Playoff Takeaways for the Columbus Blue Jackets

Apr 26, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) covers up the puck as Saint Louis Blues forward Chris Porter (32) looks for a rebound during the first period in game six of the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the 1st round is in the books, we explore what the Columbus Blue Jackets can take away from each series as they prepare (hopefully) for their own Cup run next year.

St. Louis Blues vs Minnesota Wild

The Wild continued their annual tradition of knocking off a #1 seed as the WILD card (get it ;)). It must feel like homefield advantage with the seeding named after you…WILD card haha. Ok I’m done. The Wild won this series for many reasons but I want to focus on one for the Blue Jackets. The Wild turned around real quickly after the in-season trade for Devan Dubnyk, who has been on an absolute tear and a huge reason why the Wild are in the 2nd round. Goaltender is one of the most important positions in all of sports, with it’s direct impact on the game. So its easy to see why Dubnyk made the Wild not only an unlikely playoff contender but now a possibility to go far for the entire Cup push. If your goalie is hot, you’re never really out of a game or series.

That’s why it’s going to be so important for Sergei Bobrovsky to continue to play hot as he did down the stretch. In fact, you can argue that since his return from injury on March 3rd, he’s been one of the best goalies in the league. In the 18 games to finish the season, Bobrovsky saved 545 shots of the 588 taken at him. Good enough for 2nd place in the NHL with a 93% save percentage while posting a 14-2-1 (1 not finished against the Colorado Avalanche) win record line.

Now to fully understand how great he was you have to look at the full picture. If you look at just goals against you’ll see a less than stellar 2.38 goals against per game, bad enough for 19th in the league. Compare that to the amount of shots he’s taken, 32.6 per game, and you’ll understand how important Bob was to this year end run and the Jackets’ playoff hopes next season. 32.6 shots against was awful enough for 26th in the league but yet Bob kept saving them.Even when the swiss cheese D let players get through and control the lanes, Bob was still there to save the day. Goalies have a history of being streaky, Vezina Trophy finalist one year, benched the following. Bob is surprisingly only 26 and the hope for players at his age is they continue to increase their talent or at least not regress. The tape is out on Bob so it doesn’t seem likely someone is going to suddenly find an edge on him. We, as Blue Jackets fans, can only hope he can continue to play lights out….and help surround him with a better blueline.

Chicago Blackhawks vs Nashville Predators 

This one is going to be kind of trivial but it’s important. Staying HEALTHY! The Predators lost captain, Shea Weber and it changed the whole dynamic of what the series could have been. Losing a player is more than just losing talent, though that’s a huge impact. When you lose a player, you typically are going to have to restructure the whole gameplan and attack, deviating from the plan you spent all off-season and season mastering. We all know that there’s very little margin for error or failure in the NHL playoffs and when you have to adjust on the fly, teams are going to expose and take advantage of it. The chemistry is off which leads to more miscommunications and taking an extra second to process instead of reacting like you would have prior to the injury.

The Blue Jackets did not excel in that area last season and a lot of the distance they’ll cover in the playoffs will come down to staying healthy. It’s sometimes a fluke thing, othertimes teams need to address their conditioning and stretching prevention. When there is this many injuries over the year, it’s time to readdress the situation. I’m not a health expert, I’m not inside the training room or pre-game work out so my answer can only be “Do Better.” I’m sure the team is aware of the problem and hopefully they address the situation while a more healthy season can commence for 2015-2016.

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Anaheim Ducks vs Winnipeg Jets 

Two things here from both teams. Let’s start with the winners, the Ducks. Unfortunately we can’t talk about how the Flying V (never mind the opening Oreo Line) was the turning point of the series…someday….someday. Instead focusing on Ryan Kesler. After a brutal 7 game series failure to the eventual Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings, the Ducks went out and added more firepower to get over the hump. It’s worked out tremendously so far. In the first round Kesler made a huge impact, notching 5 points in 4 games with 3 goals and 2 assists (and a partridge in a pear tree). That’s knowing your windows and capitalizing on it. They knew they were a serious Cup Contender and went out to assure they were doing their all to bring home the Cup.

The Blue Jackets can’t be afraid to do the same. We went in depth on this subject when we explored a possible Joe Thornton trade. Bascially the Jackets can’t be afraid to pull the trigger and trading some over flow of potential future talent to win now. If they believe they can make it, and possible hoist, the Cup they should be willing to put some chips on the table. As I said earlier, goalies can get streaky and seeing how far the Jackets are leaning on Bob, anything can change.

One last takeaway from this series has to be the Winnipeg fans. The way they showed up and willed that team was incredible. The Jets were clearly outmatched but they way they gave it their all for the fans was tremendous. Some times it’s not all about winning. The Jets fans should be proud of themselves and their team. If the Jackets make the playoffs, Cbus better be ready to go all out.

Because you can’t see this enough….

Vancouver Canucks vs Calgary Flames 

Never give up. The Flames were down in all but 2 games this series, including down 3-0 in the final game. The Flames never wavered and kept firing. In the playoffs you’re going to be down, you’re going to feel dominated at points but you can’t stop giving it all or take time to mope. The Flames never showed any signs of defeat and flashed mental toughness as they overcame every obstacle placed in their way. This is how you win in the playoffs, adapt, fight and win.

The Blue Jackets are going to need to instill that type of mentality for a solid playoff push. A lot of that comes with playoff experience, something the Jackets aren’t exactly flushed with, but I’m sure Todd Richards won’t let his team go down that road. Playoff hockey is a different animal as you can’t give it your all one night, then hope you have a below average team coming next. It’s non stop and at times the other team is going to dominate you. You just need to be able to deal with adversity, respond and keep fighting away if you plan on having a shot and make a dent in the bracket.

Eastern Conference on the next page…