Six weeks sounds like a helluva long time.
That's, of course, because it is.
Seth Jones is the straw that stirs the Blue Jackets' drink. It's a drink that, right now, is more of a Bud Light than a tastily-made Manhattan.
John Tortorella slid a double shot across the bar on Wednesday afternoon, in speaking with "Carpenter and Rothman" on 97.1 The Fan. He told them that Jones had been skating this week with Blue Jackets assistant coach Kenny McCudden, and was making considerable progress in his return from a knee injury.
Further, Tortorella believes Jones is more on the "early" end of the original 4-to-6 week prognosis. Boy, could the Blue Jackets ever use this guy back in the lineup right now. He's their best player, one of the top defensemen in the NHL, and having him back in the mix just puts everyone in the right place.
No disrespect to David Savard, who's a solid player, but the Werenski-Jones pairing makes the Blue Jackets' defense one of the best in the business. You can't replace that, especially what it does for them in transition and playing how they want to play. Right now, they're missing that – and you can tell in the way they're scraping to get results.
Ideally, the Blue Jackets have two pairings that can legitimately drive play when Jones returns. The top pairing with he and Werenski should do that on a nightly basis, while the emergence of Markus Nutivaara and Ryan Murray as 5-on-5 masters has been quite the revelation.
That's the kind of top-four defense you can do some damage with.
TIME TO MAKE HAY
The Blue Jackets are looking for consistency, right?
Well there's one opportunity coming up, beginning tonight against the Flyers. They're going to spend a lot of time at home until they head to California at the end of this month. Five of their next six games are at Nationwide Arena, including three straight – Flyers (tonight), Blackhawks (Saturday) and Coyotes (Tuesday).
If a Tuesday night game against Arizona doesn't get you amped, I don't know what will.
But the point is that the Blue Jackets can get themselves righted here. It's an important time in the schedule, with this four-day break to take a breath after getting smoked in Tampa and now an extended stretch of home games; you don't want to fall behind in the division race and this is the opportunity to climb the ladder.
With three non-conference games in the next week, there's an additional chance to pick up some "free" points.
EPIC TORTS
Every now and then, Tortorella gives you an epic practice day presser. This, from earlier in the week, was one of them:
