The past few years have not been what the Blue Jacket fans have been looking for. It’s obvious that they think their team is much better than it has played for the last few years.

The team had it’s biggest success last year when it made the playoffs for the first time in its history. However, the good history would end there when they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings.

This year is looking a lot different. Right now, the Blue Jackets are at the top of the division and hold third place in the conference.

After years of steady growth, is it finally time for Columbus to play well? That’s the question I’ll be attempting to answer. When you’re done reading the article, please leave a comment and voice your opinion, I love hearing what the thoughts of my readers.

Overview of the Season so Far

Before I get into the analysis, I wanted to talk a little bit about what the Blue Jackets have been doing this year and where they are standing. If you already know, or just don’t care, feel free to skip this section.

Right now, the Blue Jackets are 8-5-2 with 18 points. As I said before they are leading the Central Division and because of that, are guaranteed a top 3 spot in the conference.

However, they are only beating the Red Wings and Blackhawks by 1 point, so this could change at any time.

Columbus Positives

Columbus is having a great offensive year. In fact, it’s the reason that they have won so many games this season.

They have scored the 6th most goals in the NHL and have the 9th best power play, converting on 23.3% of their chances.

Rick Nash is by far, the leader of the team, scoring 10 goals and tallying 11 assists. He’s definitely the soul of the Blue Jacket offense.

However, what I really want to talk about are the Blue Jacket weaknesses, these are the things that they have to watch out for this season. This is what will make or break the team.

Columbus Negatives

The biggest problem that the Blue Jackets have is defense. They have the 4th most goals scored against them this season with 50. They are only 1 behind Toronto, Montreal, and Carolina for the most goals scored against them.

A lot of the blame needs to go to Steve Mason who has posted the second worst save percentage in the NHL. However, I don’t want to put too much blame on the goalie because he’s also had to face the 8th most shots.

This tells me that the defense is letting the other team get through too easily. If the other team is getting through the defense, then they could get right in front of the net and see some great opportunities. That would explain Mason’s low save percentage.

The penalty kill for Columbus also needs to improve. Right now, they are in the bottom third of the league, killing only 77% of their penalties.

Eventually, everything defensive needs to improve. This is going to be the Achilles Heel of the franchise this season.

My Prediction

Columbus’s season could go either way. They could either do really good, or end up doing really bad. It all depends on how well they fix their defense.

If they can find a way to stop the other team from scoring goals, then their offense is going to have a much easier time.

However, if they can’t find a way to stop the puck, then they’re going to have a tough time winning games this season. They can’t rely on their offense to score 3-4 goals every single game.

I think that Columbus is going to finish somewhere in the middle. They will be in a fight for the playoffs, just like they were last year.

I think that the Columbus coaching staff knows and understands how weak their defense is and will focus on that for a while in practices. Hopefully, the defense will be able to get better and keep the puck away from the net. If it doesn’t the Columbus season will be a long one.

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