each passing non-regulation win, they’re falling further behind in what the NHL uses as its first tiebreaker when determining the standings.

It’s a pretty bleak picture when you look at the Metro from the aspect of regulation wins. Here is what that looks like as of Saturday morning.

Capitals: 16
Penguins: 13
Hurricanes: 11
Islanders: 11
Rangers: 11
Devils: 10
Flyers: 8
Blue Jackets 7

With the exception of the Flyers, the Blue Jackets trail every other team in their division by three regulation wins. That means they’d have to finish with more points then those teams in order to finish above them.

The Blue Jackets cannot wait. They must start stacking regulation wins together. This is especially important in their division games.

The concept of a true four-point game is going to take on greater importance when the standings are as tight as they are. The teams that can both get regulations wins while avoiding regulation losses will have the best chance to make the playoffs.

Columbus Blue Jackets center Sean Monahan celebrates his goal against the New Jersey Devils (Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images)

The Blue Jackets do have at least a point in 18 of 27 games this season. One year ago today, they had points in 14 of 26. That is an improvement in avoiding regulation losses. They have six more points today than they did one year ago.

However, the Blue Jackets have fewer regulation wins this season (7) than they did at this time last season (9). This must be the focus for the rest of the season.

Final Thoughts

The Blue Jackets enter this weekend with 52 more games in the 2025-26 season. That’s not as much time as you’d think in terms of the regulation win aspect of this considering the ground they need to make up.

This is where the Blue Jackets’ ability to get a lead in games stands out. They have done that in a majority of their games this season. But this is also why blowing those leads have proven costly.

This season, it’s the difference between being last in the Metro or being near the top. The Blue Jackets can’t afford to keep letting regulation wins slip away.

The majority of their schedule for the rest of the season will be against their own conference and division. Given the closeness of the wildcard race, the Blue Jackets need to pile regulation wins against as many opponents as possible.

If you thought potentially missing the playoffs by two points was brutal, imagine if any team missed because they had enough points but lost on the first tiebreaker.

If the Blue Jackets don’t reverse this trend soon, that could be them come April.