The more we talk about this season, and where it's going, the more I don't understand it.
How are the Blue Jackets *this* close to seeing their season slip out of control?
A year ago at this time, they were on cruise control to a playoff berth. You know the story: 27 wins by Jan. 1, 50 in all, and the best season in their history. You thought at the time that such a strong season – one in which it felt as though they'd arrived as a franchise – would be the one to put them on solid footing.
And man, does the organization ever need that with its on-ice performance.
The Blue Jackets miraculously made the playoffs for the first time in 2008-09. Ken Hitchcock squeezed juice out of a boulder to get them in before they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings and didn't appear in the postseason again until the spring of 2014. Six games later, they were sent home. And it wasn't until three years had passed that the locals again tasted playoff hockey, this time a 10-day stay after the aforementioned record-setting regular season.
We all thought that, finally, the Blue Jackets would be in a position to expect to be playing hockey beyond the first week of April. That the regular season would soon become their exercise to gain a better position heading into the playoffs, much like Pittsburgh, Washington and (before this year) the New York Rangers so often do. But here we are again, wondering if this season is perilously close to becoming a disaster.
Make no mistake: if the Blue Jackets miss the playoffs this year, it's a disaster.
They're a deep enough and talented enough team equipped with one of the league's best goaltenders, two of its best young defensemen and a top-10 forward who's got to be looking around like "hey, anyone want to help?"
They started this season with 14 wins in their first 21 games and looked a lot like the team that breezed through the regular season last year. Injuries swamped them, some doubt crept into their game, they decided to change their playing style (which still confuses the hell out of me) and have now forgotten how to score goals while the rest of the division has wisely chosen not to waste anymore time.
What's happened over the last few weeks can't go on any longer if the Blue Jackets are going to make the playoffs. They're ominously close to becoming the hunter rather than the hunted, and in this version of the NHL, the hunters typically don't fare well (barring a miracle run) at this stage of the season.
You don't want to look back two months from now and think about Saturday's game in Brooklyn. Or Tuesday's woeful showing at home against Minnesota. Or any number of games the Blue Jackets should have won or at least gotten a point out of along the way. They're too good to be fighting for their lives and too good to be throwing away a game like Saturday's, especially after how dominant they were for most of it.
The schedule isn't changing, the challenge ahead isn't changing and the expectation isn't changing, either: this Blue Jackets team has to be a playoff team. It's time for them to establish something.
Anything else would be a major step backward for a franchise that has finally started to move forward.
YOU SHOULD BE READING
- This week's "Heat Check" is all about Artemi Panarin and his other-worldly play.
- Despite being on the wrong side of many important metrics, the Blue Jackets are somehow still in this race.
Follow 1st Ohio BatteryFacebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
