The Blue Jackets continue to show how legit they are

The Columbus Blue Jackets continue to show the rest of the NHL just how good they are, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 Wednesday night, with Adam Fantilli scoring his first career NHL hat trick.

The Blue Jackets are now 23-18-7 with 53 points, fourth in the Metropolitan Division and currently holding on to the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Daily Faceoff managing editor Matt Larkin steps in for Frank Seravalli to take on co-hosting duties with Tyler Yaremchuk. The pair discuss the Blue Jackets’ win and if they’re a legit playoff contender in the Eastern Conference.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Columbus has an offense that ranks sixth in the league, and as I’m watching Elvis Merzlikins turn away chance after chance, stopping 28 of 29 shots against Toronto, I’m thinking that even if you believe the Blue Jackets offense dips down, there’s only 30-something games left for most of these teams. If the Blue Jackets can get a run of 10-to-15 good games out of Merzlikins, that will do ownders for their playoff chances.

Matt Larkin: I totally agree, and among all the teams in that dog fight, they’re my favorite candidate to make the playoffs. They have seven players with double digits in goals, and we’re just over halfway through the season.

Kirill Marchenko is turning into Mark Stone or Valeri Nichushkin before our very eyes. He’s scoring at better than a point per game, elite defense as a winger, and I’m seeing signs of not just a good team, but a deep team.

You’re going to get Sean Monahan back, and also Boone Jenner, your captain, has been out all season. That’s basically the equivalent of a really important trade deadline acquisition coming in for the stretch run.

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