Playoff Takeaways for the Columbus Blue Jackets

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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…

Mar 28, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; New York Rangers left wing Rick Nash (61) skates in the offensive zone during the first period against the Boston Bruins at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Montreal Canadians vs Ottawa Senators 

The Canadians may have won this series but they’re not going to continue if they play like they did. In the final game Carey Price faced 43 shots!! and STOPPED THEM ALL! so the Canadians could walk away with a 2-0 win (essentially a 1-0 win with an empty netter coming with one second left in the game). The Senators and Canadians actually tied for goals scored in the series at 12 a piece. A big part of that was a 5-1 Senators win where the Canadians had 20 penalty minutes! Price was only able to stop 20 of the 25 shots.

The Canadians need to help out Price and not have their playoff hopes rely on him stopping every shot he takes. They need to make sure they’re giving him goal support, staying out of the box and playing solid D so he’s not taking an overwhelming amount of shots, an average of 33 shots per game (a number that has them 2nd worst in the post-season and would have put them 5th worst in the regular season).

For this series I’d like to reflect on the Jackets’ Penalty Minutes woes from this prior season. The Jackets’ averaged about 12 penalty minutes per game this past season, good enough for 3rd worst in the NHL. As a result they gave up 60 Power Play goals (good enough for 4th worst in the NHL). The team can’t put themselves in a hole like this and expect to win. Every game is a dog fight when you’re at even strength, putting yourself at a disadvantage with a man down is just asking to be sent home. A lot of the penalties come from being out of position due to below average awareness or just using it as a way to even out the dis-balance of talent…other times its just straight dumb plays.

The Blue Jackets’ need to fix this. Obviously the Jackets’ played down for most of the season with injuries ravaging their team but they need to play smarter and not put themselves in a hole to dig out of. If the Jackets want to make a serious playoff push they need to simmer down now on the penalties and start playing smarter. In a game where every small advantage matters, the Blue Jackets need to play smart to not put themselves in a SERIOUS disadvantage.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs Detroit Red Wings

The Lightning won this series in 7 games but they could have done it sooner (more rest) if they would have just capitalized on their power plays. In game 2 they went 2-4 on the Power Play on their way to their biggest win of the series, a 5-1 win. Outside of that game…..0-26. EEEKKK! 2-30 for the series is a paltry 6%. Tampa finished the season 14th best with 18.8% and Detroit wasn’t exactly a powerhouse Penalty Kill unit with a 80.9% for the season, middle of the pack at 17th in the season. Sometimes in the playoffs you’re trying to overdo everything, trying to be perfect, you sometimes lose sight of the things you excelled at during the season. Stay true to yourself and press on.

This is where the Blue Jackets had much success this season. They finished 5th in the league with a 21.7% on their power plays. The Blue Jackets need to continue this success if they’re serious about making a playoff push. In their playoff appearance in the 2014 playoffs the Jackets’ jumped their Power Play percent from a 19.3% up to 25.9% during the post season. The drawback, they allowed 2 short handed goals during those 6 games though. They only gave up 8 in 82 games during that regular season. 3 times the amount! This season they dropped that number down to 5. They need to continue this trend in the playoffs and make a conscientious effort to continue the strong power play and NOT over do it to the point they’re giving up back breaking short handed goals when it matters most.

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The Capitals Road Back To The Playoffs Just Got Tougher
The Capitals Road Back To The Playoffs Just Got Tougher /

Stars and Sticks

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  • The New York Rangers vs the Pittsburgh Penguins

    It’s hard to look at the Rangers and wonder if that could have been us. Their top two in points were/are Rick Nash and Derick Brassard. Nash scored 42 goals this season and Brassard had 41 assists. How does that happen? How does your face of your team and his running partner go to a different team, in separate trades? There’s lots of build up to what actually happened but in the end it was poor management and a poor understanding of where your team is.

    The Jackets need to do a better job of keeping their laundry from blowing in the wind with this new batch and an even better job of striking at the right time. The front office seemed to be at a loss evaluating these trades. Would it be a good fit? Am I bringing the right player in at the right time? The Brassard trade has to be considered a huge step back for the franchise. They turned a young talented player in his 20s for a great early 30s player, Marián Gáborík, to help take the Jackets to the next level. Unfortunately it wasn’t the right time or fit. The Jackets would go on to trade Gaborik to the Kings (less than a year after acquiring him) before making their own playoff appearance. That post season Gaborik scored 14 goals along with 8 assists to help the Kings capture the Cup, meanwhile the Jackets were eliminated in the 1st round.

    The Jackets received Luke Adam (that started as Matt Frattin into Jerry D’Amigo), the 34th pick in this upcoming draft, a conditional 7th round pick this draft, Elvis Merzlikins (last year’s 76th pick), and was somewhat responsible for (Rene Bourque, William Karlsson and Ducks’ 2nd round pick this season) along with James Wisniewski. Adam hasn’t done much, spending much of last season with the Rochester Americans, neither has Merzlikins as he spent all of last year playing for HC Lugano in the National League A. So far the return hasn’t looked great but much is still out there to be considered with Karlsson expected to make an impact this season and we’ll see what the Jackets do with the 34th pick.

    Either way, to see the Rangers as the heavy favorite to win it all spearheaded by the team you built and always imagined as your own future fulfilling that destiny elsewhere stings both to the organization and as a fan base. The Jackets’ organization needs to play this hand better than how they’ve handled their past business if they don’t want to turn into the laughing stock of the league…or worse…the Montreal Expos of the NHL.

     Washington Capitals vs New York Islanders

    The Capitals are an extremely talented bunch lead by one of the best goal scorers to ever play the game, Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin averages 47.5 goals per season as is well on his way to ending up on the career goals scored list. While he still made his mark in the series, 5 points (Only 2 goals, 3 assists) in 7 games, the Islanders held him mostly in check, leaving him with a -3 line. The rest of the team really stepped up. This group is extremely versatile, talented and DEEP.

    Where they really stood out to me? The Penalty Killing until didn’t allow a single goal in 7 games!!!! 0-14. Most impressive about this? This team wasn’t that great at it during the regular season, mostly average at 81.2% good enough for 14th best. Their defense really stepped up to get them where they need to be, the 2nd round of the playoffs. This is a perfect example of adapting when a team neutralizes your strengths, which is GOING to happen during the playoffs.

    The Blue Jackets’ were 7th worst in the NHL for penalty killing with a 80.2% but more than that, they were 2nd in the NHL for the amount of times shorthanded (30h3! times) compiling on top of the fact that they gave up the 4th most amount of shots against per game. The Jackets need to improve on this if they want to be serious Cup contenders. This of course points at the blueline scarcity. It’s not a mystery from Lost that the Jackets are weak there but it really starts to shine bright when you see how great the rest of the team is.

    The Jackets are in a opportunistic position offensively and in the net to stack up against any team right now but they need to be able to rely on the defense. You can’t hope Bob is going to stop every shot when he’s taking the 4th most in the NHL, it’s also not especially fair or smart to put all your eggs on one guy. You can’t always rely on your offense to bail you out, as you can see from some of the best being neutralized. You need to be able to adapt and be versatile to handle what the other team is doing to you and respond back in a successful manner. The Jackets’ need to improve the talent and toughness of their blueline, they need to understand that the defensive zone is your home and you need to protect it. If the Blue Jackets can improve here this team will be a real force to reckon with.

    Save the blueline, save the world.

    Next: A View Beyond the Ice: Why Do We Care About this Nonsense?

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