COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s been three weeks since the Columbus Blue Jackets last played. It might feel like three months. The hockey world’s focus drifted to Milan for the Olympics, but now it’s time to get back into NHL mode.
The Blue Jackets have been practicing since the middle of last week, with coach Rick Bowness cranking up the pace and length of practices to make sure the Blue Jackets are ready for the resumption of the season. Their goal is to play with the same resolve and defensive tenacity that allowed them to crawl back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Here’s a thumbnail look at what you need to know when the stretch drive begins Thursday in Boston.
NHL’s hottest club
That’s right, the Blue Jackets headed into the break on an 11-1-0 burner that included seven straight wins, making them the hottest club in the NHL. It has allowed them to climb from last place in the Eastern Conference (16th) to the first club on the outside looking in.
The Blue Jackets trail the Boston Bruins by four points for the second wild-card spot, but it’s wise to keep an eye on the Metropolitan Division, too. Columbus sits just four points back of the New York Islanders.
The first two games out of the gate? Boston and the Islanders.
Mixed into that string of wins is a five-game road winning streak, just three short of a franchise record set 10 years ago.
Welcome back, Z
A few Blue Jackets players mentioned sending text messages to defenseman Zach Werenski, but for the most part, they’ve left him alone to bask in the glow of winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics.
It will be quite a reunion when Werenski meets up with the club in Boston.
Werenski had a strong tournament, with 1-5-6 and a plus-8 rating in six games, even though he played far fewer minutes for Team USA (16:23) than he has this season for the Blue Jackets (26:21).
“I’m not worried about the ice time,” Bowness joked. “I’m worried about the last couple of days, the celebration. That’s what I’m worried about.”
Werenski and Team USA had quite a party in Milan on Sunday before flying to Miami on Monday. On Tuesday, Werenski and some other players went to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and to attend the State of the Union address.
“The last couple of days and the travel,” Bowness said. “That’s a big jump from Italy back to North America, and that’s gonna catch up to him at some point. I’ll have a discussion with him Thursday (in Boston) to see where he is, and we’ll go from there.”
Bowness said his understanding and expectation is that Werenski will play Thursday. He went into the break on a seven-game point streak (2-8-10), two short of matching his career high.
A GAME WINNING ASSIST, A GOLDEN MOMENT ⭐️
CONGRATS Z! pic.twitter.com/47zD4FSIrB
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 22, 2026
Done in 60
The added bonus to the seven-game winning streak heading into the break is that all of them were won in regulation, the franchise’s longest string of regulation wins ever. Why does that matter?
If two teams have the same number of points after 82 games, the first tiebreaker is regulation wins, not overall wins. When the Blue Jackets started their charge up the standings, they were dead last in regulation wins, too.
They still have some work to do on that front, and they still have to keep gaining on the clubs ahead of them. Still, with 20 regulation wins, it’s no longer out of the question that they could have a tiebreaker advantage by the end of this season.
Remember the lesson learned last season and at the end of 2012-13: Every point matters.
Marchenko, Monahan healthy
Well, they’re healthier.
Kirill Marchenko missed a couple of games before the break with an illness, but he was also slowed a couple of weeks earlier by a foot injury that had him wearing a protective boot off the ice.
As of Tuesday, Bowness said he was 100 percent healthy. Marchenko has been flying in the Blue Jackets’ mini-camp this week, setting the pace in the contact drills. That is key for Columbus, as Marchenko is the club’s most polished goal-scorer.
You could argue that Sean Monahan is just as important. He’s been battling upper and lower-body injuries this season, and it’s rumored that he might not be fully healthy until after the season.
In any case, the three weeks without games were beneficial.
Boone Jenner … on the fourth line?
Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner was playing on the fourth line heading into the break, and that’s where he’s been all week at practice. Bowness said he spoke with Jenner about it a couple of days ago.
Before that, Jenner was playing left wing, usually in the top six. But with Adam Fantilli, Monahan and Charlie Coyle set in the middle of the top three lines, Jenner takes over the fourth.
