The Blue Jackets are entering a critical schedule point, and they must respond.
Most people around the league pegged the Columbus Blue Jackets to be at the bottom of the league this season. Most even had them finishing worse than the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks. This group of players had other plans.
As of today, they sit with a record of 31-25-8, 70 points, and occupy the second wild card spot. But now they must kick it into overdrive if they want to make the playoffs.
The CBJ have the 6th hardest remaining schedule based on their opponents' winning percentage. Not ideal, especially since the teams around them in the playoff hunt have easier schedules.
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Since the calendar turned to March, the Jackets are just 2-3 and averaging 3.4 goals per game. The problem is that they're not winning games against the big-boy playoff teams. The three losses came against Florida, Tampa Bay, and New Jersey, all of which are in the top three of their respective divisions.
The rest of March will be just as hard. They have eight games remaining in March, five of which are at home, so that's a positive.
The remaining schedule for March is as follows:
- Vegas - 83 Points - 1st in the Pacific
- New York Rangers - 68 Points - two points behind Columbus for WC2
- New Jersey - 76 Points - 3rd in the Metro
- Florida - 83 Points - 1st in the Atlantic
- Pittsburgh - 62 Points - 8th in the Metro
- New York Islanders - 65 Points - five points behind Columbus
- Vancouver - 69 Points - one point out of WC2 in the West
- Ottawa - 73 Points - Three points ahead of Columbus for WC1
As you can see, it's going to be a tough road for the Jackets, and April doesn't get any easier. Six of the ten games in April will see the CBJ play against teams currently in a playoff spot, with two of those games coming against the Ottawa Senators and two against the Washington Capitals.
Another positive is that they play 11 of the remaining 18 games at Nationwide Arena, a place where they thrive. Columbus is 20-6-4 at home and has essentially dominated most of the games they've won. They're tied for the 5th most home wins in the Eastern Conference and tied for 11th most in the entire league.
Now is go time for the Jackets. They can't afford to take a night off if they want to be around at the end and make the playoffs.
This has been a fun season to watch, but now it's time to see if the group that Don Waddell believes in can make the final push.
What's Next? The Columbus Blue Jackets return home on Thursday to play the Vegas Golden Knights.
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