Blue Jackets unveil 25th anniversary logo
The Blue Jackets say they are celebrating their 25th anniversary with, among other things, a logo that honors a quarter-century of team history.
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The Columbus Blue Jackets released their 2025-26 schedule with a prank video inspired by the “Jackass” series.The Blue Jackets’ video is part of a trend of NHL teams creating creative schedule release videos.The team’s season opens with away games against Nashville and Minnesota before their home opener against New Jersey.
The new Blue Jackets schedule is full of pranks.
OK, well, not exactly. The Jackets’ 2025-26 schedule itself is straightforward, but its July 16 release was accompanied by a team-produced prank video mimicking the “Jackass” television series. Call this one the “Blue Jackass” edition.
The Blue Jackets are not rookies when it comes to sending up widely watched programs. Their 2022-23 video is set to a Stranger Things theme.
The 2025-26 video begins with a warning for viewers not to replicate any of the ensuing pranks. Below that is a logo rendering of the team’s Stinger mascot and two crossed hockey sticks replacing the “Jackass” logo of a skull and crutches.
The video cuts to the first scene featuring head coach Dean Evason, an avid golfer, looking into the camera before teeing off on a golf course. Wearing dark sunglasses and holding a driver, Evason says his name and, “Welcome to Jackets,” before pulling the club into his backswing.
Unaware that Blue Jackets president/GM Don Waddell has tossed a prank ball straight into his swing path from the back side of the tee box, Evason follows through and literally smokes both balls — the real one flying downrange and the fake one exploding in a puff of smoke.
There is much rejoicing. (The scene, it’s later revealed, was done in one take.)
Then, the sound of a familiar guitar riff from the “Jackass” show plays to usher in a host of other pranks played at the expense of mostly Metropolitan Division rivals, plus a few other popular draws to Nationwide Arena.
A Toronto Maple Leaf gets squirted with maple syrup and covered in leaves. A Florida Panther puts on a helmet filled with sand. A Philadelphia Flyer gets bodychecked into a shrub. An unsuspecting Washington Capital gets tackled by a Blue Jacket. There are even two guys dressed like fishermen — a nod to a foregone New York Islanders’ logo — and they whail away on each other with fish.
And then, the coup de grace: Somebody in a penguin costume tries to evade pucks being shot at them while running on an ice rink.
As for Stinger, the Blue Jackets’ mascot, he’s used as a moving depiction of the Chicago Blackhawks sliding headfirst into a hockey net. Stinger also gets smashed by a giant wooden hand while promoting the Carolina Hurricanes‘ visit March 31. The final prank — accompanied by a note that the New Jersey Devils will visit on New Year’s Eve — involves a staffer getting knocked down by a silver ball dropped from the rafters onto a target she’s holding.
The video, which ends with a blooper reel, was quite an effort to drum up excitement while adding a fourth link to a chain of schedule-release videos the Blue Jackets began in 2022.
Teams across the NHL also made 2025-26 schedule release videos with varying degrees of quality.
The Calgary Flames used a “Rambo” theme featuring shirtless, grungy forward Ryan Lomberg in a “Lombo” video.
Drew Doughty, a star defenseman, makes a cameo in the Los Angeles Kings’ video and gets labeled as “some toothless hillbilly” after dropping off food for the creative team making the video.
In New Jersey, devilish mascot NJ Devil, who turns out to be star defenseman Dougie Hamilton, terrorizes a dodgeball playing group of children wearing gear from Metropolitan Division teams, including one wearing a Blue Jackets t-shirt.
The Blackhawks and Seattle Kraken each produced videos bemoaning the necessity for schedule release videos, including Chicago defenseman Alex Vlasic arguing for simplicity in a team marketing meeting.
“Hear me out,” Vlasic says. “What if we just post the schedule? … Maybe even with a caption that says, like, ‘Here’s the schedule.’”
After receiving rave reviews for his idea’s raw truth, Vlasic delivers the punchline, “Who knew marketing was so easy?” before the video cuts to a screen that says, simply, “We Play Every Team.”
Along those lines, several high-profile teams decided against making a video to accompany their schedule release. That list includes both Florida teams, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
The Blue Jackets open the 2025-26 season with road games Oct. 9 in Nashville and Oct. 11 at the Minnesota Wild before returning for their home opener against the Devils on Oct. 13 at Nationwide Arena.
And that’s no joke.
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
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