In November, Dan Dukart wrote the first Embrace The Tank piece. He urged Columbus Blue Jackets fans to embrace the losses while seeing the writing on the wall that this season would not be the triumphal return to the postseason that they hoped it would be. Dan also pointed out that the losses wouldn't be as hard to take if it's remembered just how deep this upcoming draft is and that each loss gets the franchise one step closer to having a chance to draft a generational talent such as Connor Bedard or Adam Fantilli.
What's a tank look like, though? It's a subjective term, to some degree, so let's dive deeper into what the ideal tanked season would look like for the Blue Jackets.
As Dan pointed out, there is virtually no chance the club will make the playoffs this season. Analytics site MoneyPuck agrees, giving Columbus a 0.6% chance to make the postseason. Thus, it would be prudent to hope for a high pick in what is all but guaranteed to be a talent-rich draft. But how does the club lose a ton of games and not completely depress the fan base and demoralize a young roster working to build confidence? As counterintuitive as this may sound, the answer to that question is that they need to win.
Obviously, they can't win too many games or the tank would be unsuccessful. Ideally, this season would be chalked full of one-goal losses in which the Blue Jackets outplayed the opponent in most facets of the game. But reality dictates that in a season where you lose most of your games, you will suffer at least a few blowouts, and when those occur, a bounce-back game is sorely needed.
Take Friday's game against the Calgary Flames for example. Columbus had suffered a 9-4 beatdown at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres two nights earlier — one of those demoralizing losses mentioned earlier, and on national television to boot. On one hand, the loss to the Sabres helped remove any doubt that the Jackets could be bad enough to land a top-three pick in the upcoming draft.
Though on the other hand, the game was so one-sided and such a complete meltdown by the CBJ that it ended up going a little too far — closed door meetings, post-game comments that came off as critical to some, and literal apologies from Blue Jackets brass. In order to not totally lose the fanbase and stunt the growth of the promising young players on the roster, the team badly needed a pick-me-up, which came in the form of a 3-1 victory against the Flames.
The Blue Jackets not only won the game but the defense and goaltending were perhaps the best they have been this season. Joonas Korpisalo started in the net but had to be relieved by Elvis Merzlikins when he went down with a lower-body injury. However, both goalies had their best statistical game of the season.
It was a moment of relief, giving hope to the fans, players, coaching staff, and anyone else with an attachment to the team. It did not give hope that they would somehow turn around the season and make the playoffs but rather hope that there were some redeeming qualities to this team and with the edition of elite talent, the likes of which can be found at the top of the 2023 draft, they would be in good shape for the future.
If you are one of the members of the fanbase who is rooting for a tank, this season is going to be a balancing act. A fan is always a fan, even if you are a proponent of tanking. You will always want your team to perform well, thus providing optimism for the future.
In order for the Blue Jackets to secure good odds of a high draft pick, they will need to lose most of their games. They will, however, need to play well enough to give their supporters confidence that they can compete once they have added a premier talent.
