COLUMBUS, Ohio — Incredibly, implausibly, the Columbus Blue Jackets still have a chance to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Montreal Canadiens, who could have eliminated the Blue Jackets with a win on Monday against the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks, blew an early 2-0 lead and lost 4-3 following a truly bizarre shootout before 21,105 stunned fans in Bell Centre.
That loser’s point earned by the Canadians pushes the Blue Jackets one point closer toward elimination, but it feels as if they’ve been living on the brink for more than a week now. And it’s going to send the pressure and angst sky-high in hockey-mad Montreal over the next 48 hours.
The scenarios now are pretty clear if Columbus is going to pull off a late-season miracle.
The Blue Jackets must win their final two games in regulation — Tuesday at Philadelphia and Thursday at home vs. the New York Islanders — and the Canadiens must lose their regular-season finale in regulation on Wednesday against the Carolina Hurricanes in Bell Centre.
In that scenario, the Blue Jackets and Canadiens would each have 89 points, but the Blue Jackets would have a 30-29 edge in regulation wins, which is the NHL’s first tiebreaker.
Blue Jackets players were expecting to gather on Monday in Philadelphia to watch the Canadiens play the Blackhawks with their season on the line. One can only imagine the emotions in that room when the Canadiens tied the score at three on a power-play goal with 2:57 remaining, or when the Blackhawks prevailed in a shootout with two strange events.
Chicago’s Frank Nazar lost the puck off his stick as he approached Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault in the bottom half of the first round. Nazar gathered the puck and lifted a shot off his backhand, but NHL officials lost track of the puck and assumed it sailed into the crowd.
Frank Nazar’s shootout attempt was originally ruled a miss, despite the puck going into the net. The play was then reviewed, and ruled a goal, after Montreal’s first attempt.
Nazar’s goal stood as the eventual winner… one of the most confusing shootouts ever 😭😅 pic.twitter.com/46vLTjv5pc
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) April 15, 2025
After Montreal’s Patrik Laine failed on his attempt at the start of the second round, the Blackhawks began complaining to officials that they hadn’t been credited with Nazar’s goal. Sure enough, seconds later, officials looked in the net behind Montembault and unwedged the puck from the netting.
When Chicago’s Teuvo Teravainen was denied in the bottom half of the second round, that left Montreal captain Nick Suzuki to keep the game alive.
Suzuki’s shot from close range glanced off Arvid Soderblom’s right pad, caromed off the crossbar, then shot straight up above Soderblom before landing behind him in the crease and bouncing between his pads back out in the crease.
Hockey is a game of inches, and that’s never more true than this time of year. It looked as if there was a force field in front of the Blackhawks’ net on Suzuki’s attempt.
Arvid Söderblom makes the save on Nick Suzuki in the shootout, and the Canadiens won’t clinch a playoff spot tonight ❌ pic.twitter.com/4Sz4qOJU7H
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 15, 2025
The Blue Jackets were never supposed to sniff a playoff race, much less still be in the mix in mid-April. But they’ll play game No. 81 on Tuesday with a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20, when they won a qualifying round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Most predicted the Blue Jackets would be among the worst teams in the NHL this season, especially after the late-summer tragedy that took the life of beloved teammate and perennial All-Star winger Johnny Gaudreau.
But the way the Blue Jackets have responded — not just learning to play at a high level amid the grief, but honoring Gaudreau by keeping his memory front and center — has made them one of the best stories in the NHL this season.
It all seemed to be drifting away, however, when they endured a 4-11-1 slump from early March into early April, earning just two regulation wins while getting shut out six times during that 16-game span. Miraculously, it didn’t end their season.
Now, the Blue Jackets have won four straight games, including three wins over playoff-bound teams. On Saturday and Sunday, the Jackets completed a home-and-home sweep against the Washington Capitals, who have been the Eastern Conference’s best team all season.
While Zach Werenski has been the Blue Jackets’ superstar, and young players such as Kirill Marchenko (31 goals) and Adam Fantilli (29 goals) have burst onto the scene, a new standout has arrived in recent games: goaltender Jet Greaves.
On Monday, Greaves was named the NHL’s first star of the week after going 3-0 with a .968 save percentage and 1.00 goals-against average in three starts since he was recalled from AHL Cleveland. He shut out the Capitals (22 saves) on Saturday for his first career shutout, then stopped 29 of 30 shots to beat the Caps again on Sunday.
At one point early last week, the Blue Jackets were in 12th place with four teams — Detroit, the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Montreal — between them and the final playoff spot. They were eight points behind the Canadiens.
Now, just as the Blue Jackets started heating up, the Canadiens have cooled. They’ve lost three straight (0-1-2) following a six-game winning streak.
Here’s another ominous number: Montreal is just 2-10-3 in the last 15 meetings vs. Carolina, though they did beat the Hurricanes 4-0 on Feb. 25 to end a nine-game losing streak.
The odds are still against the Blue Jackets. They can’t trip in either of their final games. But this storybook season has a chance for a storybook ending.
(Photo of Adam Fantilli: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)