The Blue Jackets lost their fourth straight game last night, 6-3 at home to the Ottawa Senators. It was an ugly loss in front of the home crowd, whose loudest moment may have come when Elvis Merzlikins was pulled in the first period after his third goal allowed.
I don't think that Bronx cheer was entirely fair. I'll preface this article by saying one thing: the Jackets needed Elvis to be at his absolute best last night. He was not. He absolutely needs to be better.
On two of the Senators goals, I think he would want to have another crack at them. The first one was a bad rebound and then a lazy push that resulted in a soft goal against. The third one was a shot that he probably should have stopped.
By the time Tim Stutzle made it 3-0, the damage was done. The Jackets were stunned and the home crowd was out of it. The only thing head coach Dean Evason could do was swap goaltenders, and unfortunately that had the added result of embarrassing Merzlikins in front of the home crowd.
Jet Greaves came on in relief, and his energy did help the Jackets get back into this game. They got to within one goal in the second period, but despite several quality chances, they could not find the equalizer.
I think it's fair to say that, had Evason started Greaves in the first place; this game might have wound up as a CBJ win. But, I don't think it's fair to blame Merzlikins entirely for this loss. Let me explain why.
About that defensive zone...
On all three of Ottawa's first period goals, the Blue Jackets gave them too much time and space to shoot the puck. As mentioned above, the first goal was one that Elvis would want back.
Denton Mateychuk actually did a good job tying up David Perron and limiting his ability to do anything other than flick a low shot on net. It's an easy save.
But on the second goal, look at what this team does defensively as Drake Batherson walks right down the middle of the ice and fires the puck into the net. Why is there so much space here? This is a 3 on 4 rush for crying out loud. No reason to give up the blue line so easily.
Five goals in @drrakebatherson's last five games 🖐#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/0C2O3qYKEB
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 12, 2025
How often do we see Kirill Marchenko get that kind of time and space to shoot the puck at the other end? I'll answer it for you: not very often. Hard to blame the goaltending here.
And, on the third goal, we can say the same thing. While Elvis would definitely want this one back as well, look at the space the Jackets leave for Stutzle. This is just not good enough defensively.
Ivan Provorov is a veteran of 727 NHL games, but he gets caught flat-footed and stuck in no-mans land on this play. He's also the guy you could fault for that second Ottawa goal - and arguably their fifth goal of the night.
Was he held accountable by the coaching staff? Hardly. They changed the forward lines before the game to try to find offense. They pulled Merzlikins to try to spark energy. But they continued to roll out Provorov to the tune of 25:48, second most on the team last night.
I'm going to use one word to describe this team defensively: soft. That's on the coaching staff for not holding guys accountable for mistakes like this.
Accountability needs to go both ways. That includes the coaching staff and the veterans on this team. I'm calling them out here, not Merzlikins.
Goaltending is exacerbating the issues both ways.
I hate to say it, but this is the fact: the Blue Jackets are farther away from competing than just playing the correct goaltender.
Jet Greaves is posting top-10 numbers in goals saved above expected. He's even in the upper half of the league in save percentage. But, despite his play, his record on the season is 7-7-5. That's 7 wins and 12 losses, no matter how the NHL counts the loser point.
On both sides of the coin, goaltending is an issue. The Blue Jackets are not good enough to win hockey games regardless which guy is in the crease. If they start Elvis Merzlikins, you can pretty much count on 3+ goals against on any given night.
That's on him, sure. He has to be better. But even so, he's not good enough to mask this team's defensive zone problems. I would argue that on a better team, he can probably still win some hockey games and at least be a serviceable goaltender in spot duty.
If they start Jet Greaves, they give themselves a chance to win on more nights because he's making more high danger saves. But, all his play is doing is masking the real issues that lie within this team. And, they still can't even win those games.
Overall, it's a no win situation right now, on and off the ice. This team is in need of some serious overhaul to its defensive game if they want to make any kind of push up the standings. It may already be too late this year.