GDT: Game 18: Columbus vs. Detroit | 11/18 7PM EST

[Dr. Fire]

Quite frankly, I have lost some of my winged wheel hate since we are not in the same division with them anymore.

It was painful sitting through that game last night, though. This might sound off the wall but the only two guys that I thought really played hard last night were Gibbons, and Jenner.

We are being pretty hard on a team that has been decimated by so many injuries to key players. Even the national hockey media is cutting them some slack due to their profound bad luck with the injuries. But still, this is really tough to watch, and tolerate.

 

[pete goegan]

As I said this morning, there was no reason Tropp and Boll should have been in the lineup over a cleared Skille and Calvert... we wouldn't have won but we'd have been a lot more competitive.

They were cleared, but they may not have been fully ready to return to the lineup. Hard to argue with the people who are actually on the ice with them at practice and see their condition. No question that Skille and Calvert will help, but I want them back healthy and productive, not unready and injury prone.

The game itself...woof. First period was good and then we basically reverted to all of our lazy habits. Penalties, Sloppy Passing, Failed outlets, losing faceoffs, Prout went back to being terrible, unsurprisingly. Just all around embarrassing tonight.

Yep. On top of all you've pointed out, the inability of the entire blueline crew to ever keep the puck in the offensive zone drove me crazy, last night. Wiz even went down to one knee, like an outfielder stopping a grounder, and still let it through him! Prout, Savard, and Johnson were equally bad. Leopold and Erixon were the only guys, back there, who looked at all competent (though, perhaps, only in comparison).

 

[DarkandStormy]

Why activate him if you're not going to play him?

 

[Jackets Fan]

Problem is, we've worked awful hard to purge the culture of losing. Let's not put ourselves in a position to hope a "savior" comes our way via the draft.

This. Absolutely this.

I still haven't lost hope in this team. We're on the verge of at least being relatively healthy, and once Dubi is back, that will be a HUGE boost.
This team has come way too far and made too many strides the past few years to go back to being in the basement of the NHL. They'll climb their way back up the standings soon enough. Will it be enough to make the playoffs? That's still very much questionable, but like I said, I haven't lost hope in this team. All you need to do is look what this team did in the second half last season when everyone was healthy and on the same page. This team won't tank, the CBJ will not have a top 5 pick. People need to shut up about that.

 

[hardkorejackets]

I see a lot of Connor McDavid posts on here, but I don't think the Blue Jackets have a "realistic" shot at him. With the return of Dubi, Bob, Arty, Calvert, and Skille, I think the Jackets will start to win some more games and play ourselves out of of a top 2 draft pick. I doubt the Jackets make the playoffs this year, although I guess anything can happen with how poorly the rest of the Metro Division is playing. I think the best we do at this point is 10th worst record, thanks to how bad the Metro is, ending with approximately a 3.5-6% chance at #1 pick

I wouldn't mind a Cleveland Cavalier's type lucky draw ending up with Connor McDavid though..

 

[We Want Ten]

The "writing off" has legitimacy...the CBJ have been decimated by injuries. Adding "draft pieces," while unknown, I believe my theory stands. Strong draft, unfortunate year for a solid, YOUNG, team, might not be horrible.

I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, but to lose 9 straight takes more than just injuries. To do-over this year and say without injuries we'd have made the playoffs is just fantasy because know one knows( i'm being general here, not referencing anything you have said). I'd like to think that the rash of injuries have maybe helped focus on what the club needs to get better for the future.

IMO it needs 3 things:
1. New back up goalie. On a playoff team he was 1 game under .500, on this team he is almost winless.
2. A top 4 D man, the guys we have are close, but I'd argue we really need a top 2 D man.
3. More first line scoring. We have a plethora of young guys and draft picks, bundle some stuff and get a bigger talent. Take a chance.

That being said, if any of this actually happens, they will immediately hurt themselves and this thread will be back in 2015.

 

[major major]

I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, but to lose 9 straight takes more than just injuries. To do-over this year and say without injuries we'd have made the playoffs is just fantasy because know one knows( i'm being general here, not referencing anything you have said). I'd like to think that the rash of injuries have maybe helped focus on what the club needs to get better for the future.

IMO it needs 3 things:
1. New back up goalie. On a playoff team he was 1 game under .500, on this team he is almost winless.
2. A top 4 D man, the guys we have are close, but I'd argue we really need a top 2 D man.
3. More first line scoring. We have a plethora of young guys and draft picks, bundle some stuff and get a bigger talent. Take a chance.

That being said, if any of this actually happens, they will immediately hurt themselves and this thread will be back in 2015.

On the three things:

1. Agreed.

2. I get so tired of folks saying we need a top 4 d-man. I think its clear we have a lot of top 4 d-men, maybe 5 or 6 of them. What we don't have is any solidly top pair guys. So you're exactly right that what we really need is a top 2 guy, not just a top 4 guy. There is a difference between these two things.

3. Joey + Foligno + Hartnell/Atkinson is one of the higher scoring first lines in the league. What we haven't had is anything behind them, and that's 100% attributable to injuries.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

A 2-3 game win streak puts you right back into the race in our division. I'm not worried yet.