Despite losing Laine and Gaudreau as top scorers, the fast-rising Blue Jackets have impressed GM Don Waddell with a offensive firepower.

From an EDGE stats standpoint, Marchenko checks many boxes that explain his full-fledged breakout season after leading Columbus in goals last season (23 in 78 games); he’s their best in the category again and on pace for 32 goals (18 in first 45 games). He is among the forward leaders in the following categories:

The Blue Jackets 'mucked' it up with Tortorella's Flyers to win by shootout on Marchenko's borrowed move from Texier: 3 takeaways

But it’s also because five of my so-called sure things have been varying degrees of disappointments. Today, let’s run through those five teams I believed in back in October and rank them based on how close they are to reclaiming a spot in my top five.

According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, the Blue Jackets might be among the teams reaching out to the Canucks to hear the ask for Elias Pettersson. Rumors this past week were that the Canucks aren’t closed off to trading Pettersson inside the Western Conference, but a trade to the East would be preferable.

The latest victory, Tuesday night’s 3-2 shootout triumph over Philadelphia, was a bit of a slog the entire way – a “grinding, in the mud” game, as head coach Dean Evason said – but the Blue Jackets stuck with it and got the two points.

The Columbus Blue Jackets begin the second half of ... an upper-body injury sustained in a Dec. 22 game against the Colorado Avalanche, for the trip. Daccord is 12-9-2 with a 2.51 goals-against ...

Denton Mateychuk and Luca Del Bel Belluz, both recent callups from the AHL, each had a goal and an assist to help lift the Columbus Blue Jackets over the Seattle Kraken 6-2.

The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to stretch their winning streak to six games when they play host to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

For the first time in history of their organization, the Columbus Blue Jackets have a legitimate contender for the Norris Trophy. Their top defenseman Zach Were

But for the fifth straight meeting between the Rangers and Avalanche, this game was also decided after regulation. The Rangers allowed their hosts to tie it up at 18:47 of the third period after the Avalanche pulled goalie Mackenzie Blackwood for an extra attacker.