^{It’s a little too cold for a light Jacket to be in town.}

The Columbus Blue Jackets come to town for an early Sunday game after suffering a 4-0 shutout loss against the Colorado Avalanche yesterday. Quick side note, former Utah Grizzlies goaltender, Trent Miner, posted his first ever NHL win – also his first shutout – in that victory. Congrats, Trent. Utah loves you, until you play against us.

A tired Columbus team, one that’s been an afterthought for years, is the only Eastern team below NHL .500. Coming off a back to back loss, the last game of a 4 game road trip, bringing in a 4 game losing streak to the Tundra, the Blue Jackets contain all the elements of a trap game for the Utah Mammoth and their borderline playoff position.

Last year, the teams traded home overtime losses, en route to 3 of 4 points against each other. This is the first meeting between the clubs this year.

The Blue Jackets have been fighting for a potential playoff spot along with every single other Eastern team this year. Through December 1st, Columbus was sitting higher in the standings than Utah, matching wins but having 5 more OTL’s than the Mammoth.

However, the past month and a half saw them hit a rough patch. December was unkind to the Jackets, who went 6-7-1 for the month. Worse for them – since New Year’s Eve, they are 1-4-1 in 6 games. Only Anaheim and Vancouver have been worse in that stretch.

What’s been the issue for Columbus? Well, there are a few, and they stem from discipline and performance mostly. They’re giving up leads in the 2nd and 3rd periods far more often than they should; since Christmas, they are -5 goal differential in 8 games in the final two periods which includes two 6 on 5 extra attacker goals late in the game. The latter of these, against Pittsburgh last week, seems to have put the team in a tailspin.

Goaltending has been poor for Columbus as well, with Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins splitting starts in a way neither expected. Merzlikins, the presumed starter and far more tenured tender, has been relegated to backup. Greaves, meanwhile, has 51 total games under his belt with 30 of them coming this year. While he still is posting better stats overall, he is starting to show some signs of inconsistency and inability to handle a much higher load than anticipated. He’s 1-3-1 in his past 5 with a GAA north of 3.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Locked and Loaded The top line of Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Lawson Crouse has been absolutely blazing lately. The trip accounted for the offense against St. Louis, while giving Keller and Schmaltz a record for most goals between American born linemates.

Both haven’t performed nearly as well against the Blue Jackets as they have against the Blues proper, but if they can keep a similar pace to how they’ve been playing, they are going to give the Jackets a hard problem to solve. Between 67, 8, and 9, expect a strong game against a Columbus team that’s coughing up leads – and failing their defensive assignments more frequently than the last two times these teams squared off.

Not Revolutionary The big guns for Columbus are the same big guns they had last meeting. Zach Werenski is still their best and most offensive defenseman, ahead of pace of his 80ish points like last year. Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli and Charlie Coyle are still their bread and butter line.

Kent Johnson and Sean Monahan are still there, but playing far worse than last year. James van Riemsdyk is gone. The one player with any significant difference really this year is Mason Marchment who is out (and as a Matthew Schaefer fan – good. We don’t need that dirty play threatening to ruin even more of our year than we’ve had already from the Blues and Canucks.)

While the Blue Jackets aren’t significantly different than last time, the Mammoth are. Utah’s seen a lot more player overhaul – Daniil But called up, JJ Peterka in from Buffalo, Doan and Kesselring out to Buffalo and Macelli to Toronto, and Logan Cooley (and potentially Alexander Kerfoot) remains sidelined.

Utah was able to hold the Jackets to 5 goals against in 120+ minutes of hockey last year with a similar lineup, but Utah’s lineup has improved. The game plan to defend against Columbus should be easy to draw up, since it’s worked already.

Shooting Blanks Special teams for Columbus has been betraying them the past 8 games. After a 3 PPG outburst in a 3-1 win against the Kings, they have been 0-17 on the power play.

The problem is compounded because they’re giving up more than +1 penalty to the opposition per game during this stretch. While their PK isn’t bad – it’s actually better than the average – when you’re not getting anything going for you, every penalty against you is a drain on your team more than normal.

With a goal last game for the power play unit, the Mammoth PK needs to keep the Blue Jackets scoreless in 2026 with the man advantage, minimizing any risks they have at what was a strength of theirs earlier in the year. This also gives the power play unit a little breathing room as well; not feeling do-or-die in a scoring situation can help ease some tensions to allow for a more cohesive power play attack.

Projected Lineups:
Edit: Updated lineups unavailable at 3AM. Will update when possible (previous lines listed from Friday below):

Clayton Keller — Nick Schmaltz — Lawson Crouse
JJ Peterka — Barrett Hayton — Dylan Guenther
Michael Carcone — Jack McBain — Daniil But
Brandon Tanev — Kevin Stenlund — Alexander Kerfoot

Mikhail Sergachev — Sean Durzi
Nate Schmidt — John Marino
Ian Cole — Nick DeSimone

Karel Vejmelka
Vitek Vanecek

Gametime 5PM at the Delta Center; please prepare for Sunday Trax Schedule if taking the train.

TUSKS UP!