Blue Jackets go to overtime again, fall to Toronto
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
By Kevin Rouch
krouch@cbussports.com
Jet Greaves (73) about to make one of his 22 saves during the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 2-1 overtime loss to the Toroto Maple Leafs Wednesday at Nationwide Arena. Photo: Kevin Rouch
The Columbus Blue Jackets returned home Wednesday after concluding another extended road trip. They welcomed the Toronto Maple Leafs to Nationwide Arena after beating them north of the border two weeks ago to take a 2-0 lead in this season’s series.
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead with six and a half minutes left in the third period on Zach Werenski’s eighth goal of the season. Toronto’s Easton Cowan tied the game three minutes later to send the contest to overtime. William Nylander scored the game-winner at the 4:40 mark to give the Leafs a 2-1 victory.
It was a solid effort by Columbus, especially on the defensive end of the ice against one of the League’s star-studded offenses, who got their captain, Auston Matthews, back from injury Wednesday.
“It sucks,” said Werenski after the game. “Well, I mean, obviously, we don’t want to lose the lead like that again and then losing overtime. I’m sure everyone’s probably sick of it and sick of hearing it. But at the end of the day, we played really good hockey today.”
“We just thought it was a great game,” noted Blue Jacket head coach Dean Evason. “Both teams played hard, desperate, committed, all of those good things. We just didn’t finish as much as we should, but we liked exactly how we played the game here tonight.”
After leaving Sunday’s game against Washington with an injury, Zach Werenski played 28:42 against Toronto Wednesday and scored the only goal for the Blue Jackets. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Columbus was without leading scorer Kirill Marchenko, who suffered an injury during the team’s morning skate in Washington Monday, and Mathieu Olivier, who left the game against the Capitals that night. Fortunately for the Blue Jackets, Werenski was in the lineup Wednesday after also leaving Monday’s contest.
After the overtime loss, Evason took issue with reporters’ questions about the perception that his squad is unable to hold leads in the third period. He said that a statistic given to him was that the Jackets were 9-1-2 coming into Wednesday’s tilt when leading in the third period.
Pushing back, Evason said, “If the numbers don’t dictate that that’s true, then it’s not true, right? We’re doing the right things in those hockey games.”
Looking at their 14 games in November, with one left to go, the Blue Jackets are 4-1-3 when leading in the third period, meaning that they have earned 11 points out of a possible 16 (68.8%), even though they won half of those games.
When leading by two or more goals in the third period, they are 2-0-3 in November, posting seven points out of a possible 10 (70.0%), but winning only 40% of those contests.
The Columbus Blue Jackets’ Sean Monahan (23) gets dumped in Toronto’s crease during their game at Nationwide Arena Wednesday. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Interestingly, Columbus have not come from behind in the third period in any of its five wins in November. Looking at it from the other side, opponents are 5-0 in November when they have had a lead over the Blue Jackets in the third.
In their two victories after leading by two or more goals in the third, the Jackets actually ended up winning by only one goal in each. In fact, they haven’t won by more than one goal since October 29 when they beat Toronto 6-3.
So an equally important question may be whether Columbus is scoring enough goals. The Blue Jackets are ranked fifth in the NHL in shots on goal (699), but are 29th in the League in shooting percentage (9.4%). In the third period in November, the Jackets have been outscored 21-9.
“I feel like it’s just a matter of time before pucks start going in if we’re playing like this,” added Werenski. “Ideally, you can have a few more, a few more than that, and a bigger cushion and game’s not as tight. But that’s just the way it’s going right now.”
Columbus finishes up the month of November with a home game Friday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The puck drops at Nationwide Arena at 7:00 p.m.
Two players saw their first action for the Columbus Blue Jackets in their game with Toronto Wednesday – Luca Pinelli (53) and Brendan Smith. Photo: Kevin Rouch