The New Jersey Devils will play their final game of the early-season road stretch tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Both teams enter the game with a 1-1-0 record.
Each is looking for its second win of the season. The Devils, in particular, are hoping to close out their road trip with a victory before their home opener on October 16th against the Florida Panthers.
Last season, Columbus went 40-33-9 overall. The team committed 278 total penalties, averaging 3.4 per game and serving 8.2 penalty minutes per game.
New Jersey finished last season with a 42-33-7 record and went 15-12-4 against opponents from the Metropolitan Division. The Devils scored 240 total goals, averaging 2.9 per game on 28.1 shots per game.
The Blue Jackets are coming off a 7-4 win over the Minnesota Wild. Not only did they earn a dominant victory, but 25-year-old winger Kirill Marchenko scored three goals for his first hat trick of the 2025–26 season.
Marchenko is tied for first on the team in points, with three. The other two players with three points through the Blue Jackets’ first two games are Boone Jenner and Zach Werenski.
It was also a milestone night for Jenner, who scored his 200th career goal on Saturday.
For the Devils, Luke Hughes leads the team with four points, all assists, across two games.
This will be the first matchup of the season between the two teams. They’ll meet again this year on December 1st and December 31st.
In their last 10 matchups, dating back to October 2023, the Blue Jackets have lost eight of those games. Their most recent win over the Devils came on December 19th, 2024. They’ve lost both meetings since then.
Evgenii Dadonov will not be in the lineup for the Devils after suffering a hand fracture off a shot during the first game of the season. His status will be reassessed once the team returns to New Jersey.
Sheldon Keefe shared this morning that Zack MacEwen would be out for an undisclosed amount of time.
Brian Halonen has been called up from the Comets.
For the Blue Jackets, Erik Gudbranson is day-to-day with an upper-body injury as of October 11th. He left the game against the Wild in the third period.
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. ET, and the game will be streamed on ESPN as both teams look for their second win of the 2025–26 season.
