Eight games into the 2026-27 season, the Blue Jackets have only one regulation win, and it came on opening night against the Buffalo Sabres by a 6-3 score. That game also produced the last time Columbus scored on the power-play.
Since then, the Jackets have gone 0 for 20 with the extra man over their last seven games. They are last in the NHL at 8.7% on the power-play, with Buffalo next-to-last at 9.1%. Twenty teams are sitting at 20% or better, which makes the gap feel even wider.
Special teams have been a clear problem, and while the penalty kill’s 70% success rate ranks 27th in the league, the power-play is the more glaring issue right now for a team that does not have a lot of offensive firepower. The two goals Columbus scored against Buffalo offer a useful snapshot of what has worked - and what keeps showing up as a bad habit.
The first goal, scored by Matthew Knies for his first as a Blue Jacket, started with a rare example of puck retrieval done right. Adam Fantilli knocked the puck out of mid-air and then made a rough pass to Zach Werenski - one that stood out, because puck management has been a problem for this group for years. Werenski kept the play alive at the line, and from there the Jackets built the sequence the right way.
The puck moved low, came back out to Werenski, and he froze the high Buffalo penalty killer before slipping the puck back down low to the open man. That pass pulled the Sabres’ coverage apart.
Knies then drifted into open space at the top of the slot and ripped home a one-timer. It looked clean because Columbus didn’t overcomplicate it.
They took what Buffalo gave them, moved the puck through the box, and let the shooter finish.
The second goal came in a very different way, and not the kind Columbus should want to live on. The Jackets kept rimming the puck around the boards into pressure until they finally found Valeri Nichushkin with room. He settled it, then made a good play to Sean Monahan at the high bumper, and Monahan’s deflection found the net.
But the way the goal developed exposed the problem. Buffalo kept the play to the outside, staying in a big box and forcing Columbus to work for everything.
If either strong-side defender had taken Monahan’s stick, the sequence likely dies there. The goal happened because Buffalo made a mistake inside the box, not because the Jackets consistently broke them down.
That’s the issue. Too often, Columbus is content to work around the perimeter, tossing the puck along the outside and waiting for a lane to open up for a cross-ice feed. Sometimes they force it anyway, like Fantilli did on the first example, and that usually ends with the puck heading the other way.
The better model is straightforward: pass through the box, find the opening, and shoot without hesitation. Or put the puck on net, create chaos, and recover it.
Those greasy goals count too. Right now, that’s often how the other team scores against the Blue Jackets on the power-play - by doing the basic things well and cashing in on the chances that open up.
In this league, an extra-man chance should be able to produce a goal every three or four tries. Columbus hasn’t come close.
The blueprint is not complicated. The execution just has to catch up.
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For Columbus, the intrigue is less about the Penguins direction and more about where a name like Rakell could surface if Pittsburgh decides to shop him before the deadline. Previous trade talks around him went nowhere, and the Penguins are said to be looking for a sensible return rather than simply taking the first offer, so this may not move quickly. Still, with Pittsburgh open to changing course and a veteran scorer on the block, it is the kind of storyline that can ripple beyond one division and into conversations the Blue Jackets have to watch closely. [Read more 🡒]