Three games left, two on home ice.
With five of six points on their three-game trip through western Canada, the Blue Jackets have inched closer and closer to securing their spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And we've covered this at length here – it would be a monumental thing for this club to make consecutive playoff appearances, if not only to make this a regular thing.
The best teams in the NHL, those with annual aspirations to do something big, don't hope to get in the playoffs. They're confident that they'll be there, and the 82-game journey is used to determine what kind of chance they begin the tournament with. The Blue Jackets have had to fight for their lives (2008-09), get hot down the stretch (2013-14) and then last year were able to coast into the dance.
It's been a combination of all three this season, and if they can get it done this week, you get the feeling that it starts to become the expectation. Desperately, the Blue Jackets need to be a team that people in this town expect to be in the playoffs, not just catch your attention when they go on a run in the second half.
They're on the cusp of being that team.
This edition of the Blue Jackets is built well from the back end out, equipped with one of the best goaltenders in the world and an underrated amount of skill in its forward group. They're more balanced than they were a year ago, they're more hard-headed than they were a year ago (the 16-game winning streak softened them a bit down the stretch) and they have a different vibe around them.
Call me crazy, but I can see this group making a run when they get in.
Now that they're back at Nationwide Arena, their focus shifts just a little.
If the cards fall in their favor, the Blue Jackets can punch their ticket with a win Tuesday night over the Detroit Red Wings. And if that goes well, their Thursday date with the Pittsburgh Penguins looms even larger; could that game be for the upper hand in home ice advantage? There's a reasonably good chance that those two teams will meet again in the first round of the playoffs. Four playoff appearances by the Blue Jackets and three first-round matchups with Pittsburgh.
We talked about it in the 1OB Roundtable last week – if you're going to be a team that contends, you need to be able to beat the Penguins. So why not this year? Why not this team? It's not crazy talk anymore.
But their first order of business is to get in, and you want to be on home ice with that opportunity. It should be an exciting week for the Blue Jackets.
YOU SHOULD BE READING
- Seth Jones' four-point game in Vancouver helped him shatter a Blue Jackets record. He's now the record-holder for points in a season by a defenseman (54).
- And here's that aforementioned 1OB Roundtable, discussing the Blue Jackets' optimal playoff lineup and potential first-round opponents.
- The Blue Jackets' mounted a furious charge in Vancouver, and though they came up short, there's nothing wrong with picking up a point when you probably didn't deserve one.
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