The Blue Jackets are back in action at home tonight. Having won two games in a row, they will look to take advantage of a team that is quickly heading in the opposite direction.
Tuesday night at Nationwide gave us a lot to be hopeful for. The Blue Jackets looked rejuvenated under their new head coach, mostly dominating the Calgary Flames at even strength on their way to a 5-3 win.
Tonight, they face a much different task: taking advantage of a Vancouver team that has lost a bunch of games in a row.
The Opponent
Coached by hated former Blue Jackets defenseman Adam Foote, the Vancouver Canucks are the worst team in the NHL. Through 46 games, they are 16-25-5 (37 points), which leaves them 4 points behind the next closest team (Winnipeg) in the standings.
The Canucks have lost 8 games in a row, and 9 of their last 10 overall. Their last win came all the way back on December 29th, when they beat Seattle in a shootout. It's been almost a month since their last regulation win, which came on 12/19 against the New York Islanders.
Still, this is the NHL, and any team can win on any given night. The Jackets can ill afford to overlook this opponent, because this is still a pretty talented team that can burn you if you don't pay attention.
The Canucks traded away their best player, but are still led in scoring by Elias Pettersson, who has 13 goals and 28 points in 38 games played. Despite his team's struggles, he's someone you have to watch out for, because he is one of the most skilled players in the entire league.
Just one point behind him is defenseman Filip Hronek, who leads the team in assists (24). Next in line is Central Ohio native Kiefer Sherwood (23 points), who leads them with 17 goals.
It doesn't sound like Kiefer will be in the lineup tonight, however. He's officially listed as day to day with an undisclosed injury. He joins six other players that are out of their lineup, including starting goaltender Thatcher Demko.
in Demko's place, Vancouver leans pretty heavily on veteran backup Kevin Lankinen. He's 6-12-4 on the season, with a 3.34 goals against average and .887% save percentage.
Notably, Lankinen has faced the Jackets more times (14) in his career than any other team. And of course, he's done really well; posting a 9-3-1 record with a 2.96GAA and .912% sv pct.
This includes the other matchup between these two teams back on November 8th, where Lankinen stopped 29 of 32 shots in a 4-3 Canucks win.
With all of that aside, the simple facts of this game are this: Vancouver is 27th in the NHL offensively. They are 31st defensively. The Jackets cannot let this team off the mat in the home barn tonight.
The Good Guys
Good news: Don Waddell breathed new life into the organization on Monday, by hiring the most experienced coach in NHL history to run his bench.
The team repaid him on Tuesday with a gutsy, hard earned win against the Calgary Flames. From top to bottom, every player in the lineup contributed something in the win; which is something that has only happened a few times this season.
This was without 7 regulars from the CBJ lineup-4 defensemen and 3 forwards. Right away, you could see the difference in philosophical approaches take hold of this team.
With a day to evaluate and then a day off to practice, I expect even more of a Rick Bowness touch on the Blue Jackets tonight. In particular, watch for them to try some different things on the penalty kill, after giving up 3 goals the other night.
In his first press conference with the team on Tuesday, Rick mentioned taking time to evaluate, then fixing things as they come up. The PK may be his first repair project.
If practice on Wednesday was any indication, look for Elvis Merzlikins to get his first chance to showcase himself to the new head coach tonight.
Elvis Merzlikins was first goalie off at practice and worked in the home net. Could see him start Thursday against Vancouver. #CBJ
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) January 14, 2026
Three Keys to Success
1. Avoid the trap. It would be easy for a young team to glaze over this game and look ahead to the next one. However, with the standings the way they are, the Jackets are in no position to fall into a trap game. They have to play up to their potential, not down to their opponent's game.
2. Keep that snarl. One of the main reasons I thought they played extremely well on Tuesday night, was that they played with a little bit of a snarl. These guys looked angry for the first time in weeks, and it paid off.
3. Win the third period. We saw it first hand against the Flames. When this team wins the third period, they win hockey games.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 Eastern time from Nationwide Arena. Let's go Jackets.