Tuesday, April 14, 2026 – 7:00 PM ET
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
TV: ESPN; Radio: 97.1 FM
Washington Capitals (42-30-9, 93 points, 4th Metro, 9th East)
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Columbus Blue Jackets (40-29-12, 92 points, 5th Metro, 11th East)
With the Flyers’ victory over the Hurricanes last night, the field for the Eastern Conference playoffs is set. There is nothing to play for tonight except for pride, and a slightly higher spot in the Metro Division standings.
For Washington, there has been growing speculation that Alex Ovechkin may retire after this season. Tonight is the last game of his current contract, and ESPN chose to broadcast this just in case.
We’re all understandably disappointed in the late season collapse by our beloved Blue Jackets, but let’s look at a few positive results:
Last season, the Jackets finished with 89 points. This year, they will finish 3-5 points ahead of that. We certainly hoped for more than incremental progress, but another 3-5 points next year should have us firmly in the playoffs. Heck, just reverse half of the blown third period leads and there you go. This team is good enough to GET those leads. Now they need to figure out how to keep them. That feels more like a psychological and coaching problem than a talent one.
This is the 25th season so let’s look at history. Among 82 game seasons, this is already tied with the 2008-09 playoff team for fifth most points. With a win tonight, they can pass the 2013-14 playoff team, who had 93 points. By points percentage, they currently trail the four playoff teams from the Torts era, plus the lockout shortened 2013 season. A win will tie that team in points percentage. Remember that group came out of nowhere to compete (largely thanks to Bob’s first Vezina campaign) but then broke through to the 7 seed in a new conference the very next season.
On the individual side, Zach Werenski has already had a great year and broke 80 points for the second consecutive season. His 81 points is third most in a season in Jackets history. One more ties last year’s Z plus 2018 Artemi Panarin. 2019 Panarin had 83 points. Z is also just one point away from 60 assists.
Kirill Marchenko is a hat trick away from 30 goals and 70 points. Adam Fantilli is a point away from 60 points. Charlie Coyle is just a point behind him.
Fifth in scoring is Boone Jenner at 37 and…that’s part of the problem. Not getting enough reliable depth scoring.
Last year, after the last game, I wrote about what the Jackets needed to do, and said they needed to be more like the Capitals of summer 2024 than the Red Wings of that same offseason. The Caps had some injury problems and took a small step back this year, but even without Ovi have a young core taking shape that should allow them to stay competitive. Detroit, meanwhile, has collapsed in the late season for three years in a row and now have the longest playoff drought in the league.
I also wrote this:
The lesson here is clear: while the Blue Jackets appear to have the right head coach, and have a strong, young core … this late season slide shows where the holes are on this roster. There definitely need to be changes on the blue line and in net. The assistant coaches could be shuffled further to give Dean Evason the staff he wants, with a full off-season to work with them. Special teams continues to be a struggle no matter who is coach. While this team scored a ton, there’s no harm in adding another forward who can contribute in the top 9.
Well, it turns out that Dean Evason was NOT the right coach, and this team played better under Rick Bowness. But, given the collapse, is Bowness the right option going forward? Does he even want to be? Compounding coaching hire blunders were Jarmo Kekalainen’s downfall here. Don Waddell can’t make the same mistake.
I also suggested that there should have been changes among the assistants. There were not, but finally Waddell realized that longtime defensive assistant Steve McCarthy deserved to be let go as well. Whether it’s Bowness or a different head coach, I’d want to see all new assistants (with the exception of goalie coach Niklas Backstrom). Not only do we need a good defensive coach (hey, what is Brad Shaw up to?), but new assistants could fix the PP and PK issues too.
Waddell did make some improvements to the top 9. The trade for Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood at the draft generated some shrugs, but Coyle ended up being one of the most important players on the team this season. Wood added a spark in the first few months, but the injuries caught up to him. Midseason acquisitions of Mason Marchment and Conor Garland also bolstered the top 9. Garland is locked into a new contract already, and Marchment is top of my list to re-sign among the UFAs. I wouldn’t mind keeping Coyle, but I wouldn’t want to give a long deal to someone who had a career year at age 33.
I still want one more true top line forward. Jason Robertson? Robert Thomas? Jordan Kyrou? What about players whose teams need to shake things up…Elias Pettersson? William Nylander? Dylan Larkin?
We’ll have a lot to speculate about over the coming months!
In the meantime, I’ll be there at NWA tonight and will hope for one more win. Hope to see some of you there.