After the absolute drubbing the Edmonton Oilers were handed on Saturday night, perhaps it’s best that Monday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets is behind a subscription paywall. It’s Monday Night Hockey on Amazon Prime… yippee!

Two different brands of .500 collide here. The Blue Jackets are a more earnest 7-7 against the Oilers, loser-pointed fuelled 6-6-4.

The Columbus cannons are not firing so far on this northwest road trip, losing to Calgary decidedly, and then blowing it late vs Vancouver.

It didn’t sit well on the Jackets bench how open Brock Boeser got on the 4-3 game-winning goal.

“When we’ve got an even hockey game at that stage, there’s no chance anyone should be getting in behind us for any type of a breakaway,” Dean Evason, head coach, said post-game. “We’ll have to talk to some individuals and figure out what we’re thinking in that situation, if we are thinking.”

‘If we are thinking,’ is a great quote by the resting mean face of Evason. Maybe Knoblauch can pre-scout some new things to say…

The Jackets are slipping in the uber-competitive Eastern Conference, shoulder-to-shoulder in the basement with Buffalo. CBJ wasn’t expected to have such an improvement in 2024-25, a whole 13 wins better, the best season since 2018-19, but they did. And expectations from the front office stem from it.

Evason had a lot to do with that, and the health of Zach Werenski, who just missed out on the Norris Trophy and produced a monster 82-point campaign. That’s continued this year, and his 26:22 TOI average is second-highest in the league.

Oh, and then there’s this guy named Kirill Marchenko…

Here comes the Russians

Kirill Marchenko has topped enough ‘Most Underrated NHL Players’ lists that he can no longer be officially underrated. But he’s still not a household name, despite a 31-goal, 74-point season.

The Russian won’t slow down, leading the way again with 8-8–16, and is due for a massive payday. Especially because the great wave of top-drafted talent just ain’t cutting it right now.

Adam Fantilli has been okay, but along with Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger, the trio has a combined six goals.

The spread-out scoring is good in some ways, but if things get difficult, where do they turn?

Introducing Dmitri Voronkov, who is also building his game nicely after a 47-point season. He has 13 points in 14 games and is second on the team in goals right now. It’s him and Marchenko right now that are providing the offence.

So if we’ve learned anything about the Oilers this season, the slumpers are due to break out.

Jet-like reflexes

Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves are keeping the Jackets relevant.

They’ve played nearly identical minutes this season, are rocking nearly identical save percentages, and have nearly matching records.

Greaves is quite the story. He went undrafted out of the Barrie Colts, but out of a relationship born from development camp, he eventually signed with the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL.

Since then, he’s steadily improved, seizing the most of his opportunity in April with wins and NHL First Star of the Week honors.

Now? He’s part of a 1-2 tandem in Columbus that, when they’re on their game, can help lead the Blue Jackets to victory.

Notes:

Special teams are a problem. Bottom six in the NHL at 14.7% PP and 70.7% PK.
Erik Gudbradson is on the IR due to a hip injury. CBJ had recalled Luca Del Bel Belluz
Sean Monahan got banged up late last week, but ended up playing on Saturday. Keep an eye on his status. He was -2 after playing a hair over 20 minutes.
Mathieu Olivier is arguably the league’s toughest cat. He got ejected on Saturday for boarding on Elias Pettersson, which may lead to a suspension. If the Oilers had a player with something stirring, this is the guy you worry about. But the Oilers don’t, so don’t expect any fireworks.
It’s essentially a home-and-home as the Oilers will be in Columbus on Thursday, as the Oilers embark on a gruelling November road trip. Edmonton is much better historically at home vs. CBJ than on the road: 4-0-1 in the 2020s.