Our road map suggested the Blue Jackets be at 73 points through 63 games by the time the clock struck March.
After hitting their first two "checkpoints" (to varying degrees), the club missed it on their past two attempts, meaning they are, again, off the 95-point pace that has typically allowed NHL teams to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The club sits at 69 points through 63 games, merely two wins off the pace we recommended. But this time of year, four points is quite a bit of ground to make up, especially with seemingly endless three-point, inter-divisional games.
But good news: While the Blue Jackets have spent 2018 playing basically .500 hockey, so too has much of the Eastern Conference! Consider that, were they in the Western Conference, their 69 points would put them four teams away from the last Wild Card spot. Put another way: they would be five points behind the playoff bubble.
Instead, they find themselves in a playoff position, and to be frank, it looks like it's their spot to lose. None of the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders, or Florida Panthers are in a position to overtake the Jackets, at least, not yet. The Panthers have been playing excellent hockey and are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games. They're within striking distance, but they'll need to win their games in hand to become more than a nuisance.
It appears that the 95 points typically required to get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be a bit lower this year, likely in the 90-92 point range. And the Jackets are on pace for 90.
Five points ahead of the Jackets are the New Jersey Devils. The teams don't play each other again this year, and the Devils hold the ROW (regulation/overtime wins) tie-breaker, so the Jackets would need to jump over them to play the Metropolitan Division champion. Not exactly a consolation prize, but that's the reality.
The Penguins are seven points ahead of the Blue Jackets, which, with less than 20 games to go, is a pretty sizable gap. Not saying it can't happen, but it would be a borderline pipe dream for the Blue Jackets to catch – let alone pass – the Penguins.
The only other realistic results for them are finishing second in the wild-card and playing a juggernaut like Tampa Bay or perhaps Boston. Again, not ideal, but it beats the alternative, which is missing the playoffs entirely.
Regardless of your view point, the fact of the matter is that the Jackets would do well to be playing their best hockey heading into the playoffs, something they were unable to boast a season ago.
This is our last checkpoint of the season. When we started this column in August, the purpose was to illustrate that an 108-point season was likely not an option on the table, but that they could still make it back in to the postseason for the first time in their existence. With 19 games to play, the Blue Jackets are still in a playoff position.
And that's hard to argue with, even if you wished they were in a better playoff spot.
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