The Columbus Blue Jackets are surrounded by a large amount of drama right now and if it isn’t solved immediately, the results could be catastrophic.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have a lot of drama surrounding the pending unrestricted free agents Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky with the trade deadline quickly approaching. If the Blue Jackets want to have a playoff push this season, they need to take care of the drama sooner rather than later.
While Artemi Panarin is performing despite his contract issues, Bobrovsky is under-performing massively and it seems as if his lack of confidence has been projected onto the rest of the team as of late. The Columbus Blue Jackets are currently on a five game losing streak, which they hope to end tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, however that’ll be easier said than done.
If the Blue Jackets don’t get in the win column again soon, it won’t be long before they drop out of the playoff spots. Currently they have 3 points on both the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres while the Philadelphia Flyers have been on fire as of late and as a result of their 8 game winning streak they’re only 5 points out of the spot.
This is a crucial point in the season and the Columbus Blue Jackets cannot afford to deal with the drama and struggles until the trade deadline in roughly three weeks. They need to solve it sooner rather than later, or the playoffs just become a distant dream.
While it would be hard to seemingly give up on a playoff push by trading Panarin and Bobrovsky, trading them may be realistically the only way the team makes a push toward the playoffs. It would allow the other players to relax and also it would prevent the fans from developing a John Tavares/Islanders like hatred of the player which is good for nobody involved.