Columbus Blue Jackets: Look at the Week Ahead – Second Week of 2019

The Columbus Blue Jackets have a tough week ahead of themselves, however they need to take home at least a few points.

The next week won’t be for the fainthearted Columbus Blue Jackets fans, as it will be filled with tough games that the Blue Jackets will likely struggle to win.

The week starts on Tuesday with a match-up in Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning who are one of the best teams in the league, with a record of 32-8-2 which gives them the best record in the NHL. It goes without saying, the Columbus Blue Jackets will struggle against Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and company.

Things do get quite a bit easier after that, however that’s simply only because of how good Tampa Bay is, the other teams are still very dangerous. The next opponent will be the Nashville Predators and former Blue Jacket Ryan Johansen. The Predators are currently 25-15-3 which puts them second in their division behind the Winnipeg Jets.

Then, on Saturday the Blue Jackets will take on the reigning Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals in a divisional match-up. It’s highly possible that this game will be for first in the Metropolitan division considering the Jackets are already close behind, however with the Pittsburgh Penguins just had an 8 game winning streak broken by the Chicago Blackhawks it’s also possible it’s just for second.

The week will come to a close on Sunday as the Columbus Blue Jackets take on the New York Rangers in a second straight divisional match-up, however it is the second leg of a back to back. This should on paper be the easiest game of the week for the Jackets to win, so if they fail to walk out of this game with 2 points, it’ll be a failure of a game.

The Columbus Blue Jackets will have a tough week ahead of them, so if they can walk out of the week with 5 points it should be okay. Anything more than that would just be a bonus.