The Jackets couldn’t bring home two points yesterday against Chicago, but they did manage one point. They also got some help, and with their remaining schedule they need all the help they can get. Three games to go! Continuing my updates, here’s a quick update of the playoff picture as it applies to Columbus. Results and matchups after the jump…
CBJ “Magic Points” Number: 3 (any combination of Jackets’ points and “lost points” by the ninth place team)
Jackets Record: 40-29-10 (90pts – 6th place)
Sports Club Stats Rank: 6th, 98.1% (+2.0%)
Sports Club Stats Jackets Seeding Odds:
5th: 3.494%
6th: 71.461%
7th: 15.408%
8th: 7.743%
Out: 1.894%
Last Night’s Important Results
Chicago at Columbus – CHI wins, 1-0 (OT)
Well, this one sucked to watch. A shutout through 63 minutes, with both goalies making some super stops, and then a sloppy turnover by Columbus at the Chicago blue line leads to a break away. And, after making several highlight reel saves, Mason wasn’t able to smother one that beat him 5-hole. Yes, it was a point, but for as well as they played to only come away with the one point was a disappointment. At any rate, the magic number drops one more. Chicago moves on to play in Nashville on Tuesday, so here’s hoping they help us out one more time. Columbus plays Chicago again on Wednesday, at St. Louis on Friday, and home to Minnesota on Saturday to close out the season. Just need three points in those games!
Minnesota at Detroit – DET wins, 3-2
This one was important for Columbus in the sense that now the Wild are unable to catch/pass the Jackets in the standings. Along with Edmonton at 83 points, the Wild are still mathematically in the playoff hunt, but they can’t pass Columbus to get there—a bonus for Jackets fans: two fewer teams to worry about. This leaves Columbus’s scoreboard watching to three other teams: Anaheim, St. Louis, and Nashville. Hey, speaking of Anaheim…
San Jose at Anaheim – SJS wins, 3-2
This one helps Columbus from the standpoint of trying to hold on to the sixth seed. With the Jackets getting a point, they now are two points in front of the Ducks for sixth, and Columbus has one additional game remaining. Many thanks, Sharks!
Tonight’s Important Matchups
No games of impact for Columbus on Monday. Take a breath!
Author: DP
DP is a native north-eastern Ohioan who has been living in Columbus since 1999. DP's main area of concentration here at WFNY is the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team, and you can catch his weekly 5-Hole columns each Tuesday. During the summers, you can also catch up on all the Columbus Clippers news that's fit to print in his Clip Show columns. In his spare time, he works in publishing, plays the drums, and wastes hundreds of dollars on Browns season tickets.DP has written 232 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Shut up, you had me at “this one sucked to watch.”
Coincidentally, their magic number for the #6 spot is also 3.
Go Blackhawks! Did I just say that?
Also, I am not tempted by the “Atlanta Hawks First Round Playoffs Tickets” banner ads!
Go Blackhawks tomorrow, and then “Roll Over Blackhawks!” on Wednesday.
Is it possible the Jackets have peaked already? Making the playoffs would obviously be great but a first round sweep would be disappointing
Ricky,
Anything’s possible with this team. They look like world-beaters one night, and flat the next. I think it’s largely part and parcel of having a lot of young guys going through their first playoff drive. It’s hard to really comprehend the energy level it takes, and these guys definitely have streaks where it looks like they’re tired and overwhelmed.
It was a struggle over the past two seasons for these guys to really “get” what it takes to be a competitive NHL team throughout the regular season, and they finally seem to have gotten to that point. Logically, then, there’s a “next step” for them, and that would be really learning what it takes to make the playoffs. That’s where they’re at right now.
Getting swept in the first round would be a disappointment, sure, but with the young/non-playoff-experienced talent on this club (Mason, Filatov, Nash, Brassard, Russel, Klesla, Methot, Novotny, Boll etc.) the experience is definitely invaluable going into the next few years as the core develops.
If they get bounced early, do we have to deal with Nash 2010 rumors all year?
Well said, DP. The playoffs are just the next step for this team. I don’t think any of us are expecting the Stanley Cup or anything. But in order to become successful long term, you usually have to experience success in smaller doses – and the playoff push is giving them that experience.
Scott,
I don’t think so. I think Nash has all but committed to staying at this point. I think he can see (much like LeBron) how much better the team has gotten since he was drafted, and he can tell how bright the future is here. Columbus is in a better situation right now than is Toronto (where he’s long been rumored to be going).
The Jackets can offer him an extension in July. Now, if he completely rebuffs them, I might change my tune.
[...] since I’ve been running the daily updates for the last week or so. Not much has changed since yesterday’s update, as no games of import were played in the Western Conference. The Jackets’ magic number is still [...]