How the Columbus Blue Jackets Will Shock the Hockey World and Win It All

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

And everyone can likely make a case for their prediction coming true. Let’s be honest, unless the games are fixed, the theory of “anything can happen in the playoffs” truly applies. Opinions are like, well, you know. Everyone has 'em. So to discount anything at this point is pure speculation at best.

I mean, really, did anyone see Detroit falling to the Oilers in the first round in 2006? Or did anyone expect them to fall in four straight to Anaheim back in 2003? Not likely. But there seem to be some teams that finish strong in the regular season and then struggle to put it all together when they need to.

Often we hear about how it’s more important that a team be simply hitting their stride as the playoffs begin, and that this is more important then the number of points they finish with at the end of the season. I tend to think there is some merit to that.

In fact, the one wild card I see in the West because of their recent strong play is St. Louis. They have been unbelievable over the last month of the season, and netminder Chris Mason has been a huge reason for that success.

Some say the era of the dynasty is gone. They say the salary cap has watered down the league, forced it to staff itself with mediocrity simply to ensure a certain number of franchises existed. The league is only as watered down as the coaching allows it to be.
I would argue it has in fact allowed some players the opportunity to show their skills to both coach and potential teammates. I have watched my fair share of QMJHL, AHL, NHL, World Cup, Olympics, etc. Blue Jacket fans now know who TJ Oshie is, yes?

The Blue Jackets are about to perform a modern-day miracle. There will soon be some players who will be kicking themselves. Some players (Wade Redden comes to mind) had an opportunity to sign on the dotted line to play with Columbus but chose not to. He was told (in fact) to let Howson know what his best offer from another team would be and Howson flat-out stated that he would do better. Redden didn’t return the call.

Had he looked a little deeper into what the Columbus franchise was building, he too would be sharing the journey to the finals.

With OSU in its backyard, the locals are used to instant gratification and winners. And the novelty of “having a team” started to wear off a few years ago. It’s truly unfortunate that he won’t be around to see this year play itself out.

To refresh everyone’s memory, here are some of my predictions back in August (long before the season started)

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/43815-columbus-blue-jackets-playoff-bound-in-2008-09/page/5

1.   Between Filatov or Vorachek, I proposed that the latter would be the one to make the team (and Jacob did, putting together 39 points in his rookie campaign during 79 games of play). To compare, Filatov got four points in eight games.

2.  I pointed out that Columbus would finish third in the Central Division. I have to eat some crow here given the fact that they technically came in fourth. Cut me a bit of slack in that they finished with the same points, same wins, and they ended up needing to go to other differentiators to break the tie.

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