With a break in the schedule, 12 games played and 70 to go, now seems like the perfect time to assess where the Blue Jackets stand in the 2024-25 season.

There were some positives – including a historic start in the goal department, plus a 3-0-1 stretch that included wins against consistent playoff teams Toronto, Edmonton and the New York Islanders – and some frustration, like the weekend’s two losses to red-hot teams in Winnipeg and Washington.

Add it all up and the Blue Jackets are 5-5-2, a points-per-game pace that would leave the team short of a playoff spot but would also be a considerable improvement over the last two seasons .

With Columbus in the midst of its four-game point streak, head coach Dean Evason noted two things that remain true: There have been some positives, but there’s still plenty of work to do to do evening after evening. base.

“It’s such a competitive league,” Evason said. “You have to compete every night and hopefully you can get your share of two points.” To get off to a good start, of course it’s great, and it’s also great to have that thought process that we can bounce back after games, that the leadership is strong in that, that they say and prepare the correct way to play this. next game, whatever happens.

“We talk about where, when and who we play, it doesn’t matter. We just play the same way, and so far we’ve been successful at it.

There have been a few hiccups along the way, but the Blue Jackets have shown signs of being a fun team to follow through the first 12 games.

We’ll look at three good signs for the team so far, followed by a few areas the Blue Jackets can look to improve.

What’s working so far

1. Improved structure: The eye test shows the Blue Jackets have been much better at getting out of their defensive zone and then transitioning to try to create offense, which is what Evason preached is how you should play in the NHL modern.

The numbers show it too. A season ago, according to MoneyPuck.com, the Blue Jackets allowed 2.95 expected goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. (Expected goals are a measure of the quantity and quality of shots.) This year , so far the team has allowed 2.63 xG per 60, showing improvement in not allowing teams to set up and create offense.

There will always be situations where a team finds itself stuck in its own end, but it happens much less frequently this season for the Blue Jackets than in previous years.

“I think we did well defensively on our end, so that allows us to play offense,” Zach Werenski said. “We closed the games quickly. We got the puck out very cleanly. This allows you to simply jump in and play offense.

2. Young people are mobilizing: Much of this offense comes from the continued efforts of the talented young offensive players the Blue Jackets have drafted and brought into the lineup over the past few years.

Even though the offensive potential has dried up a bit in recent games, the Blue Jackets are off to the franchise’s best start at putting the puck in the net, and the team’s 40 goals in 12 games remains second most important in the team’s history.

Kirill Marchenko, now in his third NHL season, leads the way with five goals and 13 points, a pace that would allow him to challenge Artemi Panarin’s team record for points in a season. In the fourth year of his NHL career, Yegor Chinakhov has three goals and nine points, which places him tied for third in team scoring, while fellow fourth-year Cole Sillinger is fifth in the team with eight points. Adam Fantilli added six points, while fellow Michigan native Kent Johnson had five points in four games before suffering an upper-body injury.

There will be ups and downs throughout the season for the younger players, but there have been encouraging signs that they are striving to become more consistent scorers.

“We have a great mix of kids who are ready to learn and get better every night,” Damon Severson said. “You can see the growth. It was very evident in training camp this year, they were doing the right things. Sometimes it’s not a lot of fun doing the right things because some of these guys have been talented players their whole lives, but they buy in and do the things that are necessary for us to win hockey games.

3. Unity and belief: Evason has spoken at length about the team’s close-knit nature since his arrival, and the Blue Jackets have demonstrated that throughout the season thus far.

While things haven’t been perfect, they’ve responded well to adversity and have clearly bought into what the coaching staff preaches. And there is an added element of unity – brought by a few years of playing together and spurred by off-ice events – that has allowed the team to build some trust and belief thus far.

“I think this is a group that wants to win,” said veteran Sean Monahan, who helped stabilize the lineup and added 11 points. “I have a feeling this group wants to be in the running.”

Cole Sillinger added: “We set the bar for ourselves. We know what we have to do to play well and win hockey games. It’s just about trying to be consistent and hold each other accountable. »

What needs to be improved

1. Consistency: As Sillinger pointed out, the biggest key to a long NHL season is consistency, and the Blue Jackets learned that lesson over the weekend.

In back-to-back losses to Winnipeg and Washington teams that got off to a good start, Columbus was outscored 13-4 and suffered two losses to end its point streak. While there was an element of hat-tipping to the opposition, the Blue Jackets also learned a lesson: When playing against the NHL’s best, they have to be on their game or things can get ugly quickly. go wrong.

“I think it reveals what happens when you don’t play your game and you don’t play hard enough,” Werenski said. “We will learn from this.”

That’s exactly what Columbus did, playing with pace and speed and putting up 50 shots on goal in Tuesday’s overtime loss at San Jose. Although there was frustration at not being able to finish and get the two points, it was another sign that the team learns through adversity.

For Evason, it’s part of the process for any team over the course of an NHL season, especially one as young as the Jackets still are.

“That’s your consistency, isn’t it? » Evason responded when asked if this is part of the natural growth of a team. “I’m not just talking about consistency in the way we play, it’s about consistency in the way we think, handle situations and move forward. It’s a process, and we’re going through it right now.

2. Clean up the internet: We said the Blue Jackets have improved defensively, and that’s true. But a look at some of the numbers shows that Columbus has areas of improvement to work on.

According to MoneyPuck, the Blue Jackets are 21st in the NHL in expected goal differential at 5-on-5, and the team’s mark of 2.63 expected goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 is 24th in the NHL. Again, this is a major improvement from last year, but it’s still not among the league’s elite marks.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blue Jackets have had a 46.5 percent high-danger scoring chance at 5-on-5 this season, which ranks them 24th in the NHL.

While the Blue Jackets are about league average in shot sharing and scoring chances, they need to improve a bit on not giving up chances around the net, but that could also be part of the implementation and adjustment of a new system.