Columbus Blue Jackets: Healing And Charging
The Columbus Blue Jackets suffered through a rash of injuries during the first third of the season. Now as the team regains their health they are also finding their swagger.
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Union and Blue
The Columbus Blue Jackets are the team you don’t want hanging around the playoff race. Because if they get in they could wind up a matchup nightmare for the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
Despite losing 240 man games to injury the Jackets have been getting healthier as of late and are piling up the points. After a 7-2-1 run in the last ten games they now sit 12th in the conference with 39 points, jumping Philadelphia and New Jersey during the stretch.
Much of the offensive load is being lifted by Nick Foligno and Ryan Johansen. Foligno is going just shy of a point-per-game clip with 35 points in 36 games, including a team leading 17 goals. Johansen is leading in assists with 22 and sits only one point behind Foligno’s total.
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Defensively Jack Johnson, James Wisniewski and David Savard provide both offensive punch and a lead what has turned into a physical team from top to bottom. And having a Vezina trophy winning goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky makes your team a threat to win any game on any night. Having “Bob” healthy bolsters the back end and helps make up for the rash of injuries that have plagued the rest of the team.
As the Jackets get healthy an area they will need to address is secondary scoring. Other than the aforementioned Johansen and newly resigned Foligno, there is not one player on the team with more than 8 goals. Getting back Mark Letestu and Boone Jenner will certainly help the front lines, but in the mean time the Jackets are getting it done with a balance that could prove useful if they reach the playoffs.
And that seems possible when you look at what’s ahead. The Jackets will have to jump Toronto, Ottawa, Florida and a reeling Boston team to make up the eight points they need. But the January schedule is ripe with opportunities with a game each against the Bruins and Maple Leafs, as well as contests with the Lightning, Rangers, Canadiens and Islanders. Tough games but opportunities to earn Eastern Conference points that will be critical to the standings and potential tiebreakers should teams stay tightly packed.
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Should the Jackets continue to push they would become buyers as the March 2nd trade deadline approaches. If the concern with secondary scoring still lingers Shane Doan or Jordan Eberle could become interesting targets.
Last year they gave the Pittsburgh Penguins all they could handle in a six game series, five of which were one goal games. In a tight series like that the physicality the Jackets bring can make a big difference. Make no mistake about it: the Columbus Blue Jackets aren’t going to go out and beat you 6-1 on a nightly basis. But they way they throw the body around and compete will wear teams down. That’s exactly why the top teams in the East would be quite happy if they fell just short.