Don’t look now, but the Blue Jackets are a serious playoff threat

For a season that was marked with tragedy before the first puck dropped, the Columbus Blue Jackets played considerably well to end the 2024 portion of this season, and now a week into 2025, the Blue Jackets are sitting in a playoff spot.

Columbus has looked like a different club the last few weeks. After losing eight of nine games in early December, the Blue Jackets are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, including impressive wins against the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Veteran defender Zach Werenski leads the team with 46 points, but it’s Kirill Marchenko who has turned heads, scoring 17 goals and adding 28 assists for 45 points in 41 games, putting him on pace for a 90-point season.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss the Blue Jackets’ most recent run and how they could solidify a playoff spot for themselves in the Eastern Conference.

Tyler Yaremchuk: For a long time, the Washington Capitals were considered the Russian Machine, but is there a new one in the Columbus Blue Jackets? Powered by Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov and they were jokingly calling him “Sean Monahan-ov.” This team is red hot.

Frank Seravalli: Look, this Columbus Blue Jackets squad, sitting in a playoff spot on Jan. 8, I did not see this coming in my wildest expectations. This has been one of the best NHL stories of the last decade, that’s how good this team has played. They’re scrappy, they’re competitive, and can you imagine if they were actually able to win on the road?

They’re such a poor team that they’d be in a clear playoff spot if they were just close to .500 on the road. That part has been a little difficult to fathom, but you look at this situation here, it has been unbelievable what they’ve put together, taking steps I didn’t see coming.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…