Week Two: January 7th-13th
This is the toughest week of the entire season for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Coming off back-to-back road games at Carolina and Florida, the Jackets will finish up their three game road trip at Tampa Bay against the Eastern Conference favorites.
Columbus Blue Jackets
The Lightning will have two full days off to recover from their California road trip before hosting the Jackets who are playing three games in four nights on the road. The Lightning are loaded and play very well at home. Not a great matchup for the Jackets.
After the Tampa game, the team will return home. As a welcome back gift the team gets to face the Nashville Predators. The Preds, much like the Lightning, are one of the top five best teams in the NHL and one of the favorites to take home the cup. The Jackets luckily do catch the Preds on the back end of two games in two nights but it still is a massive showdown.
The squads third game of the week is against the defending Stanley Cup champions in Washington D.C.
Woof.
So in three games in the Jackets will face teams who combined racked up 335 points, three divisional titles, a Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup. Not the greatest three game stretch.
To top off the week the Jackets have to fly back to Columbus and host the Rangers the next night. not a great back-to-back situation after the week they will have been through. This might be the lowest the Jackets season looks all year.