The Columbus Blue Jackets spent seven long seasons in the NHL before finally reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time last season. Now, one year removed from that high in franchise history, the Jackets are yet again on the outside looking in.
“It’s disappointing,” captain Rick Nash said. “For the fans, you would have liked to do better, and obviously for yourself. When you start the season, you have one goal in mind and that’s to win it all, but it didn’t happen this year.”
After the Jackets’ shootout loss to Detroit on Friday, the team once again returns to the role of playoff spectators after finishing at 32-35-15 (79 points).
Coming off the 2008-09 season, expectations were high for this year’s squad. To the dismay of the Jackets’ faithful, this year proved to be a tale of three eerily similar chapters.
Busting out of the gate strong, the Jackets appeared to return to the same form as the playoff team from the year prior. Boasting a 12-6-2 record almost a quarter of the way into the season, the team held the sixth spot in the Western Conference in late November.
Despite the strong start, the table turned in December, as Columbus was able to obtain only two wins in 16 games, including nine straight losses at one point, leading to a 2-9-5 record for the month.
Injuries were piling up, offensive production was down from key players and goalie Steve Mason, who practically carried the Jackets on his back into the playoffs just a year ago, was suffering a sophomore slump.
Nothing seemed to be going the Jackets’ way.
As seems to be the case when teams struggle in the NHL, the front office decided to cut its ties with coach Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 3 and handed the reigns to Claude Noel.
“We wanted to look at the coaching change as a fresh start, and I really believe that was the case,” Nash said.
Although a playoff berth was a long shot at best, the team was able to use the “fresh start” and somewhat right the ship in its final 23 games under Noel, posting a respectable 10-8-5 record.
Even though the Jackets finished off the year on a five-game skid, the players and Noel believe the team was playing some of its best hockey at the end of the year and there are some positives that can be taken from the season.
Rick Nash continued establishing himself as a top-tier player in the league. Antoine Vermette statistically had the best year of his career, and sophomores Jake Voracek, Derick Brassard and Steve Mason broke out of their second-year slumps toward the end of the season.
With no playoffs on the horizon, the Jackets can still draw from these positives and turn their sights toward next year.
“This is probably the best thing that could have happened to us,” Mason said. “Obviously, last year was great. We had all the success. But now we really know what it takes to be a consistent player in this league.”
With the offseason in full swing, the Blue Jackets’ front office has all eyes on it for now.
With Noel finishing the season on an interim basis, the questions surrounding the Columbus coaching job remain.
“Of course I’d like to keep going,” Noel said. “I’d like to get an opportunity to take this from the start, but we’ll see what happens.”
No matter who is standing behind the bench next season, Nash said he is already excited for the upcoming year.
“If we can carry the momentum that we did in the last couple games,” Nash said, “then it will be real exciting.”
