The Columbus Blue Jackets take the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, March 24, with a genuine shot at climbing past Philly in the Metro standings. Columbus enters at 37-22-11 — a record that would have seemed far-fetched 18 months ago, when the club was still deep in a rebuild. The Jackets are rolling into Philly off a 1-0 road loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday, tight and physical, exactly the kind of game this squad now plays.
Philadelphia sits at 34-23-12, close enough to make Tuesday a real chess match for playoff seeding. A Columbus win tonight reshapes the bracket picture heading into the final weeks.
Columbus’s Standings Picture Entering Tuesday Night
At 37-22-11, the Jackets have banked 85 points — a total built on four-line depth, not just top-six flash. The numbers reveal a defensive structure that held the Islanders to zero goals on Sunday, a road performance that underlines how far this group has come. Grabbing the second seed in the Metro with a victory over Philly would hand Columbus home-ice advantage in Round 1 — no small thing for a squad still forging its postseason identity.
The Metro race is brutal right now. Every point matters when you’re jostling with the New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes, and New Jersey Devils for positioning. Finishing second avoids a potential first-round draw against the conference’s top team, which in a conference this loaded can swing a series before the opening faceoff.
Columbus‘s 37 wins already rank among the stronger single-season turnarounds in franchise history over the past decade. Three straight years of improved points-per-game rates point to real organizational growth. General manager Don Waddell’s cap strategy and draft patience are converging at exactly the right moment — the film on this team shows a group that competes for 60 minutes every night, not just when the score is close.
Three Game-Time Decisions Cloud the Lineup
Columbus will dress a lineup similar to Sunday’s group in New York, though three skaters are carrying game-time decision tags before puck drop. Coach Rick Tocchet flagged Sean Couturier (upper body), Luke Glendening (lower body), and Barkey (upper body) as needing pre-warmup evaluation before lineups are finalized.
Tocchet has built a reputation for cautious injury management. He isn’t rushing anyone onto the ice with meaningful regular-season contests still ahead. Having three simultaneous question marks is an unusually high number for a club in a playoff push — but the roster’s forward depth means absorbing one or two absences doesn’t gut the combinations. That kind of organizational resilience took years to construct.
Philadelphia is navigating its own availability questions at 34-23-12. Both coaching staffs will finalize decisions in the hours before the 7 p.m. faceoff. Philly has been competitive all season, so Columbus can’t expect a gimme even if the Flyers are short-handed up front.
What a Win Does for Columbus’s Playoff Bracket
Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Tocchet has spent this season constructing a road-ready defensive identity, and Tuesday’s matchup at Wells Fargo Center is precisely where that identity gets stress-tested. A victory pushes the Jackets into the second seed in the Metro, per NHL.com’s seeding tracker, which means avoiding the conference’s top team in a potential first-round draw. Bracket position matters enormously in a conference packed with contenders — ask any club that has opened a series on the road against a President’s Trophy front-runner.
Wells Fargo Center has been a tough building for visiting clubs this season. Columbus will need its road composure from the opening whistle, leaning on the same defensive structure that blanked the Islanders 48 hours earlier.
The deeper point here is straightforward: Columbus has navigated 70 games to arrive at this spot. Closing the final stretch with wins in high-leverage situations is how contenders pull away from the pack. Whether Couturier, Glendening, or Barkey suits up, the Jackets head into Philly trusting their system to deliver.
Key Developments
NHL.com’s playoff buzz section specifically flagged this Columbus-Philadelphia matchup as a seeding opportunity for the Jackets, noting the tight point gap between the two clubs.
Barkey’s upper-body concern is the third simultaneous game-time tag — an unusual cluster of uncertainty for a contending roster.
Glendening’s lower-body issue adds a depth-forward question mark on top of the Couturier and Barkey situations, potentially forcing line shuffles.
Columbus’s 85-point total through 70 games puts the franchise on pace for one of its best full-season point totals in recent memory.
Don Waddell’s front office has not made a panic move at the trade deadline, betting on internal depth to carry the club through the final stretch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does the Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Flyers game start on March 24?
Puck drop at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia is set for 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. The contest is part of Columbus’s late-season road stretch as the Jackets push for playoff positioning in the Metropolitan Division’s tight standings race.
How many points do the Columbus Blue Jackets have entering this game?
Columbus carries 85 points into Tuesday’s matchup on a 37-22-11 record. Their 11 overtime losses are actually a sign of how many close games they’ve stayed competitive in — teams that rack up OTL totals like that tend to be playing meaningful hockey deep into the third period night after night.
Who are the injured players for Columbus against Philadelphia?
Three Columbus skaters — Sean Couturier (upper body), Luke Glendening (lower body), and Barkey (upper body) — are listed as game-time decisions ahead of Tuesday’s faceoff, per coach Rick Tocchet. All three require pre-warmup evaluation, meaning final lineup decisions won’t come until shortly before puck drop at Wells Fargo Center.
What is Philadelphia’s record entering the March 24 matchup?
The Flyers come in at 34-23-12, putting them within a few points of Columbus in the Metropolitan Division table. Philadelphia’s 12 overtime losses mirror a similar pattern to Columbus — both clubs have played a high volume of tight games, which makes Tuesday’s head-to-head matchup a direct points-in-hand opportunity for whoever comes out on top.
Who is the Columbus Blue Jackets general manager?
Don Waddell serves as Columbus’s general manager. He assembled the current roster through cap management, NHL Draft investment, and a willingness to let younger players develop on their own timeline — a multi-year approach that now has the club in genuine playoff contention during the 2025-26 season with 85 points through 70 games.
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