NHL.com’s fantasy staff continues to cover the latest trends and storylines in the League through the lens of NHL EDGE puck and player tracker stats. Today, we take a look at the reasons for the Columbus Blue Jackets’ surprising season with their advanced metrics highlights.

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

Zach Werenski climbs higher, the Blue Jackets are watching the standings closer and the San Jose Sharks were overmatched: 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.

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.

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 Blue Jackets (21-17-6) have won five straight and play the San Jose Sharks at Nationwide Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FDSNOH, NBCSCA). They will host the Detroit Red Wings in the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium on March 1 (6 p.m. ET; ESPN, TVAS-D, SN360).

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.

This is the obvious one. Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL with 68 points, seven more than Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl in second place. Also of note, he’s first in points per game at 1.58, narrowly ahead of the Art Ross winner last season, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov at 1.57.

Here are three things to watch for when the New York Rangers play the second of a three-game road trip against the Colorado Avalanche.