Will eight be enough?
That’s how many games the Blue Jackets have left to save their playoff aspirations, which are suddenly teetering after a disastrous 7-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night at Nationwide Arena.
Next is a daunting back-to-back this weekend in Toronto and Ottawa that could either slingshot the Blue Jackets (34-31-9) closer to the Montreal Canadiens for the Eastern Conference’s second wild card or eviscerate their postseason dreams. Their loss in regulation to the Avs combined with Montreal’s victory over the Boston Bruins puts four points between Montreal and Columbus now for the East's final playoff spot.
“We’ve got to keep playing and keep trying to win games,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. We all look at (the standings) but at the end of the day, if we’re going to lose hockey games, we don’t deserve to make the playoffs, right? We’ve got to do our own work in here. We can’t bank on Montreal losing and the (New York) Islanders, (New York Rangers) and Detroit losing.”
Here are five takeaways:
