The Blue Jackets will host the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at Nationwide Arena. It will be the second matchup between these two teams this season, with the Jackets having won 5-4 in a shootout on October 25th in Pittsburgh.
The Jackets are hoping to get back into the win column for the first time in 8 days. It's going to be a tough one tonight, as they will again be without some key pieces, especially up front.
The Penguins are also facing some injury troubles, but they have adapted their game to continue to pile up points despite their aging core.
The Opponent
The Penguins currently have 7 players missing from their lineup, with the most notable name being scoring winger Rickard Rakell. They are also missing some good depth forwards and an important shutdown defenseman.
But, this is still the same old Pittsburgh team that has haunted the Blue Jackets for much of the last 20 years. They still have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who are sitting atop their roster in scoring.
It seems like this team will give the Jackets fits for as long as #87 and #71 lead the way. Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson, Anthony Mantha, and Bryan Rust are also names we cringe at the sight of.
Surprisingly however, it's their defensive game that has kept them relevant this season. The Penguins are only the 23rd highest scoring team in the league - but they have given up the second fewest number of goals.
New head coach Dan Muse has them off to a respectable 11-6-5 record (27 points) thanks to the systems he's implemented. They are also getting much better goaltending, with a .909% team save percentage that ranks second in the league.
That's a massive improvement over the .884% that they got last season, which was good for just 27th. Tonight, the Jackets will face Tristan Jarry, who sits at .914%, with a 2.53 GAA and 6-2-0 record this season.
For his career, he's got eerily similar numbers against the Jackets: .914%, 2.64 GAA, 8-2-2 record and 1 shutout. Offense may be tough to come by tonight.
The Good Guys
The Jackets will roll out the same lineup tonight that they used in Wednesday night's home loss to Toronto. That means Jet Greaves will get the start in goal.
Stickin' with the same lines 💥 pic.twitter.com/HKdr3UwFxi
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) November 28, 2025
Greaves has shown to be a much better goaltender as the team has allowed him to string some starts together. Unfortunately, that spells tougher sledding for Elvis Merzlikins, who looked pretty effective in the split duty scenario to start the year - only to fall off as he's seen less ice.
Jet only has one other start against the Penguins in his career, and he gave up 5 goals. Hopefully he plays as well as he did Wednesday night. It feels like this team is going to need to win a low scoring game tonight.
The same lineup means we'll get to see Brendan Smith and Luca Pinelli again. I thought both looked solid in their first CBJ games on Wednesday, with Pinelli in particular standing out every time he was on the ice.
This team needed a shakeup, and early indications are that these guys are going to put pressure on some of the other players around them to step their games up. That's all we can ask.
Three Keys to Success
1. Greasy goals. Without Kirill Marchenko in the lineup, this team is going to struggle to find offense. The best way to generate offense when you're lacking top end talent: get to the front of the net and try to score the ugly goal.
2. Contain their top players. Pittsburgh's stars may be aging, but they are still a very dangerous team. The Jackets need to make Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin play in their own end as much as possible tonight. That's the best way to keep them off the scoresheet.
3. Timely saves. Inevitably, they are going to get some scoring chances. So, it's on Jet Greaves to make some timely saves when called upon.
Tonight's game is an NHL Network broadcast, so if you live outside of the Columbus or Pittsburgh areas, good luck tuning in. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 Eastern time from Nationwide. Let's go Jackets.