5 meltdowns that kept Columbus Blue Jackets out of NHL playoffs

This one stung even worse for the Blue Jackets than a year ago, when they missed the playoffs by just two points. The Jackets finished 2025-26 riding a six-game winning streak that forced the Montreal Canadiens to barely sneak into the postseason on a win in their final game. This season, the Jackets missed out by six points despite increasing their point total from 89 to 92.

Blown leads in third periods were, by far, the biggest reason. They tied the Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens for most games with a blown lead in the third period (21) and led the league with a whopping 11 games having multi-goal leads vanish in the third. The Anaheim Ducks finished closest to the Jackets in that latter category, blowing multi-goal leads in seven third periods.

Three of the Jackets’ 11 late multi-goal leads that disappeared came against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins finished second in the Metropolitan Division at 98 points, so that four-game series alone could’ve gotten Columbus into the playoffs had the Jackets protected late leads better. It wasn’t just Pittsburgh, though.

The Jackets blew late leads against nine of their peers in the Eastern Conference, which amounted to a combined 23 extra points for those teams. It gets worse. According to MoreHockeyStats.