A season’s worth of frustrations for the Blue Jackets are bubbling over 31 games into the season.
A parade of lost leads, lost points and lost games that should have been won has brought them to a point where the word “desperation” became a talking point after a 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 11 at Nationwide Arena pushed their winless streak (0-3-1) to four straight games, matching their longest of the season.
“It’s one of those things where it’s on the guys in here to have that full buy-in and find a way to just win,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “It doesn’t matter how you play or how you feel. I don’t want to keep going back to last year, but I feel like last year we did that. We’d win games we were not supposed to, and the games we were supposed to, we would.”
The Jackets addressed that tendency at their morning meeting, emphasizing commitment to “playing the right way,” and still allowed three unanswered goals in the game’s first 14:55 against the Senators (14-12-4).
Bing. Bang. Boom.
Just like that, starting goalie Elvis Merzlikins was on the bench wearing a ballcap and the Senators began a clinic in preserving a lead. Despite nearly being caught in the second period, Ottawa stayed just enough ahead of the Blue Jackets (13-2-6) to win. This season would be going a lot better for the Jackets if they could do the same.
“Right now it just seems like we’re finding ways to lose when we play well (and) when we play bad,” Werenski said, “and right now it’s just about finding ways to win.”
The playoff picture in the Eastern Conference is still packed tightly with a large group of teams still in it, including the Blue Jackets despite their current residence in the basement of the Metropolitan Division. It’s going to be a much heavier lift than what it should have been without so many blown opportunities to add points, which stings after missing the playoffs last season by two points.
“I don’t know if I’m crazy or what, but I genuinely still feel like we’re fine in here,” Werenski said. “Like, we’re going to be OK and we’re going to start winning hockey games, and we’re going to pull ourselves out of this. It’s just frustrating the way we’re losing.”
Here are three takeaways:
Struggles continue for Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins
It didn’t take long for Merzlikins’ night to slip into a tailspin.
Dylan Cozens shot a puck at him from 50 feet away that Merzlikins stopped, but David Perron’s soft flip off the rebound from five feet away plopped between Merzlikins’ leg pads and slid behind him into the net for a 1-0 lead 6:58 into the game.
Merzlikins couldn’t believe what he saw when he looked behind him, and neither could Blue Jackets fans.
It was an ugly goal and seemed to light the fuse on a forgettable night that ended with Merzlikins being the first goalie pulled by coach Dean Evason this season. That happened after Tim Stutzle beat him over the glove from inside the left circle to cap a power play with 5:05 left to give the Senators a 3-0 lead.
Drake Batherson had also beaten Merzlikins with a wrist shot over the glove while wide open in the slot just 1:13 after Perron scored. Defensive shortcomings by his teammates factored into each of those scoring chances, but a switch to Jet Greaves was made.
“Well, whenever you pull the goalie, there’s a couple reasons, right?” Evason said. “Maybe there’s a momentum shift that you can get for the guys, and then maybe there’s some that you don’t think should go in the net, but it was a little bit of both here tonight.”
Most NHL goalies go through slumps, so that’s not rare, but Merzlikins hasn’t posted a goals-against average lower than 3.00 in a season since 2020-21 (2.77), his second season in the league.
Likewise, he hasn’t finished a season with a save percentage that’s .900 or above since logging a solid .907 in 2021-22, his third NHL season. He’s down to .885 in 12 games after finishing the past three years at .892 in 2024-25, .897 in 2023-24 and .876 in 2022-23.
Consistency remains a challenge for Merzlikins.
“It’s tough,” Werenski said. “I know how people probably look at it from the outside, but, like, some of those chances … if we had guys in some of those positions, I would expect us to score. We have the talent in here where if we shoot from the slot 1-on-1 with the goalie, I would expect we’re going to score those. So, it’s definitely not on Elvis. We’re allowing guys to get to these areas to have clean looks, and guys are so talented in this league that they’re going to score goals.”
Merzlikins wants things to work out with the Blue Jackets, his only NHL team, but the critics gallery keeps growing as his struggles continue. A change-of-scenery trade is unlikely with a $5.4 million annual salary, so he’s probably not going anywhere.
Greaves has proven he can handle the starter’s workload, but leaning too heavily on one goalie would be risky in a season with crowded scheduling due to the NHL’s pending Olympic participation. The Blue Jackets must get Merzlikins back on track. He has allowed at least three goals in 11 of 12 starts, including 28 in his past six that include 10 on penalty kills.
Columbus Blue Jackets put Jet Greaves in tough spots with miscues
The two goals that Greaves allowed on 23 shots were scored after defensive breakdowns.
The first, scored by Michael Amadio with 34 seconds left in the first period, put the Senators up 4-1 just 1:22 after Boone Jenner got the Blue Jackets on the scoreboard in his return from a 14-game injury absence. Amadio was left alone in front of the net for a no-look pass from Claude Giroux after all five Blue Jackets skaters were caught on the right wing.
The second, scored by Stutzle with 2:01 left in the second, gave Ottawa a 5-3 lead heading into the second intermission. The Blue Jackets couldn’t clear their zone, got caught flat-footed while the Senators forced Greaves to make saves and watched as Stutzle got to his own rebound near the sprawled goalie’s pad for a tap-in goal.
Werenski was one of the Blue Jackets who lost that race against Stutzle after his defensive partner, Ivan Provorov, tripped over Greaves.
“It changes everything,” Werenski said. “In the first, we get one and they come right back and score after it at the end of the first period to make it 4-1. We get it to 4-3, they make it 5-3 late in the second, and it’s just understanding the time of the game. Mistakes like that just can’t happen.”
Mixed results for Columbus Blue Jackets in captain Boone Jenner’s return
Adding Jenner back into the forward mix was good for a reworked second line that featured him at left wing, Adam Fantilli at center and Kent Johnson on the right.
Jenner finished with two points on a goal and assist, Fantilli and Johnson each logged assists and those three were the only Blue Jackets forwards to finish with positive plus/minus ratings.
“It’s great coming back and being with this group and competing with these guys,” Jenner said. “Obviously, wish we would’ve gotten two points and had a different outcome, but I’m excited to be back with the group.”
The reunited top line of Dmitri Voronkov, center Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko had the opposite experience. Voronkov and Monahan finished with -4 ratings, Marchenko was -3 and the two Russian wingers were each tagged with two giveaways.
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social