Columbus Blue Jackets: Top of the Metro Division on Fire to Start 2019
The Columbus Blue Jackets are playing great. The rest of the Metro elite are just playing better.
While the Atlantic division is getting all the attention this season in the East, the Metro division is yet again showing why the last three Stanley Cups have come from the Columbus Blue Jackets division. The Jackets are 7-2-1 in their last ten games, a great pace, but have fallen out of second place in the division because of the torrid pace of the other top two teams in the division.
The hottest team in the NHL is the Tampa Bay Lightning who haven’t lost since the Bay of Pigs invasion. The next hottest teams though are all in Metro starting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens are 9-1-0 in their last ten games and have vaulted past the Jackets for second in the division.
Although the Jackets have a game in hand, the Pens have been impressive since the return of Matt Murray. Both Murray and DeSmith have been lights out in net and Sidney Crosby and Co. are rolling like they always do.
One of the nine wins the Pens have racked up in the last ten games was on the road over the Washington Capitals who are also just tearing through their schedule. The Caps are 8-2-0 in their last ten with their only losses coming to the Penguins and Nashville Predators. Washington is dominating offensively and getting plenty of stops from Braden Holtby and Phoenix Copley who have been splitting time recently.
The Jackets with just a point against Carolina would make the Metro the only division to have their top three teams reach the 50 point threshold in 40 games. There isn’t the depth that the other division’s have in the Metro, but the top three are deadly.
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Metro All-Stars
The All-Star roster for the Metro was released with Alex Ovechkin as the captain who will not participate. The Columbus Blue Jackets are sending Seth Jones and Cam Atkinson. The rest of the roster is:
Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders
Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers
Taylor Hall, New Jersey Devils
John Carlson, Washington Capitals
Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
Next. 5 Jackets Ready to Shine in 2019. dark
New Jersey Extends Coach
In other news out of the Metro, the New Jersey Devils, who are second to last in the Metro Division, have extended head coach John Hynes. According to Steve Politi of NJ.Com, Hynes received a multi-year extension from the team following a 5-4 loss in Dallas. Hynes has been with the organization since 2014.