Second period dooms Blue Jackets in big loss to Marchenko, Maple Leafs

Tuesday, October 20, 2026
By Ed Francis
efrancis@cbussports.com

CBJ's Charlie Coyle shoots in crowd

Charlie Coyle (3) shoots in a crowd of Toronto Maple Leafs during the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 6-2 loss at Nationwide Arena Tuesday. Photo: Kevin Lam

CBJ scorebug

The Columbus Blue Jackets allowed four second-period goals in a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night in Kirill Marchenko’s return to Nationwide Arena.

Jake Christiansen gave the Blue Jackets an early lead, but Marchenko tied the game with a power-play goal midway through the first period.

Toronto then took control with four goals in less than 10 minutes during the second period, chasing Jet Greaves after he allowed five goals on 19 shots. Cam Talbot replaced him in net.

Easton Cowan, Jack Roslovic, and Morgan Rielly each had three-point nights for the Maple Leafs.

Charlie Coyle scored his first goal of the season in the third period for Columbus, which has now lost four of its last five games.

Marshall Rifai added his first NHL goal late in the third to complete the scoring.

Coyle expressed his frustration with the game and with the 3-5-0 start after the game.

“We need to figure it out right now,” Coyle said.

Here’s how the night went from bad to worse at Nationwide Arena:

CBJ: 1, TOR: 0 (1ST PERIOD, 17:22 REMAINING)

Christiansen gets Columbus on the board early. It comes after a really good shift by the forward unit for the Blue Jackets, getting the Maple Leafs out of sorts defensively. Eventually the puck ends up on the stick of Dmitri Voronkov, and he makes a wonderful pass around Toronto’s defense, hitting Christiansen in the high slot. The defenseman fires it past Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz to give Columbus a 1-0 lead.

CBJ: 1, TOR: 1 (1ST PERIOD, 11:44 REMAINING)

A few of these down the stretch last season would’ve been helpful for the Blue Jackets, but they’re good for the Maple Leafs this season. Marchenko gets a goal — a power-play one, at that — on one of his first shifts against his former team. It’s a fluky goal that goes in off his skate as he crashes the net on the Maple Leafs power play to make it a 1-1 game.

TOR: 2, CBJ: 1 (2ND PERIOD, 17:34 REMAINING)

Sometimes it really is that simple. The Maple Leafs take the lead when they skate hard up the ice and create a 3-on-2, with Rielly passing to William Nylander in the high slot and then acting as a shield. First he pushes Denton Mateychuk off the play and then screens Greaves, allowing Nylander to fire it past him to start an offensive outburst from Toronto.

TOR: 3, CBJ: 1 (2ND PERIOD, 16:48 REMAINING)

Sometimes it really is that simple, part two. Less than a minute after Toronto takes the lead, they double it on a goal by Auston Matthews. The Maple Leafs get the puck up ice quickly, then Roslovic makes a cross-ice pass to Matthews, and he has no problem sniping it past Greaves near the faceoff dot to give Toronto a 3-1 lead.

TOR: 4, CBJ: 1 (2ND PERIOD, 13:12 REMAINING)

Add a short-handed goal for the Maple Leafs, who score for the third time in less than five minutes. After a disorganized Columbus power play featuring several turnovers, the Maple Leafs finally take advantage and get a 2-on-1 break. Cowan considers passing it, but instead fires it past the glove side of Greaves and into the net, extending Toronto’s lead to 4-1.

TOR: 5, CBJ: 1 (2ND PERIOD, 7:57 REMAINING)

Roslovic’s goal marks the end of the night for Greaves. It looks like more of the same in a really rough period for the Blue Jackets: the Maple Leafs get into the zone quickly and with ease, then catch Columbus out of structure and make a move. This time Roslovic is in the low slot and tips in Rielly’s pass to a chorus of boos as Toronto goes up four.

TOR: 5, CBJ: 2 (3RD PERIOD, 15:47 REMAINING)

It’s too little, too late, but Coyle finds the back of the net for the first time this season on a nice goal from behind the net. He first tries to bank it in off the back of Stolarz from behind the net to the right of Stolarz. That doesn’t work, so he goes left and tries to bank it in again. This time it works — off the stick of Marchenko, ironically — and gets the Blue Jackets on the board for the second time in the game.

TOR: 6, CBJ: 2 (3RD PERIOD, 3:02 REMAINING)

Rifai gets the first goal of his NHL career in the closing minutes of this one. The Maple Leafs move the puck around and it eventually gets on the stick of Rifai. The defenseman fires a slapshot from the boards and it beats Talbot.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Almost everything about this game was bad. The defense is one thing, especially considering the injuries to Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro. But does any veteran on the offense want to step up?

This team has eight forwards age 26 or older: Charlie Coyle, Mathieu Olivier, Sean Monahan, Val Nichushkin, Conor Garland, Dmitri Voronkov, Ryan Lomberg, and Danton Heinen (scratched in this one). They’ve combined for four goals (and an empty-netter) in the first eight games this season, one of which came in this one when they were down four in the third.

Any goal against feels like a death sentence for this team. That’s not to say it was Greaves’ fault; it wasn’t. The young goalie was left out to dry on multiple occasions as a result of sloppy turnovers.

Head coach Rick Bowness said after the game that he and the coaches feel the culture issue is fixed, but games like this make it hard to fully believe that statement.

NEXT UP: The on-again, off-again beginning to the 2026-27 campaign now goes “off” again: the Blue Jackets are off for the next three days before welcoming the Vegas Golden Knights to town Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. It’ll be the final game before Columbus begins a three-game road trip next week, marking the team’s first extended time away from Nationwide Arena this season.