A guilty pleasure of mine is the 1992 movie White Men Can't Jump.
In the movie, actress Rosie Perez plays a character named Gloria, and she bestows upon us in that movie a quote that has been in my head for much of the Columbus Blue Jackets' 2022-23 season:
"Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.”
Ok, not all of that goes through my head — but the first seven words do.
At this point, what's the purpose of winning games? I am yet to get a genuinely good answer of that. Here are the two most common:
"Oh, well, it's all about the moral for the fellas!"
Great. Except for half the team on the ice right now won't be here next season. Are we willing to fractionalize our chances at generational talent Connor Bedard so that, with all due respect, Lane Pederson and Marcus Bjork can feel a little bit better about themselves for a few hours?
"I can't root for my team to lose!"
And this is the one that brings us back to Gloria's words of wisdom. Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win.
These late-season points are nothing to cheer for. They are not helping a playoff push. They are not building chemistry between key parts of the team like Patrik Laine and Zach Werenski because those guys aren't on the damn ice. In fact, it's just the opposite. Late-season wins in past season's have led to miserable starts the following year, and because the organization picked outside of the top five (a very real possibility this season if they go .500 in their last six games, by the way) as a result of said late-season wins, there was no franchise-altering player to grab in the draft.
Which brings me to another famous line, this one from Albert Einstein (though not his own, really): "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
So why, why, why, why are we pulling for a couple of meaningless wins that could hurt the franchise long-term? Yes, I hate rooting for my team to lose. But you know what I hate more? Watching other bad teams turn into championship teams with top players in the draft, while watching my bad team peak at one playoff series victory in nearly a quarter century. So if the way to change that is bite the bullet for a few weeks, then let me stretch my cheek muscles so that I can open wide.
With that out of the way, here's where things stand as of Monday afternoon:
It would behoove us to start piling up the losses. #CBJhttps://t.co/hranmhjyB2 pic.twitter.com/Wwn78dnTQO
— CBJ Stats (@BlueJacketStats) April 3, 2023
...and here are the key takeaways:
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Six games left. Really, to have any realistic chance at finishing in last, the Blue Jackets can only win one more game. The good news is, it doesn't seem to be there this week: Columbus winning in Toronto or in Newark against the New Jersey Devils seems like a pipe dream, though they did pick up a point in Boston last week — an even deeper dream. Columbus returns home Saturday against the New York Rangers. All three teams here are playing for home ice: the Maple Leafs over the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Devils and Rangers are three points apart and seem to be on a collision course with each other in the first round. So all three of these teams have a ton to play for, and unlike the Ottawa Senators (who also had a lot to play for in Columbus' win Sunday), these teams have the talent to make some big-time noise.
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They'll never admit it, but it really seems like the Blue Jackets brass is in on the tank. Sunday's lineup screamed AHL about a quarter of the way down and it felt like Senators goalie Cam Talbot was wearing a Chicago Blackhawks or Anaheim Ducks tee under his sweater. They didn't play well, they just stumbled on a victory.
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I cheered for the Blue Jackets to beat the Blackhawks on New Year's Ever and I feel really dumb about that now.
...and here's a closer look at the other three teams in Columbus' orbit:
The San Jose Sharks winning three games in a row is one of the most wild things to happen this season across the entire league. Whipping up on is Arizona is one thing, but Vegas and Winnipeg? Good work, Sharks. With 59 points and on pace for nearly 64 points, the Sharks have all but played themselves out of finishing last. Before we completely forget about them, though, it's worth noting that four of their final six games are against the Edmonton Oilers or Colorado Avalanche. If the Sharks go just 1-4-1 to close the season, the Blue Jackets would need to go at least .500 to finish ahead of them.
The Blackhawks point total has not changed since before St. Patrick's Day. Columbus trailed them by five points on March 17th. They're now ahead by two. There is some good news, though: their 18th-ranked schedule from here out is the easiest of the bottom four by quite a bit. They play the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night north of the border and it feels like that's a must-win for the Blackhawks as it relates to Columbus' odds.
The Anaheim Ducks had a third-period lead on the Calgary Flames on Sunday night and lost that lead with less than three minutes left. It kept them ahead of the Blue Jackets because the Ducks have one less game remaining on the schedule, but they also have fewer regulation wins (the tie breaker should two teams finish with the same number of points) so the lack of picking up at least one to the Flames really hurts. Anaheim's trip to Arizona this weekend is huge.
