Week Four: December 24th-31st
The month wraps up with a Christmas break for the squad and three winnable games. The Team will have three full days off following the Devils game on the 23rd. They will return home until the 27th when they head to MSG to take on the Rangers.
There is no other way to put it. The Rangers will be bad this year. Outside of Henrik Lundqvist stealing them games, the Blueshirts are going to have a hard time winning games. At this point in the year, the Rangers will have probably shipped away another asset for futures as well. Coming out of a nice break, this has to be a win.
They will fly back immediately to Columbus as they host the Toronto Maple Leafs the next night. The second back-to-back in the month will be tough to finish up with a win. The Leafs are stacked and it will be the first game the Leafs play since the Christmas break. Five days off may be too much for the Leafs and they could come out rusty, but I doubt it.
To close out the month, and the 2018 calendar year, the Jackets host the Ottawa Senators. Not much to say on this front. Start your New Years Celebration with a Columbus Blue Jackets’ win.
Week Four Prediction: 2-1-0
The month is very manageable schedule wise for the team. They will be favored in all but three or four of their games and the home stand and Christmas break are huge at this point in the year.
December should allow the team to regain some confidence and get prepared for a tough end of the year schedule. I see the Jackets finishing December with a record of 7-3-4, good for 18 points in 14 games.