Hockey is a wonderful sport that sometimes makes very little sense.

The Columbus Blue Jackets, playing without defenseman Zach Werenski, headed into a much-needed NHL holiday break with a much-needed victory, beating the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 before 18,145 in Crypto.com Arena.

“It’s certainly nice to go into the break with a good feeling,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason told reporters in Los Angeles. “We haven’t felt this (winning) feeling for a bit. So to play the way we did, certainly at the end of the game, the guys should be proud of the way they played.”

Especially considering they did it without Werenski, their best player on both ends of the ice and in every situation, not to mention their leader on the bench and in the dressing room.

Marchment’s fitting right in! 🚨

CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/S3W7r5ymlr

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) December 23, 2025

Make it make sense:

Werenski is the Blue Jackets’ power-play quarterback, but without him Monday they scored three power-play goals for the first time all season and the first time in almost a year (Dec. 27, 2024)
Mason Marchment had four goals in 29 games with the Seattle Kraken before he was traded to the Blue Jackets on Friday; after scoring two goals Monday, he now has three in two games with the Blue Jackets
the Blue Jackets had allowed at least one third-period goal in 17 consecutive games, but they slammed the door shut on the Kings in the final 20 minutes Monday
the last time the Blue Jackets won a game in regulation was Dec. 1 vs. the New Jersey Devils; this was their eighth regulation win of the season

The Blue Jackets did not panic in the third period. They played authoritative hockey, even after captain Boone Jenner took an offensive-zone hooking penalty with five minutes remaining and the Jackets protecting a 3-1 lead.

“We’ve already started clipping (video),” Evason said, “so that when they come back we can reinforce this and they’ll remember, hopefully, how we need to play to win hockey games.”

Marchment made it 1-0 only 4:07 into the game when he dangled through traffic high in the zone during the power play to create a clean look from the slot, beating Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg with a wrister.

The lead grew to 2-0 at 19:36 of the first thanks to another Marchment goal, this one a redirection of a Damon Severson shot directly in front of Forsberg.

Marchment is the first player in Blue Jackets history to score three goals in his first two games with the franchise. Oddly enough, Severson has the primary assist on all of Marchment’s goals.

Kirill Marchenko, who had gone seven games without a goal, scored off a wrister from the left circle at 14:16 of the third to give the Blue Jackets a 3-1 lead. Goaltender Jet Greaves stopped 23 of 24 shots, earning just his second win since Nov. 20.

The only goal he allowed came at 18:41 of the second period when a shot by Andrei Kuzmenko glanced off Jackets defenseman Dante Fabbro, hit the post to Greaves’ right and caromed into the net.

“(Greaves) was real good,” Evason said. “They did have some quality opportunities. He did a good job smothering pucks and making things calm, but when there were pucks laying around, we did a good job clearing them and getting them out of the zone.

“We didn’t turn the puck over, either. We talked about that the other night. We turned it over way too much. We didn’t do that here tonight.”

MARCHY MAKES ‘EM PAY ON THE POWER PLAY! 💥

CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/tu8CSusjdY

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) December 23, 2025

Werenski was struck in the lower right leg during Saturday’s game in Anaheim, immediately falling to the ice in agony. He crawled to the bench, limped off to the dressing room with still two minutes left in the game and had Blue Jackets fans fearing the worst.

But the Blue Jackets learned late Saturday that Werenski did not have any broken bones, meaning he wouldn’t be out of the lineup long term. Monday’s game against the Kings was the first game he’s missed this season.

“(Werenski) did everything to try and play in tonight’s game,” Evason said. “But to give him five (days) off (including the NHL’s mandated holiday break), we think, is the intelligent thing to do.

“I don’t anticipate (Werenski’s absence) being past the (holiday) break. Clearly, he’s a huge part of our hockey team in all areas, so the intelligent thing is to let him completely heal up. It’s not just the one issue that he’s working on right now.”

With Werenski out of the lineup, the Blue Jackets had to make some big adjustments on the back end.

Ivan Provorov moved up into Werenski’s spot on the top pair, joining Fabbro, who was elevated from the third pair. Denton Mateychuk, who had played with Werenski on the top pair, moved to the second pair, with Severson to his right.

The third pair was Brendan Smith with Jake Christiansen, who had been a healthy scratch in 12 straight games and hadn’t dressed for a game since Nov. 24.

It was Mateychuk, though, who took Werenski’s spot on the point of the Blue Jackets’ top power-play unit. He also took on a heavy load of minutes, too, playing 28:35, a career high.

Perhaps the only drawback for Columbus was that center Sean Monahan didn’t play for the final 10 minutes of the third period. He was in pain on the bench before heading down the tunnel.