The regular season gets under way on Thursday night, with the Blue Jackets heading to Nashville to take on the Predators. That kicks off a difficult 10-game stretch to open the season, which will tell us quite a bit about where the Jackets season may go.
Those 10 games will take us all the way through the month of October. By the time the puck drops against the St Louis Blues on November 1st, we will be one tenth of the way through the NHL season.
It took so long to get here, and now it feels like it will go so quickly. At least, we hope it feels that way once things get going. After all, time flies when you're having fun.
If the Jackets can make these first 10 games fun for us, we could be in for a real treat this season. That's because there are no easy games to start the year. They will have to be on their game from the moment the puck drops in Nashville on Thursday night.
It would be somewhat easy to look at the Predators and not see much of a challenge. Last season, they finished 30th in the NHL with a 30-44-8 record (68 points). But, that doesn't tell the entire story.
The Predators are a much better team than that on paper. They have a deep, experienced group with a history of winning. And, lest we forget: this game is in Nashville. The Predators are 43-6-1-3 all-time when they play the Blue Jackets in Nashville. This is going to be a tough test right out of the gate.
The Jackets will then head to Minnesota to face the Wild in their home opener on Saturday night. Again, they'll have to play an experienced, hungry team in what should be a very loud environment.
Their reward for playing two opponents' home openers to start the year? Their own home opener, next Monday night against the high flying New Jersey Devils.
They follow that up with home games against the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning, then a "quick" one game road trip to Dallas (whose idea was that?). After that, it's a back-to-back with travel as they face the Washington Capitals at Nationwide before heading to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins the very next night.
Finally, they close out the month with another back-to-back, visiting the Buffalo Sabres before taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs at home in their 10th game of the year.
That's 10 games in 21 days, with 7 of their foes having been playoff teams last year. The other three are all on the road (Nashville, Pittsburgh, Buffalo), and two of those matchups are parts of back-to-backs.
A hot start would be terrific.
If the Jackets can win 6 of these games, they are going to be in pretty good shape to start the year. Any more than that would be terrific. Any fewer could be concerning.
Whatever the case, by the time puck drops on November 1st, we will know a lot about this team and its makeup.