For all the fans of the Western Conference, a very interesting scene is starting to take shape. You have the expected teams—the Red Wings, Flames, etc.—who are solidly in the playoffs. But then you have teams like the Ducks and the Avalanche on the outside and looking in. When you look at those disappointing teams that have been perennial contenders, all of those teams trying to make the playoffs are looking up at an unlikely playoff contender: the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Mason already has 7 shutouts as a rookie
Columbus has made a few good moves lately to get them where they are today, but there’s really one reason the Blue Jackets are making a run at the playoffs: Steve Mason. The rookie Mason is leading the league in Goals Against Average and shutouts. He’s not leading all rookies; he’s leading the entire NHL. Unless there’s a huge change of events in the last month and a half of the season, Mason will be the runaway Calder Trophy winner this season as rookie of the year because of his stellar play. As any hockey fan can tell you, great goaltending carry any team throughout the season. Even when the Blue Jackets are having an off night, Mason gives them a chance to win every game they play.
Two of the other reasons for the turnaround in Columbus can be attributed to a single day: July 3, 2008. They were able to sign Kristian Huselius in free agency while acquiring some much needed defensive depth in a trade with the New York Rangers. The media focused on Nikolai Zherdev moving to Broadway; but through two-thirds of the season, it’s the acquisitions of Christian Backman and Fedor Tyutin that might make the most difference to a potential playoff team. Zherdev, while an exciting playmaker, had never played with the consistency needed to be a reliable force on the 1st line. Even though he has talent coming out of his ears, this looks like a classic example of “addition by subtraction.”
Another stroke of genius was picking up RJ Umberger from the Philadelphia Flyers in a draft day trade. Despite Umberger’s great playoff season last year (10 goals), the Flyers were in a situation that they had too many centers and needed to cut salary. The Flyers loss has definitely been the Blue Jackets’ gain. He’s potted 20 goals and been one of the best finishers on the team all season. I’m sure Philadelphia didn’t want to give him up, but you have to give it up to Columbus for pulling the trigger and getting Umberger into a Blue Jackets uniform.
Aside from the players making the current playoff run, the pipeline looks to be full of offensive prospects. Derick Brassard was an early candidate for the Calder Trophy as he started the season with 10 goals, 25 points and a plus 12 rating in only 31 games. Unfortunately, he injured his shoulder in a scrap in mid-December and will miss the rest of the season. Jakub Voracek did his part too, playing along side Brassard as one of the best rookies this season. Just imagine next year when super-Russian Nikita Filatov breaks into the NHL full-time. The Blue Jackets look to be set up front for a long time. Ah, the joys of incredibly high draft picks every season. The lowest pick of these three players was Voracek, who was picked 7th overall. Clearly, he’s the overachiever of the group.
Pulling it all together is Ken Hitchcock. He’s won everywhere he’s been and it looks like he’s finally working his magic in Columbus as well. The Stanley Cup winning coach has made his reputation on defense; so combining his philosophy with the plethora of young offensive players should be a match made in heaven. He already has 500 wins in his career and looks like he’s just going to keep climbing the leader board as this young team develops. Coaching certainly won’t be this team’s downfall.
As if all that wasn’t good enough, they still have a captain named Rich Nash. It’s hard to believe that the former #1 overall pick is still only 24 years old. This is a guy that was talented enough to score 41 goals and lead the league in goals when he was only 19 years old (on a team that had very little talent to begin with). He’s already closing in on 200 goals and the coaching staff still hasn’t truly decided what position he is going to play. Just wait until they realize he’s a better left winger than center. He’s only going to get better. That’s a comforting fact for the Blue Jackets, but a nightmare for the rest of the Central Division. A guy with hands like this is going to get his, plain and simple:
As hard as it is to believe, there are going to be fans in places like Dallas, Vancouver, St. Paul and Anaheim that are going to be scoreboard watching every night for the rest of the season. They’ll tell the media that they are just going to go out and try to win their own games, but you’ll know they’ll be checking out the out-of-town scores every night. For the first time in their history, the Blue Jackets will be the score that everyone’s looking at. If they keep playing like they have been, they won’t be fighting for one of the last spots for long. Looking at the future core that Columbus seems to have built, maybe watching for the Blue Jackets score is something we should all get used to.
I can’t believe the Blue Jackets are really good. What the hell is going on here?
