The Blue Jackets' record is now 38-24-11 with 87 points. They currently occupy the second wild-card spot in the East, one point behind Pittsburgh for third in the Metro.
Denton Mateychuk (12) and Cole Sillinger (8) scored the goals for Columbus in what can only be described as a clunker of a loss by the Columbus Blue Jackets to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. To be fair, this was the first BAD loss of the Rick Bowness era. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, despite giving up three goals, didn't play too badly in the 3-2 loss.
The Blue Jackets looked slow and out of sorts against the upstart Sharks, while San Jose looked fresh and motivated to break their 6-game losing streak.
This was ugly, and it was particularly fun to watch either. The Sharks dominated every aspect of this game, and if it wasn't for some good saves by Merzlikins, the score would've been even worse.
The Jackets have now lost three of their last four games after starting extremely hot under Rick Bowness. This is the first bit of adversity that they've faced since he took over, and it's not going to get easier.
In the game against Montreal, they lost defenseman Damon Severson to what appeared to be a shoulder injury, and he is considered week-to-week. Last night against San Jose, Dmitri Voronkov blocked a shot with his hand or wrist and immediately left the game. He wouldn't return to this game.
Rick Bowness said after the game that Voronkov would not play on Sunday and would be re-evaluated on Monday.
Bowness said after the game, "We didn't have our legs, it's as simple as that. We just didn’t have our legs. What the guys have to learn is when you don't have your legs, you try to simplify the game a little bit. And even though we didn’t have our legs, we're still trying to make plays that just weren’t there." He later said that he knew "why" the players didn't have their legs and would address it. That comment was oddly vague.
Erik Gudbranson said of the game, "Everybody understands it probably wasn't good enough tonight, and that’s why we came up on the short end. There’s a lot of character in this group, so we’re gonna refocus and come back tomorrow."
They won't have time to do anything except move on. On Sunday, they take on the Boston Bruins, who are three points ahead of them for the first wild card.
Team Notes
- The club had its 12-game home point streak snapped tonight (9-0-3). It was the longest home points streak this season (5-0-3 from Oct. 29-Dec. 3) and tied for the longest in franchise history (12 GP, 9-0-3 from Feb. 11-Mar. 31, 2013). The Jackets have now recorded points in 16 of their 18 home games played in 2026 (12-2-4).
- Columbus struck 31 seconds into the opening period for the fastest goal to start a game this season (previous: 38 seconds on Jan. 28 vs. Philadelphia by Charlie Coyle).
- The Blue Jackets scored first for the 44th time this season (30-8-6) and for the 25th time at Nationwide Arena (17-5-2).
- The Jackets skated in front of their 11th sellout crowd and second largest of the season tonight (18,925 on Feb. 28 vs. NYI).
Final Stats
CBJ APPPlayer Stats & Notes
- Denton Mateychuck scored his 12th goal of the season. He became the fourth defenseman in franchise history to record 12 or more goals in a single season (Berard – 2005-06; Jones – 2016-17, 2017-18; Werenski – 2017-18, 2019-20, 2024-25, 2025-26).
- Cole Sillinger scored his 8th goal of the season. He tied his single-season career high in points after collecting 11-22-33 last season. He has notched 2-2-4 in the last five games and has notched 2-5-7 in his last seven outings.
- Adam Fantilli recorded his 33rd assist. His assist tied his career-high in points set last season (31-23-54). He has picked up points in eight of his past 10 games (3-7-10).
- Ivan Provorov picked up his 20th assist of the season. He reaches 20 assists for the fifth-straight campaign as well as the eighth time in his NHL career.
- Kirill Marchenko had 4 shots and was a plus-2.
- Zach Werenski played 30:51 and had three shots.
Team Stats
- The Jackets went 0/1.
- The Columbus PK gave up one goal on two Shark power plays.
- Columbus won 52.5% of the faceoffs - 31/59
- The Blue Jackets had 17 hits and 11 blocks.
Next Up For Columbus: The Blue Jackets are back home on Sunday to take on the Boston Bruins.
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