After the first defense pair, it's less than stellar...
The other pairings and defenseman have been inconsistent. Damon Severson has been a healthy scratch in the last two CBJ games due to his up-and-down play. Both Jack Johnson and Jordan Harris have found themselves out of the lineup for stretches.
Ivan Provorov, while playing well at times, has had many different pairing assignments so far this season and has seen his performance dip at times. It's still far too early to begin scoring Denton Mateychuk's play, even if the initial returns (especially in the defensive zone) look solid.
Columbus is #1 in the NHL among NHL defensive core scoring, but is still 27th in expected goals scored against, 26th in actual goals against, and in the bottom 10 of both high danger shot attempts against and medium danger shot attempts against.
Improvements in defensive zone scheming have been made, but the remnants of Jarmo Kekalainen's poorly built defense corps remain. This team has gone from dead last in defensive zone statistics to merely at the top of the bottom pack. It's a long way to climb to the top ten of defensive zone teams, as it did during the Tortorella years.
Ironically, the defensive core's work in the offensive zone would earn them an A+. However, while improvements have been made in their own zone work, there's a long way to go before that becomes a team strength. I'd score that at a D. Overall, however:
Blue Jackets team defense score: C, or C-.
Let's move on to goaltending on the next slide.