“He’s been a center most of his career, and I’ve liked him there,” Bowness said. “You look at it as a fourth line. I’m not. We need four good lines because of all the games and all of the travel. We need four balanced lines, and putting Boone there gives us that balance.
“He’s still going to play his 14-16 minutes per game. He’s gonna kill penalties. He’s going to be on the power play sometimes. Don’t even label him a fourth liner. That’s not how I look at it. We need four lines, we need him to play important minutes, and he’ll play important minutes.”
Bowness said Jenner may switch to left wing in games when the Blue Jackets are protecting a late lead.
Thinkin’ about Thursday night! pic.twitter.com/DsusNFKNv7
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 24, 2026
Quiet on contracts
General manager Don Waddell said earlier this season that he’d hoped to use the three-week Olympic break to get at least some of his pending unrestricted free agents under contract. However, late last week, he told The Athletic he hasn’t extended offers to any of the four.
In fact, he said, he was fairly certain that forwards Coyle, Jenner and Mason Marchment, and defenseman Erik Gudbranson wouldn’t have contract extensions before the March 6 trade deadline.
That doesn’t mean he’s going to trade them, though. Unless the Blue Jackets fall flat on their faces — think 0-5, 0-4-1 or something similarly catastrophic — he’s likely to keep them and let the Blue Jackets take a run at the playoffs and beyond.
It’s risky because they could all walk as free agents after the season, but the Blue Jackets under Bowness showed something to Waddell, making it a risk he appears willing to take.
Deep breaths
Due to the three-week Olympic break, this season’s schedule has been a bear for all 32 NHL clubs. If you thought the first 58 games were tough, get ready.
The Blue Jackets will play 17 games in March, with only one two-day break between games. They’ll also play their remaining 26 games in only 48 days, including five back-to-backs, meaning this will be a sprint to the finish.
Bowness has been impressed with his club’s ability to grasp new concepts and make adjustments via video. That will be vitally important the rest of the way, as there won’t be any time for significant practices.
The good news: More than half (14) of those 26 games are in Nationwide Arena, and the Blue Jackets don’t leave the Eastern Time Zone for the rest of the season, which ends April 14.
Special teams clicking
The Blue Jackets’ power play and penalty kill have both improved under Bowness, and, if that continues, it could be a big boost to them down the stretch, especially on nights when tired legs can’t get going.
Since Jan. 12, the Blue Jackets are 13th in the NHL in both power play (24.0) and penalty kill (81.3), both stark upgrades from where they were before Bowness was hired: 18.8 percent on the power play (20th) and 76.4 percent (29th) on the kill.
Former Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock is credited with being the first coach to look at the two numbers (power play and penalty kill) combined as a way to measure special teams health.
If your power play wasn’t great, but your penalty kill was lethal, you’d be OK, and vice versa. Since Bowness took over, the Blue Jackets’ specialty sum is 105.3, which means they’re doing well.
During the break, Bowness had power-play coach Mike Haviland and penalty-kill coach Scott Ford take deep dives into the top power-play and penalty-kill units in the NHL to see if the Blue Jackets could add some wrinkles the rest of the way.
That will be the focus of today’s practice before the Blue Jackets fly to Boston.
Shutout streak
Blue Jackets goaltenders Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins each had shutouts in their final starts before the break, giving the Blue Jackets an active team shutout streak of 146:25 when the puck drops on Thursday.
That’s the seventh-longest streak in franchise history.
The Blue Jackets have defended with much more resolve and intensity under Bowness, and that has helped make life easier on the goaltenders. While Greaves has been consistently good all season, Merzlikins’ awakening under Bowness has been key.
Merzlikins, just back from an Olympic run with Latvia, is 5-1-0 with a .925 save percentage since Bowness was hired.
The Blue Jackets’ shutout streak won’t last forever, but having two goaltenders playing well during the stretch drive would be a huge advantage.