A huge early-season test awaits the Columbus Blue Jackets.
After dropping the first of a five-game road trip in disappointing fashion Sunday night, the Blue Jackets are set for four games in western Canada and in Seattle that will provide the team a November litmus test.
The Blue Jackets kick things off in Calgary on Wednesday before a pair of off days. The trip then continues in Vancouver on Saturday before wrapping up with a back-to-back Monday and Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers and Seattle Kraken, respectively.
Historically, this portion of the schedule has not been kind to Columbus.
The Canadian chunk of that swing last season: the Flames, Canucks, and Oilers outscored Columbus 14-5 in three games between December 3rd and 6th.
| OPPONENT | DATE | FINAL SCORE |
| Seattle | 11/12 | 5-2 Kraken |
| Calgary | 12/3 | 3-0 Flames |
| Edmonton | 12/5 | 6-3 Oilers |
| Vancouver | 12/6 | 5-2 Canucks |
The Blue Jackets also lost in Seattle in 2024-25. That game, a 5-2 loss November 12th, completed an early-season, 0-5 road trip that also included the California teams.
For a team that missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs by one game, that's brutal.
It wasn't much better two seasons ago, when Columbus went 1-2-1 in January of 2024. That was also their record when they visited those four cities consecutively in January of 2023. The season before that? Another 1-2-1 mark.
Combine those four cities in the last four seasons and you get a record of 3-10-3. Not ideal, considering that the Oilers have been the only elite team of the bunch in that four-year span.
But those Columbus teams, with the exception of last season, weren't much to write home about either. This team has the ability to be different, as evident by their 7-5-0 start to the season.
Included in those games are a 4-2-0 mark on the road, a marked improvement away from Nationwide Arena. The fourth road victory, a 4-3 overtime win in Buffalo, came on October 28th. In the 2024-25 campaign, it was December 8th before the Blue Jackets got road win number four.
Win number five away from Columbus last season didn't happen until January 7th.
If the Blue Jackets are to be taken seriously in a stacked Eastern Conference, and if they truly are leveling up as an organization, these are the stretches of the schedule where two wins (at a minimum) will be needed to call it a successful road trip.
They've flashed the potential; now it's time to keep it going.
