NHL Mid-Season Grades: Metropolitan Division Breakdown
By Trin Potratz
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
Current Record: 30-9-4 (64 points)
Nobody saw this coming, but the Columbus Blue Jackets are the top team in the league, and they have their almost-record-breaking 16-game win streak to thank.
Head coach John Tortorella has found a way to get back in the elite league of coaches by turning this franchise around. Whatever it is he is doing, it is working.
FORWARDS: A
Five of the Blue Jacket’s have over 30 points, including the revamped Sam Gagner.
Brandon Saad was expected, but Nick Foligno‘s bounce back year and breakout years from Cam Atkinson and Alexander Wennberg have added to the most lethal attacks.
To a lesser extent, the Blue Jackets have also seen solid additions to their attack from Josh Anderson (10 goals), William Karlsson (14 points) and to a lesser extent Lukas Sedlak (11 points).
Add in the solid play of veteran checkers Scott Hartnell and Brandon Dubinsky and you will see a group that is just a well-oiled machine.
DEFENSE: A-
When the Jackets traded their number one center in Ryan Johansen for defender Seth Jones, it was a risk/reward deal. Seth Jones’ performance this year proves it was worth the risk.
While Wennberg has filled in for Johansen up front, Jones has become the minute muncher a good team needs. He does it all from the back end.
Rookie Zach Werenski has been a revelation and while he won’t win the Calder, at this point he should.
GOALIES: A
BOBROVSKY!!!!!!!
The Russian wonder goalie is at it again. Bobrovsky has an outstanding 27-6-2 record to go along with a 1.97 GAA and .932 save percentage.
Bobrovsky is my pick for runner-up to Devan Dubnyk for the Vezina trophy.
Bobrovsky has been so good that the carousel of backups (Curtis McElhinney, Joonas Korpisalo, and Anton Forsberg) have had very little work to do.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: SAM GAGNER
The entire team could be the winner for this category, but you have to look at what Gagner’s done this season to become a relevant hockey player again.
Gagner’s career high in points was the 49 he scored in his rookie year with the Edmonton Oilers. With 31 points in only 42 games, he is well on his way to posting the best season of his career.
The real kicker is the fact that he has been playing on the club’s fourth line this entire time.
Oh, and he’s the best bargain in the league coming in at $650,000.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: RYAN MURRAY
While it was hard to pick anything wrong with the team this year, one would have to look at the seemingly stalled career of 2012 2nd overall pick Ryan Murray.
Murray hasn’t been terrible, but he was expected to take the next step toward becoming a top defensemen. Instead, Murray has a measly seven assists and he is fifth on the Jackets ice time amongst defenders. That puts him behind Jones, David Savard, Jack Johnson and rookie Zach Werenski.
Could be trade bait.
OUTLOOK:
I always felt they were a good but unlucky team. But now they are a great team. These kinds of streaks don’t just happen out of the blue.
The Jackets have been spinning their wheels long enough and I expect they finally win a series, the first of their franchise’s lifespan.
They may also be in the market for a backup goaltender, but if they want to push themselves to the point where they can legitimately challenge for the Cup, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see them be a big player for either Matt Duchene or Gabriel Landeskog.