It's now going to take a miraculous series of fortunate events for the Blue Jackets to qualify for the playoffs.
After being swept and shut out by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators in a road back-to-back set this past weekend, the Jackets are eight points out of the Eastern Conference's second wild card with six games left to play. They've slipped to the lower tier of teams chasing the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card, which is the East's last ticket into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They're saying all the right things, but also coming to grips with reality.
"Finish as strong as we can, that's all we can do," Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. "You just see what happens. It's tough to look at standings with how it's gone, but our focus just has to be game-by-game, try to get as many points as we can, and at the end of the year we'll see how it shakes out."
MoneyPuck, DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM think it will take a miracle for the Jackets to make the postseason. Dropping three straight games, including back-to-back losses without scoring a goal, has almost completely sunk their playoff odds.
Columbus Blue Jackets' odds of qualifying for the playoffs drop again
The Blue Jackets have already exceeded preseason forecasts about their season, but they've now got a steep uphill ...
