1 week Ago
The Columbus Blue Jackets have been one of the NHL’s most inspiring stories all season, and this storybook journey may yet get a storybook ending. One week ago, the Blue Jackets were parked in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, with four teams and eight points separating them from the final playoff spot. It wasn’t a pretty picture, either.
There were verbal spats between teammates, ugly performances and shutout losses. Advertisement The Blue Jackets haven’t won anything yet, but they’ve found a late-season surge that’s putting an immense amount of pressure on the Montreal Canadiens with only two games remaining for both teams. Adam Fantilli scored two goals for the second straight game and rookie goaltender Jet Greeves made 29 saves to continue his remarkable play in less-than-ideal circumstances, guiding the Blue Jackets to a 4-1 win Sunday over the Washington Capitals before 18,573 in Capital One Arena.
It marked the Blue Jackets’ fourth straight win. The last three have come in the face of elimination, a pressure-packed way to play. Sunday’s win marked the first time all season the Blue Jackets have won in regulation in the second half of a back-to-back.
“We played hard. We played simple. Jet, obviously, made some huge saves for us, but we played desperate,” defenseman Zach Werenski told reporters in Washington D.
C. “All we can do is try to win hockey games and see what shakes out. Everyone’s buying in.
It’s win or go home.” Werenski and Voronkov also scored for the Blue Jackets, who fell behind 1-0 only 1:10 into the game on an Alex Ovechkin goal and didn’t seem the least bit fazed. On the ensuing faceoff, Columbus’ Mathieu Olivier dropped the gloves with Washington’s Dylan McIlrath and landed two or three heavy punches.
After that, the Blue Jackets played right with the club that’s been leading the Eastern Conference — and, at times, the NHL — all season. ANOTHER GR8 SAVE! pic.twitter.
com/i9cvwR2qiN — Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) April 14, 2025 The entire lineup deserves credit for that, of course, but nobody more than Greaves. Sunday’s game was his fourth in five days, including a start for AHL Cleveland last Wednesday before his call-up. And while Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason spent his pre-game and post-game media scrums acting like that was no big deal, it’s a pretty rare feat at the pro level.
Advertisement The first shot Greaves faced on Sunday was Ovechkin wide open in the slot, found there by a pass off the wall from Dylan Strome, and he blasted a one-timer into the net. Ovechkin has scored a few goals in his day — that was No. 896, an NHL record — but after that, Greaves shut the door.
He stopped the final 29 shots, meaning he’s stopped 90 of 93 shots (.968 save percentage) in his three starts since the recall. Evason didn’t want to single out Greaves for praise.
Greaves wouldn’t go there, either. But Werenski let it rip like one of his wristers. “It’s incredible,” Werenski said.
“He works super hard. We’ve seen it a number of times this year. For him to come in here and do what he’s doing right now in these important games, it’s unbelievable.
It’s given our team a big boost. Hats off to him. He’s played incredibly, and he’s played a lot of hockey in the last couple of days.
“Nothing seems to faze him. He just plays his game. He’s confident in there.
He gives our team confidence with the way he plays. He’s probably ready for a day off, but so impressive. He gets scored on early in the game and he just settles right in.
” Here's Jet being awesome again⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ByrIHAKnhY — Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) April 14, 2025 The Blue Jackets still have very little margin for error in making the postseason.
If Montreal wins either of their two remaining games — they host the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks on Monday and the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday — the Blue Jackets are eliminated. If the Canadiens lose both of their remaining games in overtime or shootout, they’re still in, no matter what the Blue Jackets do. But if the Blue Jackets win their remaining two games — at the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, then home vs.
the New York Islanders on Thursday — they’ll make the playoffs if Montreal goes 0-1-1 or 0-2-0. Advertisement The odds still favor Montreal, of course. But the odds aren’t as long as they were just a few days ago.
“We’re trying to get into the playoffs, right?” Evason said. “We know where we’re at. I’ve told you guys before, some guys watch (the scoreboard) and some guys don’t.
But you’d have to be ...
I don’t know what you’d have to be to not know where we’re at. Everybody knows. We have to win, so we’re conducting ourselves like that.
We’re playing hard every night, trying to get two points to get where we want to be, and that’s in the playoffs.” The Blue Jackets tied the score 1-1 at 14:36 of the first period when Werenski sent the puck sailing through heavy traffic from high in the zone. It was his second goal in two nights, and his 22nd of the season.
Fantilli’s first, at 4:39 of the second, put the Blue Jackets ahead 2-1. He pounced on a turnover by Tom Wilson in the middle of the zone, rifling a wrister past Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren. THAT PASS!🔥 @FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.
twitter.com/kcLv7SCEAP — Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) April 14, 2025 The lead grew to 3-1 at 1:57 of the third with one of the most beautiful goals of the season. The Blue Jackets had the puck down low when James van Riemdsyk sent the puck out front to Kent Johnson, who carried it wide of the slot, bringing all of the Capitals’ attention with him.
But when everybody thought Johnson was going to shoot, he spotted Fantilli streaking out of the corner of his eye. Fantilli gathered the pass and rifled it into an abandoned net, with Lindgren sprawled on the ice for a Johnson shot that never came. Fantilli now has 29 goals on the season, second only to Kirill Marchenko (31).
Voronkov made it 4-1 with just 4:12 remaining when he blocked a Capitals clearing attempt and gathered the puck behind the defender, zooming in for a breakaway on Lindgren. Advertisement Now the Blue Jackets wait — and watch. On Saturday, after they’d flown to Washington D.
C. after a day game in Columbus, they found a TV to watch Montreal lose in OT to Toronto. Not the perfect result, but an acceptable one.
They flew after Sunday’s game to Philadelphia, where they’ll spend an off day on Monday before getting ready to play the Flyers on Tuesday. But on the docket Monday evening is a viewing of the Canadiens game vs. Chicago, which is captained by former Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno.
(You can imagine the text message requests that have been made.) Here it is, mid-April, with only two games left in an 82-game season, and the Blue Jackets are still playing meaningful hockey and doing playoff math. (Photo of Adam Fantilli: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images).
