We are down to the final four.
For the Columbus Blue Jackets, they face four games in the next six nights to determine if they will be a participant in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It all begins on Thursday night when they take on the Atlantic-leading Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.
For the Blue Jackets, it’s simple. They need to win. And they also need a little bit of help. Thursday night could go a long way in determining how things will unfold.
If the Blue Jackets win in Buffalo Thursday night and the Philadelphia Flyers lose in regulation to the Detroit Red Wings, the Blue Jackets would finish the night third in the Metropolitan Division thanks to owning the first tiebreaker (regulation wins) over the Flyers.
At the same time, should the Blue Jackets win and the Ottawa Senators lose in regulation to the Florida Panthers, the Blue Jackets and Senators would each be at 92 points. But it would be the Senators owning the first tiebreaker for the second wildcard spot in the East.
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Meanwhile, the Sabres are coming off a 5-3 win against the New York Rangers on Wednesday. A win for them against the Blue Jackets would go a long way towards winning the Atlantic Division. It’s a game that has massive implications for both sides.
The Blue Jackets are 2-0 against the Sabres this season including an overtime win in Buffalo and a convincing 5-1 win in Columbus that broke the Sabres’ winning streak.
Key to watch for: The Sabres in transition. The Blue Jackets allowed a couple of breakaways in the Red Wings game in which Jet Greaves was able to make the saves. The Blue Jackets will need to take away the transition game of the Sabres as much as possible especially given the speed they have. Greaves is also going to have to be strong like he was in Detroit Tuesday.
The Blue Jackets are playing for their playoff lives. The Sabres want the division and home ice. It should make for an electric atmosphere on Thursday night.
Fantilli Previews Night & Discusses Marchenko Hit
The Blue Jackets are riding high off of their 4-3 shootout win in Detroit. Adam Fantilli tied the game with 16.2 left on the clock before Zach Werenski won it in the shootout.
The Blue Jackets will have to find the right balance between riding the high of Tuesday along with being ready for Thursday.
“On one hand, you want to try and ride the wave,” Fantilli said. “On the other, you got to reset, right? So I think it’s kind of trying to stay even keel and understand the task at hand and try to perform our best tonight.”
The Blue Jackets are making no changes to their forward lines in advance of Thursday night’s game. In Fantilli’s mind, although there were different line combinations that were game dependent, he liked the changes that were made.
“It was good. We did some mixing and matching all night. I thought those guys were playing great. They were creating a lot. It takes more than one game sometimes to really find the connection that you want. But those are two of my best buddies on the team (Cole Sillinger & Kent Johnson) and I think we already have that connection. So we’ll find it quickly tonight, hopefully.”
The good news for Fantilli is that the accidental hit he put on Kirill Marchenko didn’t end up worse than it looked. They collided at center ice on Tuesday. Both were able to get up afterwards and continue in the play.
Fantilli called it “a scary sight.”
“Obviously, I feel bad,” Fantilli said. “I’m not sure where he was going … That was the biggest hit of my career, so I don’t know if I’ll ever have another one after.”
Both Fantilli and Marchenko talked afterwards and are able to joke about it now. They will each start on separate lines with Marchenko playing on the left with Charlie Coyle at center and Conor Garland on the right. Fantilli with center Sillinger on the left and Johnson on the right.
Bowness’ Thoughts
Head coach Rick Bowness confirmed that one change will be made to the lineup. Egor Zamula will play on the third pair with Erik Gudbranson. Jake Christiansen comes out of the lineup.
Despite the good result, Bowness acknowledged the Blue Jackets still have things they need to clean up in their game.
“First of all, just to be clear, we got away with some things in Detroit that we won’t get away with tonight,” Bowness said. “So we addressed that this morning and cleaning that up. What we want to carry over for sure is the shot attempts. And the net traffic. We finally got the shot attempts. The net traffic got where we wanted it and it paid dividends. We got that sort of mentality back. We got a little balance out of the lines which is good to see.”
There’s another thing Bowness wants to see especially given the opponent being the Sabres.
“When you play (the Sabres), you got to be aggressive,” Bowness continued. “But you got to be doing it in an intelligent way. You want to work but you want to work with a purpose. You don’t want to be chasing these guys all night because they’re good. They’re a good team. We worked on that. We looked at that again this morning too.”
Bowness also spoke about Marchenko’s game as of late. He acknowledged something that was suspected about Marchenko. But then he had a simple message for the forward too.
“I talked to him this morning. I want you to have some fun out there,” Bowness said. “Like he doesn’t look like he’s having any and he puts a lot of pressure on himself to score. But I want him to have fun. If he’s relaxed, then that might come, right? The more pressure he puts on himself, the tenser he gets, the worse he gets. I talked to him. Just go have some fun tonight. Go play. You know how to play the game. Just relax a little bit.”
“But yeah, he’s not 100% and he’s feeling it. You don’t get to know all your players in a couple of months. It takes a long time to know your players. You got to see these guys in every situation … I’d like to see him smile a little bit more, loosen up a little bit more and then we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Side Dishes
- The Blue Jackets are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games in Buffalo dating back to March 2019.
- The Blue Jackets and Sabres have combined for seven or more goals in six of their last eight games in Buffalo.
- The Blue Jackets have set a franchise record with 58 goals from defensemen this season. That leads the NHL.
- Greaves is 13-4-3 in his last 20 starts and is within the top-six in both goals-against average (2.37) and save percentage (.914) in that span.
- The Sabres lead the NHL with 34 points and 16 wins since the Olympic break.
- Tage Thompson has 11 career goals against the Blue Jackets. No Sabre has more goals in franchise history against Columbus. Rasmus Dahlin has 14 assists and 18 points against the Blue Jackets. No Sabre has more assists or points in franchise history against Columbus.
